Armenian National Committee San Francisco - Bay Area - Genocide-free Investing Proposed at Franklin Resources‏

Genocide-free Investing Proposed at Franklin Resources‏

Dear Friends,

Last week, Bay Area ANC chairman Armen Carapetian joined Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian School eighth grader Rubina Karapetyan at the Franklin Resources annual shareholders meeting, where they presented a genocide-free investing proposal on behalf of Investors Against Genocide (IAG). This marked the first time in 19 years that a shareholder proposal appeared on the company's annual proxy ballot. Franklin Resources, which is the parent company of Franklin Templeton Investments, holds 7% of the shares outstanding of PetroChina, a company widely recognized as contributing to the genocide in Sudan. While the proposal failed, it helped to educate thousands of Franklin Resources' shareholders about the issue and set up the possibility of future proposals. To read IAG's press release on this issue, please visit http://www.investorsagainstgenocide.org/2013/03/franklin-resources-shareholders-vote-on-genocide-free-investing/.

The proposal also generated some articles in the media. To read Robert Kropp's article in Social Funds, please visit http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi?sfArticleId=3769. To read Bill Silverfarb's article in the San Mateo Daily Journal, please visit http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=1764910&title=Genocide-free%20investing%20proposal%20shot%20down.

To learn more about Investors Against Genocide, please visit http://www.investorsagainstgenocide.org/.

You can also stay engaged on the Bay Area ANC's activities by liking our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ANCSF and by following us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ANC_SF.

Sincerely,

Armenian National Committee

San Francisco - Bay Area

51 Commonwealth Avenue

San Francisco, CA  94118

Tel: 415-387-3433

mail@ancsf.org

www.ancsf.org