In Reply to: Re: Equitable: Compensation. posted by George on 11 March 2004 at 10:46:39:
George,
You will find some discussion of publishing trustee meeting minutes in the archives of these messages.
In response to letters, the trustee has noted that non-publication is common practice, implied that it would not be a good thing if the discussion in meetings was inhibited by a large unseen audience, and implicitly noted that what matters most to members is what the trustee does, not what it talks about. On the topic of Equitable, I personally don't agree with you that non-publication of minutes was unreasonable conduct. If you directly put AVC money into the hands of a private insurer you would not expect to see minutes of the board meetings of that insurer.
There are topics where the approach can break down. (Members not told how the M-Plan would be funded? Members not told of the gap between what the trustee sees as the pension promise and what Armonk sees as the pension promise? Elected trustees constrained in presenting members' views by the trustee's mechanisms?) But the solution to such considerations is to improve the quality of information flowing from the trustee to the members and vice-versa, not publication of minutes.
In the case of Equitable it seems to me the membership was well-advised on what the trustee was doing, and supplied with generic information. If you have a coherent argument that the outcome resulted in a loss to you that could and should have been avoided there is the OPAS and Ombudsman route to seek redress.
Lest this message be mistaken for one trustee director offering defence on behalf of the trustee board, I remind readers that most of the Equitable activity happened before I was a trustee, and above that, this message is sent:
(not with trustee hat on)