The Washington State Investment Board calls on individual shareholders to act now and get involved in corporate governance! (December 11, 2003) Olympia - The Washington State Investment Board has already spoken out in support of corporate reform and is calling on individual shareholders to do the same and to take action by December 22, 2003. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently looking closely at the rules governing proxy voting (shareholder votes taken at a corporation’s annual meeting) and exploring what recourse shareholders might have in replacing corporate directors who are not responsive to the shareholder’s needs. As the SEC does their review, they make proposed modifications or new rules and solicit the public’s comments on them. The SEC needs to hear from Washington state’s pensioners – the individual stakeholders of the WSIB investment portfolios – in regard to rule S7-19-03, which gives shareholders the right to nominate their own candidates to replace unresponsive and irresponsible corporate board members during elections. Simple logic dictates that faced with the possibility of removal, corporate directors will be forced to pay greater attention to the issues that matter to shareholders. Please take a few moments to send the SEC a note indicating your support for S7-19-03. The SEC will take public comment into consideration as it embarks on a review of the proxy rules. Our hope is that the SEC study will ultimately lead to an improved process that will permit shareholder-nominated candidates for the board of directors to appear in the corporate proxy statement and as a ballot choice on the corporate proxy card. All public comments must be submitted by December 22. Please note that brevity is important; your message need only be long enough to show your support of the review of the proxy rules. You may write your own message, or use the text supplied below as a cut-and-paste email. Suggested Message Text "I support the proposed rule, Security Holder Director Nominations, Section 14 of the SEC Act of 1934, which governs shareholder access to the proxy statement and ballot. I believe improving this access will go a long way toward restoring the confidence of all investors in the capital markets." Email Instructions It is important that your subject line read: Re: S7-19-03. You can copy and paste the above text into your own email window and send it to: rule-comments@sec.gov. For additional information and to view other comments on this issue, you can visit the Securities and Exchange Commission's website.