What Goes Around, Comes Around

The bench phase of the NRA’s trial in New York City opened today. The first witness to take the stand was former NRA President Charles Cotton who now chairs both the Audit and Ethics Committees. Among the things he included in his testimony was the following regarding succession planning according to AP reports.

Charles Cotton, an NRA board member, was the first witness to take the stand. He revealed that the organization did not have a succession plan in place when LaPierre announced his retirement in January, just before the start of the trial’s first phase — suggesting his exit was hasty and not expected.

If only they had listened to one of their members who offered a resolution asking the Board of Directors to draft and adopt a formal succession plan. That resolution was offered at the NRA Meeting of Members held in Tucson, Arizona in October 2020. Mind you that this was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the most vulnerable population included senior citizens like LaPierre. That meeting was being run by 1st VP Charles Cotton as then-President Carolyn Meadows was absent due to health concerns.

As you can probably guess by now that resolution was soundly defeated. One of the arguments offered against it was that the NRA Bylaws provided a succession plan in that the Executive Director of General Operations would take over as the Interim EVP and CEO. This is exactly what happened when LaPierre resigned. Another argument was that the NRA was not the same as a for-profit corporation where succession planning is a best practice.

Among those testifying against the resolution in favor of succession planning was Joel Friedman who now sits as Vice-Chair of the Ethics Committee. Friedman is also a member along with Charles Cotton on both the Bylaws and Resolutions Committee and the Finance Committee. He is only on the Board now because Carl Rowen, Jr. was convinced to resign in order to allow Friedman to ascend to a directorship.

This truly is a case of what goes around, comes around.

As to the Endowment Life member who offered that serious resolution of succession planning, it was me. Perhaps if the Board had listened to the members instead of kowtowing to the Cabal, the NRA wouldn’t be in the position it is now.