by People elected to non-profit boards tend to be charged with raising money for the organization. Often, if it isn’t a direct membership organization, they are selected due to their deep pockets with an expectation that they will make substantial donations.
Then, there is the National Rifle Association where it seems some – and I emphasize it is only some – see service on the Board of Directors as a way to make money. As you can see from the embedded Secretary’s Report, some of the Directors were very well compensated.
NRA Secretary Report 2020 Annual Meeting by jpr9954 on Scribd
Looking over this list, the one payment I have the least objection to is paying Bart Skelton for articles published in NRA publications. He is a gun writer so that kind of makes sense.
For those listed as independent contractors – Dave Butz and Lance Olson – I would like to know what they did in exchange as “contractors”. Likewise, I can see paying David Keene’s travel and room expenses to speak at Friends of the NRA banquets but no other compensation should have been paid. He’s a Director and speaking at events should be part of the job.
The payments to Cole McCulloch for use of a shooting facility he owns is a clear conflict of interest. This would be especially true if he was involved in any way in selecting the site.
Finally, there is dear old Marion Hammer who would characterize me as the “enemy within” because I dare question her motives. You will notice it says she was paid for consulting services on issues “other than Florida”. This is because she failed to declare herself as a lobbyist for the NRA and ran afoul of Florida lobbying regulations.
Given that Florida raised the age for all firearms purchases to 21 and imposed red flag laws, I’m not sure gun owners in other states want to end up like Florida. Being the heretic that I am, I think Marion’s primary job is to keep Wayne LaPierre in power for which he makes sure she is well compensated.
Vague descriptions make me suspicious.
1. Hammer is clearly the biggest problem and Skelton the least as you say.
2. Depending on how many speeches he gave Keane could have easily rung up $56k in expenses. I read the bylaws to include disclosure of such payments but you seem to be reading them differently.
3. McCullough’s operations are businesses and need to cover expenses. As you say, the potential exists for conflict of interest. An investigation is warranted (and won’t happen) to develop more information. For comparison sake, James Mattis got $150k for serving on the board of Theranos while pushing for the military to use the fake machines. He is not in jail, last time I checked.
4. The other two just don’t have enough information provided.