Comments to FCC on the Future of Media

I posted this on the VoterMedia Democracy Blog on January 25, but it may be of interest to readers of this blog too:

Four days ago, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced their request for comments on “the future of media and the information needs of communities in a digital age”, along with 42 specific questions. I submitted my comments this morning, which are already linked on the FCC website page for “Proceeding 10-25”. I’ve also posted these links at votermedia.org/publications.

Mainly I pitched the benefits of voter funded media, with the UBC Continuous VFM competition as an example.

Investor Education on Proxy Voting

Like my previous post on January 23, this is an update for individual investors on how I am representing them on the SEC Investor Advisory Committee. I submitted the report below to the Investor Education subcommittee earlier this month:

TO: SEC Investor Advisory Committee’s Investor Education Subcommittee
FROM: Mark Latham
RE: Recommendations for investor education on proxy voting
Date: January 7, 2010

1. Proxy voting is important.

This almost goes without saying, but deserves emphasis because it is so fundamental. Voting is the primary means for holding corporate directors and management accountable to shareowners. It is the cornerstone of good corporate governance, essential for the performance of our economy.

2. Proxy voting by retail investors is important.

It’s important in principle, and we should make it important in practice.

Voter Funded Investor Education Proposal

Since I represent individual investors on the SEC Investor Advisory Committee (SECIAC), I will give updates in this blog about what I am doing to fulfill that mission. The proposal below is one such project. I drafted it for consideration by the Investor Education subcommittee, hoping to see it forwarded to the full SECIAC and from there submitted to the SEC. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, as I explain below after the proposal text:

Voter Funded Investor Education Proposal – draft 20091130

TO: Securities and Exchange Commission
FROM: SEC Investor Advisory Committee
RE: Letting individual investors vote to allocate some education program funding

We recommend that the Commission have its Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) explore the potential for letting individual investors vote to allocate some funding for investor education programs. If the OIEA determines that such an approach could play an effective role in advancing investor education, it could then implement a pilot program of limited scale.