RIM’s co-CEOs narrowly missed facing a forced shareholder vote on whether they should keep their co-Chairman titles at the company’s annual meeting. However, when you think about it, the proposal really has no teeth anyway.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]The proposal brought by Northwest & Ethical Investments LP would see the co-CEO and co-Chairman roles split. Currently Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis hold both titles.

This may have been a decent proposal this time last year or even the year before, but mid-2011 is no time to threaten to take away one half of their cushy jobs. This is a time for action from RIM shareholders, not threats.

The CEOs managed to avoid the vote by convincing Northwest & Ethical Investments to withdraw the proposal. They did that by promising to form a committee to look at the situation and make recommendations. A typical Canadian thing to do.

A committee will take at least six months, so now we’re into 2012 before anything will be done. Completely unacceptable.

By the time anything happens at RIM, Apple will have released the iPhone 5 and, most likely, the iPad 3. Not to mention all of the Android and webOS devices that will hit the market.

The sad part is that the end result of the committee will be to split the CEO and Chairman roles — Balsillie and Lazaridis will still be running the company.

I thought RIM shareholders would do the right thing to protect their investment and oust Balsillie and Lazaridis, but apparently leaving their money in the hands of these two incompetent leaders is what they want.

As I said last night, I have no sympathy for RIM shareholders now.