We’ve mentioned our thoughts about the NRA board before, and have been doing some additional thinking.
The largest voting bloc on the board is the sheep. Becoming a member of the board was the highest honor in their life, and they would do anything to keep it. They don’t want controversy, just want to go along with the herd, get together with friends three time a year, and make no real decisions. An ideal board meeting for them is, listen to the officers say how wonderfully things are going, applaud at the right points, ratify the decision made in committee, and go home. They have no interest beyond this: their directorship is an honor, not something that involves thinking and decision making, or the leading of a $300 million corporation.
On any controversial issue their desire is to support whichever side they think is going to win. They are like passengers on a boat, who expect to be conveyed safely to their destination and deposited safe and sound, and in the meantime trusting the captain and crew to handle the navigation and logistics.
These are the folks who voted 44-2 in an anonymous ballot to re-elect LaPierre and Fraser, the ones who dared not ask why LaPierre had fired Spray, the honest treasurer, when the board alone has the power to fire an officer, and dared not ask why LaPierre had fired the board’s attorney, Hart, and replaced him with someone more to his liking.
The sheep have no idea of how to run a $300 million corporation. Many have no experience at managing anything, and the rest at most can run a small business, a gun shop or small gun club.
All directors who had experience with running medium to large businesses have resigned or been purged. NRA has lost–
Dan Boren, former Congressman, president of First United Bank, and President for Corporate Development of the Chickasaw Nation.
Duane Liptak, USMC Major, CEO of Magpul Industries, and former Director of Government Programs and Training at Brownell’s.
Buz Mills, who created and ran a major cell-phone tower business and retired to become CEO of Gunsite training center.
Rocky Marshall, former Division President at Baker Hughes (international firm with $38 billion in assets), who now runs Frontier Truck Gear.
Richard Childress, who started out as a NASCAR driver, founded Richard Childress Racing, and became one of the wealthiest men in North Carolina.
Esther Schneider, who served on over 20 boards, managed and modernized Indiana’s Hoosier Lottery ($800 million in annual revenue), and was commended by the governor for her reforms.
Col. Bob Brown, Army Lt. Colonel, who created and managed Soldier of Fortune magazine (at its peak, a circulation of over a million) and a publishing company, and did a lot more that he can’t talk about.
Col. Allen West, former member of the US House of Representatives and Army battalion commander, chairman of the Texas Republican Party.
Heidi Washington, Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, and of its $1.9 billion budget.
Even before the turmoil, Pete Brownell (head of the huge company by that name) had left. NRA also lost Col. Oliver North, who, whatever can be said of him, showed by his immediate formation of a crisis management committee that he could react decisively.
All gone. Who is left?
We can expect the best of them is the man the board elected NRA president. Charles Cotton, a partner in a two-man law firm, which means he probably manages his secretary and co-manages the receptionist.
That’s the best they can come up with.
The board and leadership have purged the board of all those who know something about running a serious business. Those left are the sheep who have no idea how to direct a $300 million enterprise, those who will be feted at three meetings a year and applaud the leadership because they haven’t a clue what they are doing or how a director of a $300 million corporation should act.
NRA in Danger 