2022 Meeting of Members

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Meeting of Members – Resolutions, Part IV

June 6, 2022 by

The final two resolutions were submitted by Jeff Knox.

The first of these resolutions was ruled out of order by Charles Cotton. He said after consultation with the parliamentarian that under Robert’s Rules of Order you could not have a resolution condemning someone after another resolution praising him had been adopted. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know since I’m not an expert of Robert’s Rules of Order. Even if I was, I’m sure Cotton would have found a way not to consider the resolution.

Jeff’s resolution is as follows:

Knox-Resolution1Wayne

After this motion was quashed, Jeff rose and requested that his next resolution be withdrawn. Cotton seemed to be a bit confused by that but it was done.

Then Jeff made a motion to adjourn because spending any more time of this travesty would have been wasted time.

The whole meeting was orchestrated from beginning to end. The only purpose seemed to check off a box, confirm that Wayne is the NRA, that the members really don’t count for squat, and quash any dissent. Board members are told to speak against resolution that challenges the status quo and for a resolution like the “we love Wayne” one. One board member confirmed to me that he slipped out early just to avoid being asked (or told) to do that.

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Meeting Of Members – Resolutions, Part III

June 6, 2022 by 1 Comment

The next two resolutions to be considered included one that I authored on the condition of the NRA Headquarters Building and another that called for email notification of members when a meeting was canceled.

I had conversations with numerous people who told me about the poor condition of the NRA Headquarters Building. Doug Wicklund, former senior curator of the NRA Firearms Museum, sent me the picture below.

Courtesy of Doug Wicklund

He noted that there were numerous patches for water damage in the driveway overhang as well as staining from rust on the window frames of the building. Another person who had been on the 6th Floor said there was lots of water damage from the leaking roof. In era in which real estate tax valuations rarely go down, Fairfax County lowered the tax valuation of the building by over $1 million from 2020 to 2021.

It is an embarrassment that the public face of the NRA is in such poor condition. After my resolution was introduced, I spoke in favor of it as did a gentleman from southwest Louisiana who said you don’t play around with leaking roofs. Speaking against my resolution was NRA Board Member Ron Schmeits of Raton, NM. He said the board was working on it, that there was no need to “waste money” on an independent inspection, and well, you know getting parts these days is hard. Frankly, I put in the part about an independent, third party inspection because I don’t trust the board to do more than pay lip service.

Of the few people remaining at the meeting, the majority agreed with Schmeits and voted it down.

RichardsonBuildingResolution2022

I unfortunately do not have a copy of the next resolution nor the name of the person who introduced it. Basically, it noted that the last minute cancelation of the 2021 NRA Annual Meeting in Houston caused members to lose money on reservations and airfare. The resolution called a better notification of members when a meeting was going to be canceled. It asked that all members be notified by email in case of a cancelation and not just by a note on the webpage. After minimal discussion, it was voted down.

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Meeting Of Members – Resolutions, Part I

June 6, 2022 by 5 Comments

I already wrote about the “we love Wayne” resolution that was passed at the 2022 NRA Meeting of Members. That was the first resolution considered and was intended to run out the clock. As far as the powers that be are concerned, no discussion of matters concerning the NRA and its operations is good discussion.

By my count, there were a total of 12 resolutions. The first was the “we love Wayne” resolution, eight that were ruled out of order, two were allowed to come to a vote, and one that Jeff Knox withdrew.

Robert Rhyne and Mitchell Martin introduced seven resolutions. They were resolutions two through eight. Each and every one of their resolutions was ruled by Charles Cotton to be “out of order” and were not considered. Mr. Rhyne was kind enough to send me copies of his resolutions and I will post them.

Mr. Rhyne is from Arkansas and appeared to me to be the solid, salt of the earth type of NRA member who just got fed up with the “Beltway Bandits”.

The first resolution called for settlement of the lawsuit brought by NY Attorney General Letitia James. The second said that after settlement, the NRA should be reincorporated in Texas.

NRA-res-1

NRA-res-2