In-House Corner: Keeping Sane (Or Not) During Proxy Season – Part 2
This feature of our blog is where our in-house readers share tips, anecdotes and thoughts about things that come up in their daily practice. We received so much feedback on the first blog about the techniques or routines (or bad habits) to help keep one sane during the proxy season that we decided to post a second installment [feel free to ping me and share your thoughts – they will be posted anonymously or with attribution, whichever you desire]:
1. "Sanity is hard to come by. Thank goodness Pandora works on my laptop as long as I have WiFi so I can take a music break here and there. I will provide my Pandora stations only upon personal request.However, the one bad habit I always run into is falling behind on the distribution schedule. This is going to happen – life (and work) intervenes against any plan, no matter how well intended. The best defense is a viable offense: the schedule itself should have flexibility built in and perhaps a distribution or two "extra" so if they are missed it does not throw off the entire timeline." – Jeff Taylor
2. "Keep your expectations realistic and accept up front that your team will miss a deadline, make a mistake and run into a time-crunch-induced schedule disruption. Once you let those worries go before the season starts, then focus on the big stuff – the things that have to be completely right and the deadlines that don't have any flexibility." - Katrina & the Waves Doe
3. "Make a realistic timeline and stick to it, but also make sure the timeline is flexible enough to deal with the surprises that will come up." – Stephen A. Smith Doe
4. "Be clear about data ownership, and require data owners to certify the data provided." – Sue Bird Doe
5. "Although a lot of time and effort goes into the sections that are included for communication - and because they are important to your shareholders - remember to keep focused on the legal requirements and triple-check every number. And if you have shareholder proposals, open a dialogue and keep it open so that you know what to expect when the annual meeting rolls around." – Bernie Mac Doe
6. "When you get towards the end, find some fresh eyes for a review – you'll be amazed what they'll see that you don't." – Caren Merrick Doe
7. "Do not look at it after you file. It's done. No good can come from finding the typo that your entire working group missed." – Melanie Martinez Doe
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Public Chatter provides practical guidance—and the latest developments—to those grappling with public company securities law and corporate governance issues, through content developed from an in-house perspective.