First and foremost: We are not trying to take over the BoD or tell them how to do their job. Those that feel threaten by us need not be as long as they are not taking advantage of us. I believe we have a strong corporate board and none of us here could replace any of those individuals. We need them to get to where we are going. However, being a small retail shareholder in a sea of sharks can be perilous and I believe a little work up front can come back to us in spades. For us to work as a group even if we have 50% of the shares would require a situation where we are being really taken advantage of. We will not get everyone's support to do something naive and so the powers that be know this and have nothing to fear...as long as they are acting ethically.
So, at this point, I will start to accumulate data on shareholders including name, email, phone # and number of shares. I will be the only one that will see the number of shares along with our designated liaison with the office. This information will be kept very confidential for everyone's personal security but also to prevent unsruplous individuals from gaining any advantage. If they do not know what we have in shares, they may be a little more nervous and potentially more respectful especially after the proxy vote.
If and when we need to mobilize shareholders, names along with email/phone numbers will be given to trustworthy volunteers to help the communication process. They will not know the number of shares.
We do need to establish a liaison officer with the BoD. We need someone that everyone can trust and that can help direct us in the right path both legally and from an investment stand point. Only one name came to me for this position: Richard Nemis. I talked to him at length today. He is staying active and is interested in representing our interest to the BOD. Many of us here have invested in NOT because of our trust in him, so he would be the best person to communicate our concerns to the new BoD. In a dream world, we would get 50% of the shares outstanding and Richard would then be in a very strong position to represent us. This goal is too lofty in my opinion even if there is enough retail shares out there. But the look on Rosseau's face would be priceless if RN could walk into NOT with that much support...
I have done some research and we are not bound to wait for next year's AGM if something is really not right. We would have the power to call meetings and put things to vote if we thought we were really being wronged. I do not believe things will ever get to this point with the balanced board we have right now. The current board needs to know that we stand behind them 100% and will work with them to make this the best company it can be.
I need to do a little more research on how best to accumulate the info and maintain security. At this point, I have already received a few PMs and e-mails with contact info and # of shares. We are already over 2M shares. However, I will not be posting share count or percentage of ownership in the future as this info would hinder any negotiations.
The biggest point of contention of course is the PP. When will it be done, at what price, can retail get a piece of it...I think the most important point would be for retail to get our share of any PP. To be part of a PP, you usually need to be a high net worth investor and the corporation will dictate the minimum investment required to participate. I have been part of this a few time and have seen numbers as low as 50k dollars but usually higher. The reason for this is to save on legal fees as every investor in the PP creates legal costs. One way to get around this would be for qualified retail investors to pool their monies together in a corporation and the corporation invests in Noront. This way the minimum investement should not be a concern and will save the company some legal fees (but cost us some...). Anyone interested in participating in the PP can send me a PM and I will start to accumulate these amounts and when the time comes, we will let Noront know that we want our share of PP money. As long as the PP is done for the right reason, they should not care where the money comes from.
There is probably more to think about and I invite any good ideas to be PMd to me instead of the board for strategic reasons. I will get back to everyone with info concerning sending personal info as soon as possible.
Together we stand,
Glorieux
