by Ted Nugent aka Uncle Ted aka The Motor City Madman has resigned from the NRA Board of Directors effective immediately. He was first elected to the Board in 1995 and has been re-elected continuously since.
According to Nugent, his resignation is due to his becoming the national spokesman for Hunter Nation. His contract with them requires exclusivity.
Hunter Nation posted this on their website:
Kansas City…Hunter Nation, the fastest growing grassroots organization in the country dedicated to protecting the rights of hunters, inked a historic partnership with Ted Nugent by naming him their National Spokesperson in a deal announced today.
Hunter Nation President and CEO, Luke Hilgemann said, “Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Hunter Nation. Ted Nugent has been an icon in the hunting and outdoor community for decades and no one has fought harder to protect the rights of hunters than Uncle Ted. We are beyond excited to officially partner with Ted to help us grow our army of hunters, increase our impact on policy, and continue to activate millions of American hunters to vote their values and protect our traditions – basically continuing the legacy Uncle Ted has built as the Ultimate BloodBrother!”
“Being addicted to truth, logic, commonsense and the American Way for 72.6 years, I am compelled to stand up and shout it out loud and proud from every mountaintop I ascend every day,” asserts Nugent. “Freedom is not free and I want to earn it to the best of my ability and I am excited to be working with the Hunter Nation team to do just that.”
I will admit that I am not familiar with Hunter Nation so I can’t say whether it is a good more or not for Ted.
That said, I have long held that there really is not much of a place for celebrities on the Board of Directors. I much rather see work horses than shoe horses on it.
In addition, any celebrity or really any one with deep pockets who remains on the Board is doing so at their own risk. If I were their risk manager or their attorney I’d be advising them to run and run fast. The liability issues surrounding the Board’s fiduciary duties and their lack of attention to them are just too great.
UPDATE: Stephen Gutowski of The Reload had the email sent out by John Frazer to the Board. He is blaming scheduling conflicts.
Looks like they are a group picking up a few former NRA folks whose interest was primarily hunting. (Not that they were softies on 2A, just their personal interest seemed to be more in hunting which is okay.) Craig Morgan went there after leaving NRA, too.
They’ve got some of their recent “celebrity” folks from the competitive shooting world fleeing to promote other shooting programs like NRL22. The hunting folks are bailing. Who is going to be left?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have shed the weight of Ted Nugent as he’s brought more drama than necessary. However, it’s still not good for the future of NRA to see multiple people who were once involved now finding new homes for their advocacy and/or giving.
Bitter nailed it. I don’t have anything to add to what she said.
However, isn’t it true that for BOD members are still on the hook for the period they were on the BOD?
I would think so. The D&O insurance from Lloyd’s of London expires at the end of August if I remember correctly. After that, they will only have a set aside of about $5 million.