I was thinking along those lines, 2Biezz, perhaps the company has insufficient shares authorized and unissued to meet the requirements of whatever deal is in the works. 

But an R/S is not a bad guess, either. The issue was put to a vote years ago, right?  If it's not the law that a R/S must be approved by shareholders, it may be in the corporate bylaws that such a vote is necessary. 

As far as secrecy, I believe it's just corporate protocol. And I doubt they'd want to announce a R/S vote was coming right before the Needham conference, as too many here would sell a portion of their holding out of illogical hatred of all things reverse split.