The December 15, 2009 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following:

• In Memoriam: John Logue
• New NCEO Data on ESOP Board Practices

We recently discussed 12 Key Board Actions that boards should be doing right now. The Update discusses the results of a new NCEO survey on ESOP board practices:

A new NCEO survey of 190 ESOP companies shows that only 26% of the respondents have boards made up only of current employees, compared to 49% in 2005. Twenty-nine percent have boards that have a majority of inside directors, compared to 25% in 2005. Sixty percent of the companies have independent directors who have no ownership, employment, or family relationship with the company, up from 51% in a 2005 survey who did.

The median compensation for outside directors was $10,000 in 2005 (the 2005 data were not directly comparable but appear to be somewhat lower). Thirty-eight percent of companies expect their boards to become larger, and 40% plan to add inside directors. The median number of full board meetings was 3.8 per year and, for companies with committees (most often a compensation committee), the median number of committee meetings was 2.8 per year.