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Support of Forum Institute
To participants in all past and current Forum programs:
During the past six years many of you have benefited from our
independent Forum programs in terms of enhanced shareholder value and
improved quality of investor information. And I hope that you’ve also
enjoyed, deservedly, some recognition and personal satisfaction from your
participation in a process of enlightenment and change that is critical to
the viability of our capitalist economy.
I ask you now to consider the future profit and pride you could
derive from expanded programs that are more effectively managed by a public
purpose Forum “Institute,” and I invite you to help organize it.
The need for a broadly supported Forum Institute has been
discussed for years. As some of you may recall, I’d accepted responsibility
for conducting a shareholder
Forum for a Computer Associates (“CA”) proxy contest in 2001 with the
expectation that a not-for-profit organization would be established to take
over the program. That didn’t happen, and now there’s a
new CA Forum with a much more extensive agenda and a much greater need
for proper management.
There are also many more companies whose shareholders – like
those of
Willamette Industries or Lone Star Steakhouse in the past – could
benefit from a Forum program if the management resources were available.
And there are many important capital market issues that deserve the thorough
examination of an open Forum, including our continued attention to the old
Amazon/PAIS issues of information integrity and our new attention to the
biggest question raised by all the recent changes in rules and tools: What
can and should be expected of responsible investors?
These independent, open Forum programs can be made available
fairly and reasonably only if they’re conducted by a properly organized
institution representing all corporate and investor constituencies. It is
certainly inappropriate for a single private person to determine which
situations will benefit from a Forum program, even if that person is willing
to be restricted from conflicting interests. And, as I hope all of you will
appreciate, it’s also inappropriate for one person to bear the burdens of a
program that benefits all members of the investment community.
To assure the professionally sound organization of the needed
not-for-profit Forum Institute, and to assure that it gets done this year,
I’ve arranged for
Anthony Knerr & Associates to develop recommendations and guide the
process.
This process will involve active collaboration with representatives of the
relevant constituencies.
As soon as the Institute is formally organized, I will assign to
it the responsibility for management of the current CA Forum, as
contemplated in that program’s
Conditions of Participation. And, of course, I will offer my full and
enthusiastic support of the Forum programs under the Institute’s control.
Your help, in the form of both thoughts and funding, will be
welcomed.
GL – 2/2/05
Gary Lutin
Lutin & Company
575 Madison Avenue, 10th Floor
New York, New York 10022
Tel: 212-605-0335
Fax: 212-605-0325
Email:
gl@shareholderforum.com
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