frustrated middle child
Single-Sixer

NRA Winter Board meeting update (edited)
Strong signs that the NRA has turned the corner

January 2025 Board Meeting
This report may be chaotic, it is compiled from witnesses who were “fresh off the plane,” since the board meeting went on past midnight last night. Sad preliminaries: Col. North lost hi…
https://bearingarms.com/john-petrol...on-face-off-reform-candidates-nra-20-n1227357
https://bearingarms.com/john-petrol...-off-old-guard-incumbents-strong-nra-n1227356
Here are some excellent report outs from the Winter Meeting of the NRA BOD
This was the last meeting that would take place in Dallas. Take that as a sign that things are moving back in place.
Meeting in Dallas continued the signaling that a move to Texas was in the back of some folks minds.
With the meetings in Texas they were signaling that the Sr members, directors and managers were to look around and get a feel for the place.
In NRAAM 2024 we canceled the move to Texas. But the relocation search committee remained intact, as a specter hovering over the employees.
This meeting the committee was DISOLVED - showing we are solidly in Virginia in our Fairfax building.
The building is undergoing repairs - majority to the building have been completed. Parking deck is the project under work contracts right now. Plans for the building are going well and look to be a solid move in the correct direction. The building has just been appraised at a bit over 32 million dollars. Prior leadership had entered into a letter of intent ( they say 'non binding' - I say 'Why sign it?') for the sale ( Prior - jan/feb 2024) at 16 million. oofda...
This meeting went on for 15.25 hours. Starting at 9 am, 1/2 hour lunch and dinner breaks and ended at 12:15 am. This time the folks that slid out as the meeting progressed were noted by all that hung to the end. Note those who did not attend or left during the meeting as listed in the substack article above. With the crazy weather - I know that Porter, Wright and Babaz had tickets, were trying to get there, but more than 1200 flights into Dallas were canceled late Wed, Thurs and early Fri. Wright made it from Maryland to Louisiana and got stuck there. Several others who made it were a day or more inside airports - Bill Miller of WVA being one, and Clel Baudler lived the meeting in the clothes he traveled in as his suitcase ended up somewhere else.
As stated in the two links - the big items were that the SLC Special Litigation Committee was disbanded and the power was transferred back to three pronged control. The inside General Counsel, the EVP/CEO (Doug Hamlin) and advisory control to the committee chaired by Sandy Froman which I believe is called Legislative Action Committee (which is primarily made up of Lawyers on the board, and who either advises General Counsel and EVP or sends it to the full board for vote) Look at this one as Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
One that was a BIG issue in my mind and the nuances seemed to be missed by the reporters above was a resolution authored by J Sigler that was three parts. The first part wrestled operational control and management approval from the EVP and placed it with the board. the third part put an approval of the hiring of a second level of management with the board instead of with the EVP and Operations. In my opinion - in an attempt to maintain control and to keep the WLP days of overreach from happening - this was a resolution that would have SLOWED down change, improvements and recovery. It would have had the board approving and second guessing any major decision that the departments want to make. This process as outline in the authors own words could have taken as much as 4 months to complete each time. here is an explanation of it I gave on one of the Forums.
The resolution was egregious. It would have SLOWED down the forward momentum of these new energized folks. The argument on the floor was energetic with both sides of the issue sure that they were right. Some saw safety in extreme oversight ( to avoid past sins from happening in the future) while others saw it as an impediment to much needed progress. In the end the resolution was voted down and Doug retains oversight to operations with the board providing directional advisory guidance.
My observations of the skills, teamwork, energy and forward trajectory of the newly promoted and those seasoned managers working together to get the NRA 2.0 back on its feet is Josh Savani is Director of Operations - real smart cookie. JP Carter is Advancement and he has an aggressive plan and the energy to do it. John Commerford has a great handle on ILA. With the already sitting folks that you know (Mike in Media, Derek in Membership) and the new ones - the thing I saw is that they are creating a friendly and professional team. I saw more cross department assistance and communication than I have ever seen.
I am even more hopeful for the future after this line of wins, movement in the (my opinion) correct direction and meaningful change.
The parts of the team that brought you these changes AND are on the ballot for 2025 are on the www.ElectANewNRA.com slate card include special note and thanks to Charles Hiltunen, Al Hammond.
Also worthy of noting that on their own time and dime the following candidates on the above slate came in and attended committee meetings, board meetings and worked to get a running start on learning how things work. Scott Emslie, Brig General Jack Hagan, Regis Synan and Frank Tate.
Cheers - Amanda
Will try to log in for a few days to follow this as I recoup from a week away from home and prepare for next weeks, week away at SHOT.
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