This page has information about Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company's (CSTT) Virtual Shareholder Meeting (VSM) service. Connect with your CSTT Account Manager to answer any other questions you may have and to help design the best virtual meeting solution for your company.
This is the main VSM service FAQ page, use the purple icons at the top of the page to go to other FAQs
- What are the main features of the VSM service?
- When to book the VSM service and what information is needed?
- What will my Annual Meeting or Special Meeting Microsite URL be?
- What is the capacity of the VSM service? What should I plan for?
- How can investors ask questions or vote?
- When will the replay be available and for how long?
- How will voting be handled during a virtual shareholder meeting?
- When will final vote results be available?
Additional FAQs:
The VSM service provides a complete solution to hosting your Annual Meeting or Special Meeting in a virtual way. The service provides support of the entire process including:
- Annual Meeting/Special Meeting "Microsite" is a single location your investors can go to learn everything they need to know about your meeting: time, date, rules, questions, voting recommendations, how to vote, who to contact - and anything else you want to communicate
- Live webcast of the meeting with capacity to handle small or large meetings
- Meeting replay hosting for up to one year
- Telephone access to allow optional dial-in and listen-only access
- Registration to allow investors to prepare for and be ready for the webcast
- Questions management including allowing registered investors to submit questions during (or optionally before) the meeting
- Meeting documents and attachments so investors have access to documents such as the Proxy Statement and Annual Report or other supporting documents such as the Order of Business, Rules of Conduct, List of Registered Shareholders, meeting agenda, presentation slides, etc.
- A dry run of the meeting for presenters to learn how the VMS will work and to test audio quality and process
All of the features of the VMS are customizable so, for example, you can have the List of Registered Shareholders only be available during the live meeting or open up questions before the meeting and close them the day before. The service can match your specific needs.
Connect with your CSTT Account Manager to establish the VSM for your meeting date and time as soon as you can as there are limitations to how many can be done at the same time.
The following items of information are required to establish your VSM:
- Company name, main contact information
- Meeting date and time. Also, what time zone to display for investors
- When online registration will be enabled (see below for more information)
- If questions will be allowed before and/or during the meeting
- What documents will be placed on the Annual Meeting Microsite and any other specific information you want on the page
CSTT will book your meeting and provide you all necessary information such as the microsite URL and telephone access codes so you can communicate with your investors before the meeting.
CSTT will establish your microsite URL and audience telephone number and code quickly so you can place it in your Proxy Statement, Proxy Card or other communication. It will be on our secured hosted service with an address similar to below.
URL: https://www.cstproxy.com/yourcompanyname/2020
Optional telephone access (listen-only)
Within the U.S. and Canada: +1 888-XXX-XXXX (toll-free)
Outside of the U.S. and Canada: +1 XXX-XXX-XXXX (standard rates apply)
Passcode for telephone access: XXXX1234#
The VSM service can handle small meetings with a few webcast attendees up to a large meeting of up to 5,000 concurrent attendees. The listen-only telephone access can accommodate up to 1,000 concurrent attendees. The webcast and telephone numbers are different so a meeting can be up to 6,000 concurrent attendees using both features combined.
NOTE: The VSM service is setup with a maximum event capacity and the default is up to 100 concurrent webcast attendees and up to another 1,000 on the telephone.
For smaller sized companies, the default is generally sufficient. For large companies, one estimate would be to use 5% of your shareholder number as an approximate number for a max capacity setting. You can work with your Continental Stock Transfer and Trust contact to help determine what level you should plan for.
Investors can register into the VMS microsite and (optionally) submit questions. For more information, see our specific FAQ "How to manage questions in your VSM".
The VSM microsite showcases the proposals to be voted on, the board recommended votes, and has instructions on how to vote. Voting is handled in the normal methods, not in the VSM itself.
Your VSM replay will be made available the day after the meeting and be hosted for one-year.
Registered shareholders may vote online using a link on the virtual meeting site and the control number provided on their proxy or notice card. Voting will be available during the meeting until the company has announced that the polls are closed.
Beneficial / Street shareholders may vote online using the link on the virtual meeting site and the control number provided by Continental upon presentation of a legal proxy from the holder. The legal proxy must be submitted to Continental prior to the meeting date in order to obtain a control number to access the meeting site and voting site. Voting will be available during the meeting until the company has announced that the polls are closed.
Final vote results will be available the morning after the virtual meeting. If no votes are received during the meeting, the CSTT proxy department will confirm that the results provided prior to the meeting are final. If any votes are received during the meeting, the CSTT proxy department will provide an updated vote summary report.
