03/21/2002 01:37 PM Senate L&C

          HB 418-ELECTRONIC PROXY VOTING & NOTIFICATION                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
CHAIRMAN STEVENS announced HB 418 to be up for consideration.                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
MS. AMY ERICKSON, Staff to Representative  Murkowski, said that HB
 is modeled  after existing corporate statutes  approved by the                                                              
Federal   Securities  Exchange   Commission   and  gives   Alaskan                                                              
corporations  the  explicit  ability  to  offer  electronic  proxy                                                              
voting  and   receive  electronic   delivery  notice   of  meeting                                                              
materials to its shareholders.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
     Approximately  25   states  already  offer   this  proxy                                                                   
     voting. Corporations that elect  to implement electronic                                                                   
     voting will  establish secured processes in  which a PIN                                                                   
     is  issued to  each  shareholder and  shareholders  will                                                                   
     still  have the option  of paper  and person voting.  In                                                                   
     addition to electronic voting.                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                
     HB   418   also   includes    provisions   that   permit                                                                   
     corporations  to send one copy  of an annual  report and                                                                   
     proxy  materials to  multiple shareholders  at the  same                                                                   
     address   and  to  stop   sending  annual  reports   and                                                                   
     statements  to  shareholders  whose mailing  address  is                                                                   
     invalid.                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
     Passage of HB 418 will result  in cost savings and added                                                                   
     convenience for Alaskan corporations  and provide faster                                                                   
     tabulation  and  higher  accuracy   of  voting  results.                                                                   
     Because  Alaska  households  have the  highest  computer                                                                   
     ownership  and Internet access,  electronic voting  will                                                                   
     greatly  improve  access to  shareholder  participation.                                                                   
     This  act has  been modeled  from existing  law and  has                                                                   
     been   reviewed  by  the   Division  of   Administrative                                                                   
     Securities and there is no know  controversy surrounding                                                                   
     the bill.                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
MR. BUD  SIMPSON, Sealaska Corporation,  said that they  view this                                                              
bill as a corporate matter and not  a Native corporation issue. He                                                              
said he  would be happy  to address any  questions. He  didn't see                                                              
that there would be any controversy.                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                
CHAIRMAN STEVENS  asked in addition  to the regional  corporations                                                              
and  the village  corporations, how  many  other corporations  are                                                              
registered in the state of Alaska.                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
MR. SIMPSON replied that his impression  is that within Alaska the                                                              
larger business  corporations tend to  be from Outside  and within                                                              
Alaska, there are about 300 of mostly Native corporations.                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR LEMAN moved to pass HB 418  from committee with individual                                                              
recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.