From pension fund managers to presidential contenders, everyone seems to be worried about investors' "faith." What enables investors to trust a company is certainly open to debate. But how about the following standard? Board of director members, unless they are sworn to a life of poverty, should own stock in the company they serve.

Rust-Oleum maker RPM International (NYSE:RPM) sent out its proxy last week with four nominees for the board of directors. One nominee, an appointment in October of 2002, is being re-nominated. He beneficially owns no RPM common stock.

There is no law or recognized standard requiring board members to own stock in the company they serve. A case can be made that a non-shareholder on the board might be motivated to look long-term when others would want immediate results. Investors, though, might wonder why they should give their company's control to someone with no financial investment.

Being a board member is not charity work. RPM has six board meetings a year. Board members are paid $7,500 quarterly and $1,000 for each board or committee meeting they attend -- $36,000 a year to attend six board meetings.

Shareholders should be careful when reading their proxies and applying this standard. The current RPM proxy shows two board members with no beneficial stock ownership. If they read the fine print, they will find that one director owns 11,381 shares in the Deferred Compensation Program. She obviously has a positive long-term perspective and has a lot at risk.

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has taken leadership for setting standards. Their work in 2003 includes press releases about excessive executive pay and adoption of Investor Protection Standards. CalPERS Global Proxy Principals does not expect board members to be stock owners in the companies they direct.

Shareholders have their hard-earned money at stake when they invest. The board of directors is there to protect shareholder interests. RPM shareholders can use their proxy vote to show if they have "faith" in a non-shareholder on their board.

W.D. Crotty is a special contributor to The Motley Fool. He owns stock in RPM International and welcomes your feedback at [email protected] . If you're interested in dividend-paying stocks like RPM, which is one of Fool analyst Mathew Emmert's "Six Pack" of income payers, you might be interested in Motley Fool Income Investor. Try it out for free.