compliments of Walsh aka r9915 May 2018 11:13
Any shareholder on the share register can attend a General Meeting of a company, ask
questions and speak (if you are in a nominee account, read this note on our web site:
www.************/nominee_accounts.html ). Obviously this is a good forum to raise any
issues and the responses (and general attitude of the directors) will be indicative of
whether you are going to be able to have an impact. But don�t expect to ask multiple
questions or make long speeches. Indeed if there are many shareholders present, you
may not even get to speak at all, so don�t rely on this forum. Similarly asking technical or
detailed questions at such meetings is inappropriate - the answer is likely to be �we will
look into that and let you know the answer�. Such questions are best put in writing to the
Chairman before the meeting with a request that he gives the answer at the meeting.
Make sure you say who you are and the organisation you represent when speaking at
company meetings. Practice your �short� speech or the questions (no more than three)
before the meeting, to ensure they are as brief as possible. Do not read a prepared
speech out � it�s the emotion that counts and one or two key points that you should be
able to memorise, not the detailed content. Do not bore the audience � shareholders are
impatient people in general. Evasive Chairman and Directors can generally be pinned
down by getting their agreement to good principles such as being open with their answers
to shareholders before unleashing the complaint question now that they have been
already hooked by the first answer.
Most shareholders, and hardly any institutions, attend general meetings so you are
unlikely to sway any votes � the voting is usually decided by the proxy counts before the
meeting even takes place, so consider it more as a �PR� exercise than anything else. It
helps to demonstrate to existing supporters that you are doing something and it may help
to recruit more supporters. In addition a good speech may have an impact on the
directors and other shareholders. For example, a speech by one lady shareholder at a
Marks & Spencer AGM a few years ago where she complained about the unattractiveness
of their knickers seemed to crystalise shareholders� feelings about the recent performance
of the company and why shoppers were not buying their goods.
You should of course try to get as many supporters as possible to attend such meetings,
and speak on the same points as you. You may want to nominate specific �speakers� who
are capable of speaking well in public in an impromptu manner.
Thank you robbo
Monarch
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