by Eb Wilkinson and Joel Friedman have tendered their resignation from the NRA Board of Directors effective today. Eb’s term would have expired at the close of the Meeting of Members in Houston in April. I should note that he is on the ballot by petition for the 2026 Board of Directors election.* Joel’s term expires in 2027.
From John Frazer announcing the resignations:
We have received resignation letters from Eb Wilkinson and Joel Friedman.
Until the adjournment of the Annual Meeting of Members, these additional vacancies will be filled by the next runners-up in the 2025 mail ballot election, Todd Figard and Jim Wallace. (Kim Rhode was the runner-up after Mr. Figard, but declined to serve due to schedule conflicts with the January meeting.)
The mail ballot election will now fill the following seats:
- Twenty-five three-year terms that expire in 2029
- Three two-year terms that expire in 2028
- Two one-year terms that expire in 2027
Please join us in thanking Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Friedman for their Board service, and in welcoming Mr. Figard and Mr. Wallace.
There are 38 candidates on the ballot. If one includes the 76th Director, then a total of 31 out of those 38 will be elected to the Board of Directors. To clarify, the eight runner-up candidates will vie for the 76th Director one-year seat.
Both Todd Figard and Jim Wallace are on the ballot for the 2026 Board election. They were both selected by the Nominating Committee.
Finally, it should be noted that both Wilkinson and Friedman are trustees of the NRA Foundation. Whether this is another move by those trustees to distance themselves from the NRA is up in the air. There are plenty of rumors regarding the aims of the Foundation and for the time being they will remain rumors.
*I do not know at this time whether Eb Wilkinson has removed himself from the 2026 ballot as well and I have that question into John Frazer.
Any talk around the board in reducing the number of board members? Still a reform step that many members feel is needed.
On another note, received American Rifleman magazine yesterday and was please to see that there will no longer be 4 monthly magazines. It’s a good step forward and I understand that continuing to publish two quarterly for the benefit of members who don’t have the means to read electronic versions or just refuse to do so.
Eventually, all print publications will need to be shut down. They cost too much.
Downside is that they didn’t give those of us on other subscriptions any choice. Bizarrely, despite the fact that they’ve had my demographic data for over 20 years now and instead assigned me to the magazine with the oldest demographics. Huge missed opportunity to do a short survey to learn more about the interests of these members – interest data that could be used to highlight programs of interest or better target donor outreach.
Looking forward to seeing what you learn about Eb’s decision to continue a run or remove himself from the ballot.
This is definitely more strangeness.
Eb will be on the ballot as they have already been printed. Whether he decides to accept the seat if he wins is up to discussion.
I suspect the decision of several of these Directors to resign is related to their responsibilities on the Foundation Board. I think it’s likely that Eb and Joel have been appointed to the Foundation’s Audit Committee. I believe other members of that committee are probably Charles Cotton and Bob Barr, who both also recently resigned from the NRA Board. The Foundation Bylaws recently created the Audit Committee in accordance with the settlement agreement in the DC lawsuit. One of the things stipulated in the bylaws is a requirement that the members of the Audit Committee be “independent” with no conflicts of interest. I think the Board of Trustees has decided to interpret that to mean that those committee members can’t be members of the NRA Board.
That seems like a strange interpretation, considering that the Foundation was created specifically to support NRA programs and has NRA in its name, but that appears to be the case.
It’s also significant that the judge in the New York suit ordered that no one who had served on the NRA’s Audit Committee during “the troubles) could serve on that committee in future, but Cotton, Barr, and possibly Friedman, as well as the Foundation’s new Treasurer, David Coy, are all on that list.
It’s hard to be sure what’s going on with the Foundation because no one is responding to my questions…
Sounds like the old guard is lining up to loot the Foundation.