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Annual general meetings have been variously described as dull rituals for accountability versus entertaining theatre at the expense of accountability. The research analyses director and shareholder participation and dialogic interactions at annual and extraordinary general meetings of Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company (BSAC). The BSAC was incorporated under a royal charter in 1889 in return for power to exploit a huge territory, Rhodesia/now Zimbabwe. The BSAC's administration ceased in 1924/25. Thus, the BSAC had a dual mandate as a private for-profit listed company and to occupy and develop the territories on behalf of the British government.

The article analyses 29 BSAC general meeting minutes, comprising 25 full sets of verbatim minutes between 1895 and 1925. The study adopts manual content analysis. First, the research adopts conversational analysis to analyse director and shareholder turn-taking and moves by approving and dissenting shareholders. Second, the study identifies and analyses incidents of shareholder sentiment from the shareholder turns/moves. Finally, the article assesses how shareholder sentiment changed throughout the period and whether the BSAC's share price reflected the shareholder sentiment.

The BSAC's general meetings were associated with the greater colonial project of building the British Empire. The authors find almost 1,500 incidents of shareholder sentiment. Directors and shareholders take roughly an equal number of turns (excluding shareholder sentiment). Ritual and ceremony dominate director and shareholder turns and moves, while accountability to shareholders was minimal. The BSAC share price spiked in the early years of the project, waning after that. Shareholder sentiment, both positive and negative, reflect the share price behaviour.

A unique database of verbatim general meeting minutes records shareholders' reactions to what they heard in the form of sounding off through cheering, “hear, hears,” laughter and applause (i.e. shareholder sentiment).

In this paper the annual general meetings (AGM) of corporations are conceptualized as front-stage performances and dramas where the three roles of the corporation – the shareholder, manager and director – perform the corporation as a particular type of organization. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Meeting ethnography conducted at four seasons of AGMs in Sweden.

The study sheds light on how the required AGM of public companies may be seen as a ritualized, legitimizing and trust-building corporate performance where the different roles of the corporation are played out in positioning procedures and where the corporation as an organizational form is enacted.

The topic is of this paper is clearly original. Looking at corporations from an anthropological angle, exploring foundation myths, rites and organizational cultures, have been employed earlier, but exploring AGMs from an anthropological angle, is new.

In this chapter, we explore the legal framework of AGMs in seven Member States (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) of shareholder decision-making rights. We find that, since only a small part of the decision-making rights is harmonized at the European level, there are numerous differences in shareholder rights among national laws. These decision-making rights are usually about the topics director (re-)elections, pay matters, share capital, amendments to articles of association, annual accounts, etc. To be able to conduct empirical research in the remaining chapters, we develop a categorization framework of 15 voting items.

The International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) celebrated its 20^th anniversary in 2021. It was established to increase communication among research management societies. The need for a formal international research management community developed because there was (1) increased international funding of research, (2) the number of international research collaborations was growing, and (3) there was a need to understand research regulations in other countries. INORMS sought to address these issues through international congresses and by providing a forum for member societies to work more closely together on common issues. Membership in INORMS steadily increased over the years. The 20^th anniversary meeting was highlighted with the signing of the Hiroshima Statement that described a research manager’s principles and responsibilities, which include collegiality, inclusiveness, professionalisation, innovation, and accountability. This chapter summarises the factors that led to the formation of INORMS and its history.

The study aims to test the existence of a meeting clustering effect in the Spanish Stock Exchange (SSE).

This paper studies the relationship between the clustering of annual general meetings and stock returns in the SSE. A multivariate analysis is carried out in order to analyse the relationship between monthly returns and the clustering of general meetings in the SSE.

The authors show that meeting clustering exists and that some months exhibit significant and positive additional returns related to the holding of ordinary or extraordinary general meetings.

The authors have explored some possible explanations for the meeting clustering effect, such as a potential link with the “Halloween” effect or the presence of higher-than-normal levels of volatility, trading volumes or investor attention. However, none of these can explain the meeting clustering effect that emerges as a new anomaly in the SSE.

The authors have documented significant and positive abnormal returns in some months that coincide with the holding of general meetings. Therefore, the holding of ordinary and/or extraordinary meetings in some months involves the release of relevant information for investors.

This study complements the financial literature because it is focused on the clustering of meetings and its effect on a stock market whose legal order is based on civil law. This fact allows us to shed new light on meeting clustering and its effect on other types of markets.

To provide coverage and insights about the annual meeting of the AAAS where this year's theme was “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well‐Being.”

Environmental scan of annual national meeting. Of particular interest due to the range of backgrounds different attendees from all avenues of the scientific community.

Sustainable well being has wide applications in different arenas but the informatics component was not as strong as at past conferences.

Much of the conference focused on intersections of theory and application and new ways of responding to sustainability. Particularly strong in the physical sciences.

Provides information of value to information professionals.

Annual general meetings (AGMs) are an essential aspect of corporate governance in the UK, although there is little attempt to monitor the process of accountability evident on the part of the directors. This paper aims to provide an analysis of AGMs and suggest ways of making the event more effective from a stakeholder viewpoint.

By referring to the original principles of corporate governance laid down by the Cadbury Report onwards, past observation and evaluation have been used to pick out the best and worst practices of over 40 AGMs attended in order to build up a picture of a successful AGM for shareholders and directors alike. Companies are assessed for aspects of best practice relating to their AGMs and the essential elements are discussed.

A successful AGM should include: a well balanced and independent range of skills and backgrounds on the board, accompanied by fair remuneration and reward schemes for the directors; awareness of long‐term social, community and environmental issues incorporated in corporate social responsibility, alongside the more immediate matters of financial performance; and a real appreciation of the concerns of all stakeholders.

The paper suggests how an AGM might be run to achieve optimal benefit for the parties involved, and is aimed mainly at boards of directors and event organizers to ensure awareness of the key issues.

To report on the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Washington, DC in February 2005.

An overview of the seminars, symposia, workshops and presentations at the conference.

The theme of the meeting was The Nexus: Where Science Meets Society. The meeting was attended by 4,000 registrants, 105 exhibitors; and 900 members of the press. The meeting highlighted the academic role and infrastructure of technology in different science applications, including publishing, and national policy.

A report of interest to library and information management professionals.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the 174th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held 14‐18 February 2008 in Boston, MA, USA.

Conference report.

The conference theme was science and technology from a global perspective, which emphasized the power of science and technology as well as education to assist less‐developed segments of the world society, to improve partnerships among already developed countries and to spur knowledge‐driven transformations across a host of fields.

Overviews of six conference symposia are presented, which will be of interest to this journal's readers.