Subject: Changing the rules

Date:    11/19/97 8:45 AM
     
     
To Whom It May Concern:
     
I am writing to you because I understand that the S.E.C. is considering 
adopting a series of rules whose effect would be to weaken the ability of 
small investors to place motions on the ballot at annual shareholder 
meetings. One of these rules, for example, would increase the percentage 
of votes needed on a vote to keep the motion on the ballot for the 
succeeding year. I must protest.
     
Small shareholders are the ones most severely effected by company policies; 
Bill Gates, for all the losses he took only a short time ago, is not going 
broke any time soon. And yet the are the ones with the fewest resources to 
influence company policy. Shareholder resolutions provide one means by which 
these small investors can let the company know what they think of its 
policies. They give these small investors some voice in company policy. The 
new rules you propose would reduce this voice. The _only_ ones who would 
benefit are board members willing to promulgate policies that are not in the 
interests of, or repulsive to the values of, the millions of small investors 
who play little role in the day-to-day functioning of the company.
     
I strongly urge you to reject all attempts to discourage shareholder 
resolutions. They are essential to restrain corporate behavior in a manner 
shareholders--the ones whose opinions are supposed to count--would approve. 
I thank you for your time.
     
Yours Very Sincerely,
     
Peter Stone
stone@prevmed.rochester.edu