Thirteenth "official" TIAA-CREF (TC) Coalition Update --mainly for TC participants with an interest in social responsibility by TC - 11/29/04

It’s been awhile since the last TC campaign update, but here it is!. As you know, we met with some of TC’s very top officers (all but CEO) on November 1. It had positives and negatives. What I present in outline form here is a somewhat amended version of what was sent to coalition reps very recently to see where we are in the effort, which basically is asking TC to divest from a select group of companies and to invest in more positive ventures. As you know, to this point we have made progress on the latter, but little concrete on the former (If you want to refresh yourself on the overalll effort, groups involved, and compnies we seek fro TC to divest from, go to http://www.maketiaa-crefethical.org). The below outlines what we are working on or what we intend to do. If you need more explanation, let me know. If you want to get involved in any of the below, which we can really use, let me know (particularly getting more TC participants involved, getting other groups to join the coalition, and getting some new ideas on campaign activities). Neil

* More communication with and gaining of support from other TC participants -and using TC tagline of “investing for the greater good” as maybe one appeal to use
* letter to TC as a follow-up to the November 1 meeting
* Distributing a press release as another follow-up to the meeting
* Sending something to TC as a labor/human rights equivalent to Calvert’s Women’s Principles. It will ask TC to ask some of its portfolio companies (like Nike) to ask foreign countries they operate in to elaborate on their policies regarding human right’s regulations in the country’s factories.
* Need to get more TC coalition partners-- and wherever possible, ones that are actively involved
* Any other new ideas for the campaign