Your proxy ballot is missing, but now you want to vote on Moxy Vote? Easy as pie! Just call up your broker and politely ask for your control number. Your broker should be able to provide it over the phone.
You can then use that control number on our site to vote.
On a recent trip to San Francisco, I had the opportunity to sit down with author and Salon.com founder, David Zweig, to discuss his new book Money for Nothing. Money for Nothing, co-authored by Zweig and John Gillespie, a former investment banker, blows the whistle on corporate boards. We broke bread at a funky joint called Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café in Emeryville and yes I was the only one in the place with a tie on!
Money for Nothing looks at US corporate boards and shareholder rights. They point to directors asleep at the wheel as one of the major causes of the financial crisis. The authors go on to describe these boards as predominantly 60 year old white men who make decisions based on the fact that it’s not their money. Sadly the trickle-down effect onto ordinary people is enormous. Stories of mismanagement and scandalous behavior, add some melodrama fit for the big screen. Their recommendations could forever change boardroom culture, improve accountability, reduce conflicts of interest, and improve shareholder involvement. Money for Nothing is definitely a thought provoking and entertaining piece of literature.
I thought it would be fun to do some cross promotion with our users. The first 25 Moxy Vote users to vote on any ballot that has at least one advocate opinion will receive a free copy of Money for Nothing. You don’t have to vote along with the advocate, just vote on the ballot. After you vote, send me an email at mark@moxyvote.com with the name of the company you voted on and I will send you a copy of the book. Then hit the hammock or the coffee shop and enjoy!
Last week, I had the honor of putting on the headphones and chatting with Steve Chiotakis about Moxy Vote. Turns out, Steve was hosting American Public Media’s Marketplace Money show, there were a few hundred thousand people listening, and I don’t have the booming baritone voice I’d imagined.
If you missed it on your local public radio station, catch it on their website.
As I type this, we have 99 followers on Twitter. We’ll send a hardcover copy of Money for Nothing: How the Failure of Corporate Boards is Ruining American Business and Costing Us Trillions to our 100th follower. The Moxy Vote team will sign the inside cover of the book in the ink color of your choice. Follow us here.
Update: Congratulations to #100: emayoh, pictured below with his new book.
emayoh with his new book, a self-portrait.
Moxy Vote has been out helping our advocates rally their members. One of my roles here at Moxy Vote is to reach out to our advocate’s members to show them how easy it has become to get involved, vote their proxies and force change. The corporate governance process has never been easier, 10 minutes on Moxy Vote and you will never waste another vote again.
Recently, I have had the pleasure of helping two of our advocates, the Teamsters and Green America, mobilize their supporter base.
I spent some time at a leadership conference in Arizona for the Teamsters. I met with their members and spoke with them about the power of proxy voting and on the work of Teamsters at Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises. I thank Carin Zelenko and Jamie Carroll of the Capital Strategies Department at the Teamsters for allowing me to participate and look forward to our next opportunity to help them mobilize.
And two weeks ago I was at the Green Festival in San Francisco, which is put on by Green America. Thank you to Fran Teplitz for the invitation. It was amazing to see thousands of individuals come together to celebrate their passion for the environment. We played our video for the crowd and they instantly got it – they want to do more and they see the power in Moxy Vote. Well worth the trip, despite the fact that my body does not recover nearly as quick from the “red eye” flight back to the east coast as it once did.
Want to mobilize your organization? You bring the issue and the passion, and Moxy Vote will provide the tool. There is no telling what we can do together…give me a ring so we can start helping you today.
Moxy Vote’s very own Mark Schlegel put on his best suit and favorite tie and jumped in front of the cameras for BNN in Canada.
See the interview here.
Today, we offer our first guest blogger, John Richardson. Mr. Richardson is the Editor of ProxyAnalyst, which educates investors on corporate governance. He is also the CEO of JMR Portfolio Intelligence.
So here you are, staring at the Moxy Vote site. What the hell are you doing? You could be reading the paper, feeding the dog, having a glass of wine after a long day, but no. The trashcan is full and, well, you’ve got this proxy in your hand.
It’s time to vote.
So let’s say you are one of those “special” investors who hold a few hundred shares of Citigroup. Yeah, that buy and hold strategy is feeling pretty good right now. Are you feeling a bit angry? You should. So let’s translate that anger into some action.
I want to focus on one voting strategy that might help to vent some steam. Voting for the outside auditors. At first glance, this may not seem like the stuff of investor revenge but give me a moment to explain.
Auditors are conflicted.
No, they don’t have some sort of accounting angst. Rather, in many cases, outside auditors have become entrenched with the companies they are auditing and their fees have spiraled over time such that at least the appearance of a conflict demands that they be replaced.
The primary role of external auditors is to express an opinion on whether a company’s financial statements are free of material misstatements. The job is a bit more complicated than that and outside auditors often provide related services including tax advice. But in a nutshell, that is what these firms are hired to do.
In 2000-2001, the SEC required that outside auditors limit their consulting work with their audit clients in order to reduce conflicts of interest resulting from large fees collected from their corporate clients. While this solved the immediate problem of eliminating large non-audit fees and the possible conflicts associated with those payments, over the last 10 years, auditor fees, in many instances, have skyrocketed. Herein lies the problem.
So how do you sort things out?
Step 1: How long has the outside auditor served your company? More than 5 years? Vote against ratification of the auditor.
Look at your current proxy statement. In the table of contents, find the agenda item and go to that page. Here you will find a couple of things: Who is the auditor and what did they get paid.
Now, ask yourself, “How long have these guys been around?” To answer this question, go to the SEC web site, where you can pull down previous proxy statements for the company. Look for the EDGAR database, search for the company or ticker symbol and find the DEF 14A (the SEC form assigned to the proxy statement). Go back to 2004. Were these same auditors working for your company at that time? If so, vote NO.
Step 2: Have the auditor’s fees increased significantly over that same (or longer) period? If there have been significant increases in fees paid, vote against ratification.
I can hear the whining from the experts that this doesn’t mean anything. Just because fees have increased, it doesn’t mean that the auditors are conflicted. Let’s hope that is the case but as active investors, a proactive approach to potential conflicts is exactly what is needed. The regulations prohibiting non-audit work by outside auditors curtailed large fees paid but over the years, the non-audit fees have been replaced by rapidly rising audit fees.
So what do those lucky investors at Citigroup find when they do a quick look-see? A couple of things caught my eye.
A steady increase in fees with no sign that management has any plans on changing things around in the accounting department suggests that business-as-usual is the rule at Citi.
Step 3: Vote No.
Simple. Now it’s time to feed the dog.
I am happy to announce the 2010 Proxy Preview from As You Sow Foundation is here! Since 2005, the Preview has become the “go to” book for shareholder advocates. It is the definitive source for information on important upcoming proxy votes, social and environmental shareholder proposals and filed resolutions. Both the proxy novice and expert should have this handy during the voting season.
On my recent trip to San Francisco, I had the pleasure of meeting the Proxy Preview’s author, Michael Passoff. Mr. Passoff works as the Senior Program Director for Corporate Social Responsibility for As You Sow. For nearly fifteen years he has been engaging the nation’s largest investors and corporations and has become a leading practitioner of shareholder advocacy on social and environmental issues. His shareholder advocacy work led him to be named one of 2009’s “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics.” Michael explained that although the Preview is a huge undertaking, it is an important extension of the Foundation’s work. In the 2010 Proxy Preview, Michael also discusses trends, hot topics and the major players. He includes a comprehensive list of resources.
If your organization wants to better align its proxy voting policies with As You Sow, I encourage you to reach out to Michael to learn more. Of course, you can also do so right on Moxy Vote. And keep your 2010 Proxy Preview close; it’s going to be a busy season!
In the last week several new advocates have joined the Moxy Vote party: Free Enterprise Project, Green Century Management, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Sierra Club. They all bring different dishes to the proxy smorgasbord here at Moxy Vote. Welcome, we look forward to cooking up some shareholder dissent together.
Currently, we have some interesting ballots on our site.
Ford, Norfolk Southern and Charles Schwab: Each has a resolution on their ballot supported by The Center for Political Accountability that asks these companies to disclose their political contributions.
Home Depot: Multiple advocates like Aquinas Associates, Calvert and UUA all support a resolution asking the company to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
Standard Pacific: Nathan Cummings has some very insightful vote suggestions on multiple items on the ballot like specific director recommendations.
Continue to check our site and we will keep you updated during this busy proxy season.
Moxy Vote is cool. It allows investors to have their proxy ballots electronically sent to our site. Then the investor’s shares can be voted automatically according to their customized set of voting preferences. Investors can have meaningful engagement in corporate governance without having to worry about manually voting each proxy ballot.
This service has never been offered to individual investors. In the past, only the big institutional investors have been able to vote this way. And trailblazing isn’t always easy. In this case, we have run into some challenges with completing all of the requests up to the Moxy Vote standards. For instance, while we have quickly completed many client requests for direct delivery to our site, we have been working on other requests for some time.
Moxy Vote is now dealing with hundreds of brokerage relationships. Accordingly, we have to set up new processes with each and every one. Invariably, this means dealing with their idiosyncrasies and helping them get up to speed on who we are, what we are doing, and why they need to work with us. Not a small endeavor, but a good problem indeed.
The good news, we ARE committed to updating and enhancing this service as we grow. In fact, right now as I type, the people of Moxy Vote are working to find solutions. We will create a more direct line of communication with brokers and ensure that EVERY request is fulfilled up to our standards.
Your patience and understanding is appreciated. We believe in Moxy Vote and are glad you do too.