From: Erica George [erica_george78@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 5:52 PM
To: rule-comments@sec.gov
Subject: File No. S7-10-03 - Comment

To: The SEC

From: Erica L. George

Re: Proposed Rules for Shareholder Director Nominations, File No. S7-19-03

Date: December 22, 2003

This letter is submitted as a comment on the SEC's proposed rules changes for 
corporate director elections. I am writing to urge the SEC to broaden shareholder 
access to the ballot and to minimize the hoops through which independent director 
candidates must jump in order to campaign against an incumbent board. 

I don't own any stock. I can't afford to own any amount of stock worth bothering 
with. But my life is still inextricably affected by the rules that govern 
corporations and their behavior. My only vote may be with my purchasing dollar, 
but it is on behalf of ordinary people like me that improvements in corporate 
governance are necessary. Members of my family and friends work for publicly 
traded companies - companies whose shareholder owners should have a meaningful 
say in how they are governed. If corporate directors are not held accountable 
to their shareholders, then they are accountable to none but themselves and 
their own interests.

Currently, shareholders who disapprove of the actions of a company's board have 
very little meaningful recourse - even large institutional investors. Small 
shareholders consider themselves utterly powerless to express dissent. Why 
exercise a vote when even a vote of no confidence is meaningless, and can be 
ignored without serious consequence?

As the Enron and other recent scandals have proven, our whole society is affected 
by poor corporate governance practices. The safeguards we have in place to ensure 
that corporate directors act to benefit their company as a whole, rather than 
themselves as individuals, should be a strong SEC and strong shareholder democracy. 

Towards those ends, the current proposal is a solid step in the right direction. 
I strongly urge the SEC to adopt a system that allows shareholders significant 
increased access to the ballot. 

Thank you, 

 

Erica George
7 Simpson Ave. #2
Somerville, MA 02144

 



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