by Doug Hamlin, EVP of the NRA, named James P. “JP” Carter as the new Executive Director of the Office of Advancement this morning. He replaces Tyler Schropp who was “let go” approximately two weeks ago.
From the announcement:
From: Hamlin, Douglas <DHamlin@nrahq.org>
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2024 8:59 AM
To: #All NRA Employees <#AllNRAEmployees@nrahq.org>
Subject: Announcement – Executive Director of AdvancementTo All NRA Staff:
I am pleased to announce that beginning Monday, August 19th, 2024, James P. (“JP”) Carter will come onboard as the Executive Director, Office of Advancement. If his name sounds familiar, it is due to his former service in the Publications division as a successful sales executive.
JP holds an undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina, an M.B.A. from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and an M.S. in Project Management from Boston University. He has earned several awards for his leadership abilities at various levels of command with the USMC, a diversity leadership award, as well as a Bronze Star for Combat Valor in Afghanistan. He also serves as a Board Member for the Los Angeles Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. His past work history includes senior management positions in both Fortune 500 and middle market companies, focused on operational strategies and leadership excellence. He brings a team mentality to drive action and encouraging organizations to reach their next level of growth/success.
Most recently, JP founded and was the CEO of a company focused on revenue growth, operational efficiencies, sound business processes, best practices, and strong leadership. Please welcome JP back to the NRA Family – thank you for your support.
Full Speed Ahead!
Doug Hamlin
Executive Vice President/CEO
National Rifle Association of America
Carter founded and is, or was, CEO of Holding Fast Solutions in Fort Mill, SC. They provide operational consulting and government contracting services. The company is certified as a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business. While Carter has sales experience as Hamlin notes above, I don’t see that he has any major gift or fundraising experience other than perhaps as a board member with the LA Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. It would almost seem he was better suited to be the Executive Director of General Operations.
It is my understanding that the job was not advertised nor were any internal candidates considered for the position. If I had to offer a guess, I would say that Hamlin wanted someone in that position who would have his back as well as someone he had worked with in the past regardless of whether the candidate perfectly fit the position. I would also hazard a guess that Carter’s appointment has been in the works for some time now and it was long before Schropp was shown the door.
There is no word on salary or compensation nor did I expect it. Ideally, in my opinion, this type of position should compensated with a modest salary plus a commission on what is brought in. It incentivizes bringing in the money which is the key issue for the NRA currently.
It would appear, at least to a non professional like myself, that nothing of any import has changed. While I still hold out hope that Doug Hamlin will become the sort of leader that we need to see, when we see some of the things that he has done since taking over it can give pause to that hope.
Ever the optimist I am not judging anything yet. But I also am not looking at the NRA with rose colored glasses, either. I am an optimist but I am also a realist. And if it looks like it is just business as usual, then I am not afraid to call it business as usual.
After many years of working, both from the age of 11 doing the usual jobs of that age, back in the early 1970’s, up through as a drone making steel in a corporate beehive, I watched and learned just what type of leader worked the best, not only for the stakeholders of a place, but also for the workers. As an aside, if you treat your workers with respect and dignity, they will do just about anything to help get the product out the door, and in spec. The opposite is also true.
The best leaders from one looking in from the outside, but with an eye towards learning what works, are those leaders who not only surround themselves with the best talent available, but also are not afraid to let those people’s talent outshine their own, and get the praise from their higher leadership.
No doubt the same thing happens in the military. Men like Ike, Churchill, and some others were considered great leaders because they were willing to both praise the men, and women, who did the things that made them successful. But they were also not afraid to replace those who were a drag on the accomplishment of the mission, no matter what that mission was. It could be a mission of motivating young men to head into battle knowing that they had a very high level of danger and possibly death. Or in the case of the business world, it might mean motivating men or women to do all they could to get product out the door, even if it meant double the rate of work and overtime when you hadn’t had a day off in 3 months.
Sadly I also saw what happens when someone attempts to lead by fear. They might get their numbers for a time, what ever those numbers meant. But eventually it will catch up with them, and you will see revolt, and loss of productivity, and a total unwillingness to go the extra mile for the mission, just to make that top dog look good.
The modern term for it now is quiet quitting. It used to be called doing just enough. Just enough to keep your job, but not enough to make gains in the direction that your leadership wanted to go.
I recall when we had the Toyota systems put into place. That is a system of constant improvement. One month we might have a goal of shipping 2.4 million pounds out the door. The most we ever did was 2.2 million pounds, but the monthly meeting the leadership would say something like this.
We only hit 2.2 million pounds this month, but we had a day and a half of down time due to broken equipment. We feel like without that break down, we would have done our 2.4 million pounds and even more. So our goal for next month is 2.6 million pounds. Our bonus was based upon hitting that goal. After awhile of this, we all learned that no matter what happened, or how we busted our backs to try and get more out the door, we never quite made it. Not to mention that when making steel, trying to force more than was physically possible caused more than one serious injury, which they also had in the formula for our bonus. Lost time due to injury, no matter the reason would take points off our bonus numbers.
What I feel the NRA truly needs is not just a decent leadership team, but a professional one, that both understands non profits and also understand the political aspect of the game, which includes knowing how to influence people to returning to the NRA due to developing trust that things have really changed. Right now, if I were not a member, I would certainly not consider joining. At least not until I was certain that the atmosphere in the office really had changed, and the worker bees there were confident in not just what they were doing, but confident in what they were doing was making a difference, and not just another job, until something better comes along. As of this moment, I suspect that most of the staff members have polished up their resumes’ with an eye on getting a new job, once this one falls apart.
With this election coming up, America needs the involvement of the NRA more than we ever have. Spending stupid money on bad legal representation that wastes millions is no way towards that goal. I wish the leadership would learn that, and take it to heart.