3M Elects Lead Director

3M announced that Vance Coffman has been elected as lead director. In this newly created role, Mr. Coffman will lead executive sessions of 3M's independent directors and will facilitate information flow and communication between the directors and the chairman, in addition to other duties specified by the board. With the many committes that 3M's board must or should have will Mr Coffman be serving on all of them? Information flow between the chairman and independent directors is becoming too complicated. Do they not have backbone and speak up at meetings? What other duties will be slipped in at a later date? How will Mr. Coffman be renumerated for his valuable time? To whose benefit is this position? What resources are dedicated to back him up? How will we be able to monitor his performance? Does he start with an agenda? Sounds pretty good but whats it all about?