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Tandemkross

Author Topic: Proposed NRA Bylaw Changes  (Read 2610 times)

Offline SuperMoose

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Proposed NRA Bylaw Changes
« on: November 04, 2017, 04:42:55 PM »
I was asked to post these on the forum. I drafted these after multiple conversations with other individuals over the past couple months and seeing a need to hold the board more accountable to the members. There are two petitions that I'll be circulating (hopefully with your help).


First Petition

The first petition imposes "term limits" on Directors, as well as an attendance policy. The term limits come in the form of rendering a director ineligible to run for a third or more consecutive term without running by petition of the members. This is to curtail a director being renominated by the Nominating Committee simply because they are a Director. It will also require that they go back to the members for support to continue the organization. Based on the number of Directors who attempted/succeeded this go round, I expect this may shake things up.

The proposed change would also create an attendance policy for the board. Board members would be required to attend 2 of the 3 regular meetings held each year. Failure to do so would render the Director ineligible to be nominated by the Committee. In essence, if someone were nominated by the Committee or ran by petition and was elected for their first term, failure to attend would not allow the Committee to nominate them for a second term. Lastly, the amendment does provide for an excused absence in limited circumstances (emergency/medical treatment, death, natural disaster, and transportation cancellation by the carrier), because things do happen in life and to not recognize such would be foolish. However, if there are three or more successive medical excuses or two or more successive excuses for the other reasons listed, a director would again become ineligible for nomination by the Committee.

In order to bring this to the members, we'll need about 6,500 signatures of voting members, which is no small task. And that number could go up depending upon how many ballots are cast in this election cycle. The good news, that according to the bylaws, we are no limited in the time to do so, unlike a recall petition. So we could begin collecting signatures now and keep going for a year or more if needed.

Second Petition

The second petition would create an Honorary Board. The purpose of Honorary Boards are to place individuals who possess certain traits on a board where they can be a part of the organization, offer advice and be involved, but not have the same privileges and duties as the governing board. In this instance, the Honorary Board would be entitled to attend regular and special meetings. They would have the same rights and privileges as the Board of Directors except that they SHALL NOT be entitled to vote, be reimbursed for travel expenses, sponsor bylaw amendments, introduce or second motions, or sit in executive sessions of the Board or Committees. I've also included a provision that they may be hired by the NRA to perform services, but the Secretary shall be required to compile a quarterly report outlining the amounts paid and description of the services which would be available to the members.

The language that is in bold italics can only be changed by the members if passed. This is particularly important in relation to the first petition, assuming we are successful in getting it on the ballot and passed.

Important Data

I requested and received the roll call from the last 8 meetings (excluding the most recent one). From those minutes, I created a spreadsheet of the Directors and marked their attendance. Interestingly enough, there are some individuals who are consistently absent or have missed a large number of meetings. Marion Hammer has attended exactly 0 of the meetings for which I have roll call, yet she gets nominated by the Committee....The same is true for Ted Nugent and Tom Selleck, in case anyone was wondering.

Here is the data for the Directors whose term expires in 2018.


I have the other data, which I'll make available shortly. I expect to amend this with the information from the most recent meeting, once it is available.

Instructions

It is imperative that the instructions be followed on these petitions. There is a sheet at the beginning of the packet explaining what the person completing and/or circulating the petition MUST do.


Petitions

I took the time to confirm with the Secretary of the NRA that the petitions would meet the requirements of the bylaws. It is ok to fill in ALL of the fields on the computer, EXCEPT FOR YOUR SIGNATURE AND DATE. Again, the SIGNATURE AND DATE MUST BE HANDWRITTEN IN BLUE OR BLACK INK.

The petitions can be downloaded at the following link: DOWNLOAD THE PETITIONS.

If you opt to share this information outside of this forum, please use the following link: SHARE ME.


I think that is it for now. Hopefully, I'll have some images soon for social media purposes. Anything you can do to help propagate these petitions in the wild and collect signatures would be awesome.
« Last Edit: November 12, 2017, 03:51:56 PM by SuperMoose »

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Proposed NRA Bylaw Changes
« on: November 04, 2017, 04:42:55 PM »

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Offline masfonos

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Re: Proposed NRA Bylaw Changes
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2017, 10:44:31 AM »
Good job trying to make some changes.  I won't mention any names, but there are a few people on the board that have been there for ages that really need to go.  Saying that they compromise on rights would be generous for some of them.

IIRC, isn't a "term" 3 years (1/3 turnover each year, then you're back up for election)?  If regular board members would be limited to two of those, why did you pick 10 years for the honorary board?  Who decides what is "significant personal achievements in preserving the Right to Keep and Bear Arms?" 

Offline SuperMoose

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Re: Proposed NRA Bylaw Changes
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2017, 11:07:20 AM »
Good job trying to make some changes.  I won't mention any names, but there are a few people on the board that have been there for ages that really need to go.  Saying that they compromise on rights would be generous for some of them.

IIRC, isn't a "term" 3 years (1/3 turnover each year, then you're back up for election)?  If regular board members would be limited to two of those, why did you pick 10 years for the honorary board?  Who decides what is "significant personal achievements in preserving the Right to Keep and Bear Arms?"

A term is 3 years (except for the 1 seat that is elected at the annual meeting which is a 1 year term). It is not term limits in the sense that they would be done after two terms, but rather, they would no longer be eligible for nomination by the Nominating Committee. Which means they'd have to run by Petition of the Members if they wanted to serve more than two consecutive terms. The idea is two-fold in that they would be required to play by the rules they established for petition candidates and they'd have to go to the members to prove their worth to collect enough signatures.

I chose 10 years because it was not a lifetime appointment and it wasn't something I really wanted the Board to waste a lot of time revisiting every year or so (as people's terms expired). The Honorary Board is more of an advisement board. And the Board would decide what are "significant personal achievements in preserving the Right to Keep and Bear Arms".