Below is a statement the Social Investment Forum issued today on the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) open meeting on proxy access. We welcome other views on the outcome from the SEC's open meeting today.

WASHINGTON. D.C.///July 25, 2007///Social Investment Forum Chair Tim Smith, who also is senior vice president of Walden Asset Management, and SIF CEO Lisa Woll issued the following joint statement today:

"While the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not explicitly endorse a proposal today that would limit the rights of shareholders to file advisory resolutions, we are concerned that one of the two proposals put out for public comment has opened the door for possible new curbs on such shareholder resolutions. We need to study the questions the SEC has put forward for public comments. As we noted in our news conference yesterday, we want to be very clear that we will vigorously oppose any step by the Commission to restrict the advisory resolution process.

At the same time, we share the concern of other shareholder advocates that the 5 percent threshold for director nomination is too high.

We are thus going to remain on 'high alert' until this whole situation is resolved in a way that makes it clear that the rights of shareholders have not been diminished.

The SEC needs to understand that any new limit on the rights of investors to participate in the advisory resolution process would trigger a repeat of the contentious 1997-1998 battle in which more than 300 socially responsible investment, religious, labor and other groups coalesced to oppose an SEC staff plan to gut the shareholder resolution process by increasing the threshold for reconsideration of resolutions in subsequent years.

Our members have been deeply involved in the process of shareholder advocacy through letters and dialogue with companies, sponsorship of shareholder resolutions and by voting proxies. For decades, this process has been a central means for formalizing communication between concerned investors and management on social, environmental and governance issues."

For more on the Social Investment Forum, please visit here.