by This afternoon I was going along my merry way preparing for an online book club run by my good friend Prof. David Yamane. I didn’t think to check email beforehand and then I got caught up in dinner, Jeopardy, and then Thursday Night Football. Then Todd Vandermyde calls and asks what I think about today’s resignations from the NRA Board of Directors.
I’m like, WTF?
Quickly checking my email I see the notice below from NRA Secretary John Frazer.
Bill Carter, Blaine Wade, and Judi White have also notified us of their resignations.
The resulting vacancies will be filled by three more runners-up, Charles Rowe, Isaac Demarest, and Lucretia Hughes Klucken.
Because both Mr. Carter’s and Ms. White’s terms were expiring in 2026, their resignations do not affect the 2026 Board election. Chief Wade’s resignation creates an additional two-year vacancy, so the mail ballot election will now fill the following seats:
- Twenty-five three-year terms that expire in 2029
- Four two-year terms that expire in 2028
- Two one-year terms that expire in 2027
Please join me in welcoming Mr. Demarest, Mr. Rowe and Ms. Klucken to the Board, and in thanking Mr. Carter, Chief Wade, and Ms. White for their service to the NRA.
Both Carter and Wade serve as trustees of the NRA Foundation so that might have been in play. Jeff Knox had a comment on yesterday’s resignations to the effect that there might have been fiduciary conflicts for Eb Wilkinson and Joel Friedman. He may be correct but we just don’t know.
I will note that all the resignations with the exception of Jim Fotis have been from directors who were considered Old Guard or who had sided with them. Read into that what you will.
The bottom line is that anyone running for the Board in this election has a great chance of being elected. There will now be a total of 32 seats filled if you include the 76th Director. Of those who have just assumed seats on the Board with the most recent resignations, only Issac Demerest is on the ballot.
I wanted to ask Judi a question about the timing of her decision since she followed me on X. Figured I could ask a good faith question to better understand the thinking of having the organization invest time & money into onboarding a replacement who won’t be on the board more than 1 meeting. Maybe there’s a strategy I just didn’t think of, and I’d love to learn. Unfortunately, she unfollowed!
Also found that Jeff Fleetham is blocking the account that set up the X list to highlight NRA Board members for members to follow. A list that several of his colleagues use to engage. I guess the new NRA Media committee members are going with the block strategy so they never have to hear about things that could be done to win back members…
Which account is that?
Fortunately, other than a private lunch with the officers at the Winter BOD meeting, I don’t think they are investing much in onboarding the replacements. I could be wrong on this but I haven’t heard anything else about it.
As to Fleetham, he will only be on the BOD for one meeting plus any by Teams. He did not make the 2026 ballot so will be gone after the 2026 Meeting of Members in Houston.
Falls Township Rifle & Pistol. The club’s X account set up a public list that any member can follow that has all of the current NRA Board members on X listed. Jeff appears to have blocked the club’s account in order to not be on the list or added back to the list.
Bitter –
I do not believe Fleetham is on Media. But those that are, are open to hearing ideas and passing them along to the respective committees.
Just now revisited this post from the holidays, and this is interesting if Fleetham is not on your committee because he posted on Facebook on December 1 that he was appointed to it. That makes his behavior even more interesting if the Chair of the committee is saying he’s not a member.
If you’re open to hearing ideas, well, you’ve been tagged on plenty of issues and productive ideas or things to contemplate specifically related to your committee on X. And other board members have been told about your responses to my attempts to work through other avenues, so, you know, I don’t exactly have high expectations with the seriousness on the openess to listen.