RE:RE:RE:The BoardGuys, you can easily pull up last year's circular and put it besides this year's one, and you can tell what has changed. It seems both Echo and FTB was right in their own way, but the winner goes to Echo. Let me explain:
FTB's point is: the amount of compensation per Director went up after May 1, 2018. This is correct, even if we factor in the attendance fees previously. Please see his post for details.
But Echo's and management's point about the total compensation for the Board decreased YoY is also correct, and it will decrease even more for 2019. This despite comp per individual director gone up. Yes, there are some timing differences in the terms served (mainly Madden), but here are the main points:
- Roughly speaking, Carriere and Desy were replaced by Dieter and Madden after last year's AGM. Madden didn't come on till the end of August, so we saved a few months of retainer for him
- But the real savings came from Jean Lamarre, who unfortuantely passed away. His Board seat was never taken up by another person. So we saved the compensation for that seat.
For this year's AGM, we know Elford will basically replace Dieter. But in the footnotes, it say Michaud will not stand for re-election. So we will have 6 independent directors + RR on the Board. This is one less than the current BOD now, so the total comp for this upcoming year would be even less than 2018.
In summary, our BOD expense in 2017 > 2018 > 2019, and it is all a function of how many Board seats do we have. This is the fact, hence management did not misrepresent. As I remember, many on SH complained we have too big of a Board for the size of the company--it seems that is being taken care of. Obviously with less people, the workload needed to be increased to the remaining directors, so I am ok with them getting a raise despite the hugely disappointing SP.
I know many of you are not happy with the performance of the company and our SP--who wouldn't be? But please stay with the facts when making your point. Otherwise, you will be the ones who are deceitful and misrepresenting the facts, not management.