When she asked a question at Starbucks' shareholders meeting last year, Melody Overton -- better known as StarbucksMelody.com -- was "thrown off guard by Uncle Howard's quick thinking to take it as an opportunity to (nicely) tease Miss Melody O, by jokingly saying 'you're famous' and that 'everybody knows Melody'. It was a disconcerting experience: this year I won't ask a question unless I have a good one," she writes.

So, she's asking readers what they'd ask Howard Schultz directly if they could, in hopes of coming up with the best question for the shareholders meeting next Wednesday at Seattle Center.

There are a few rules:

• Must be relevant to Starbucks


• Ideally should be of interest to more than one stakeholder group (shareholders, customers, partners)


• Must be open-ended - I'm not going to ask a yes/no question. This is direct examination, not cross. [.... Melody says, like the lawyer she is when she's not blogging and tweeting about Starbucks.]


• Cannot be argumentative and contentious for no apparent reason, or asked for the sake of sensationalism. (I'm not going to ask about corporate jets, $12 mil salary, guns, or baristas in OC who sue, ...for example).

(Photo of Melody outside 15th Avenue Coffee & Tea is by The Seattle Times' Ken Lambert.)