The third resolution considered at the 2025 Meeting of Members was offered by yours truly. It was my resolution calling for transparency by posting our Form 990s, an up-to-date version of the Bylaws, minutes of the Board of Directors meetings, and a list of Board committees with a listing of members. It also called for a feasibility study by the Board on livestreaming our Board of Directors meetings. Upon the advice of Amanda Suffecool, I kept the wording of the resolution as bare bones as I could.
Here is the resolution as submitted:
WHEREAS, the National Rifle Association as an effective organization that exists for the benefit of its members must be transparent in its actions, finances, and organizational rules; and
WHEREAS, an enhanced commitment to transparency enhances and extends the official NRA Compliance Commitments to Members; and
WHEREAS, transparency is a critical component in reinvigorating membership; therefore be it
RESOLVED, that, on this 26th day of April, 2025, the members of the National Rifle Association of America here gathered at the Annual Meeting of Members in Atlanta, Georgia do hereby request the NRA Board of Directors to create a NRA members-only webpage; and
RESOLVED, that we, the members here gathered, further request the NRA Board of Directors to include on this NRA members-only webpage an up-to-date edition of the bylaws, the past three years of the organization’s IRS Form 990 filings, the minutes of all Board of Directors (meetings) for the past year as well as all future meetings, and a list of all the Board committees including their membership ; and
RESOLVED, that we, the members here gathered, further request the NRA Board of Directors to investigate the feasibility of live-streaming Board meetings with a report of their findings to be published in the Official Journal.
If you have read my report or that of Stephen Gutowski in The Reload, you know that this resolution passed overwhelmingly. Not only did it pass but it was sent directly to the Board of Directors without referral to any committee. According to Stephen, he counted about six No votes.
What seemed to be the primary objection to my resolution was about the costs of doing this. I’d like to address this. First, every filing or document that I requested to be put on a webpage that could accessed by members only would have already been created by NRA staff. The only cost might be the less than hour time of the webmaster to upload the documents. Next, a members only portal does not need to be created as one already exists!
If you go to www.nra.org, you will see a link that leads to a Member Services page. See where I have circled in red.
Member services allows one to access their membership information and requires a log-on. You can set up your own User ID and Password as a first time user. I had forgotten my password so had to have it reset and it just took a call to toll-free number to do it. As you can see in the picture below where I have circled, the NRA’s Annual Compliance Report to Members is already there. Adding additional documents is no big deal.
What has been lost by the NRA in the last few years is trust. Transparency builds trust. Trust gets old members to return and encourages new people to join. Posting these documents is an easy and cost-effective first step in our efforts to rebuild trust in the organization.
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