CHAPTER 6 Engaging With a Company and Filing a Shareholder Resolution
As a shareholder, if you feel that a corporation in which you have invested is doing something harmful and it fits within the environmental, social, and governance concerns as described above, one way to address your concern is to engage directly with the company in a collaborative way. By doing this, you can work through the process with them to understand why they have such a policy or have taken such an action, and if your engagement is not successful, you can file a resolution. Here is a hypothetical example to illustrate the step-by-step process of bringing about change in a company you own as an investor.
Requirements: You must own $2,000 worth of stock that you have held for one year prior to the filing deadline. You must commit to not selling the stock until after the annual meeting. It must also be a voting class of stock,
as some classes of stock do not have the right to vote or file resolutions. There are minimum vote thresholds that also must be met for filing in subsequent years. Resolutions must obtain three percent of the total vote their first year to be resubmitted, six percent the second year, and 10 percent the third year and all subsequent years. If it fails to meet these vote levels, it may not be resubmitted for three years.