I hope it is acceptable for me to post this here. I am copying and pasting a plea from Jeff Knox who is running for the NRA Board of Directors. If you are a voting member, please read what he wrote. If you are not a voting member, I think it is still worth you time.
"Ballots have been delivered for the 2024 NRA Board of Directors Election. If you received a ballot package in your March NRA magazine, you're a Voting Member.
I am one of four candidates for the Board that were nominated by petition of the members, not the establishment's Nominating Committee. The four of us are committed to reforming the NRA to get it back on track, end the lies and corruption, and make the NRA strong and effective once more.
The Four for Reform are Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, Dennis Fusaro, and me, Jeff Knox.
We're asking NRA members to mark your ballots for just the four of us and no one else, as all of the other candidates are either incumbents (who have allowed the corruption to flourish) or were selected by the establishment's Nominating Committee.
Each year the NRA sends out about 2.5 million ballots to eligible Voting Members, and each year, only about 5% to 7% are ever returned. That means 92% to 95% of ballots go to waste and are never voted. That's sad.
The NRA is in serious trouble. The official response from NRA President Charles Cotton to the verdicts in the recent New York trial (posted here on this forum) demonstrate the fact that the current "leadership" has learned nothing from the past 5 years of turmoil and collapse. They're now claiming that the guilty verdicts in the NY case support what they have contended "all along," that the NRA was the victim of unscrupulous "vendors and insiders" who took advantage of their positions to reward themselves at the NRA's expense.
While that's partially true, the sad reality is that "all along" was really just the past month, and ignores the fact that the current leadership spent the past 5 years shielding and lying for those "insiders," costing the Association (you and me) well over $100 million in legal fees alone, and resulting in the loss of almost $200 million per year in lost revenue and over 1.5 million members.
The trial will now move to a second phase in which the judge will hear arguments and make decisions regarding remedies to try and get the NRA back on the right path.
The judge could just chastise the current leadership and warn them to do better, or he could dissolve the Board, remove the officers and executives, dismiss the current election, and install a Special Master to take control of the NRA and oversee its reorganization.
He will most likely choose a course of action somewhere between those two extremes.
Whatever the judge decides, it is critical that we have dedicated NRA members in place to help guide that decision and ready to step in to help guide the Association back to a position of strength and effectiveness.
The Four for Reform know that our influence will be limited on a Board of 76 members. We recognize that we won't be able to turn things around by ourselves. But if we don't get elected, or at least do well enough to catch the judge's attention, then the same people who sat by and allowed the corruption and subsequent wasteful coverup to continue, will be the only ones in a position to represent the membership going forward.
That doesn't seem like a recipe for success.
A few of those current board members have recently started talking about serious reform. That's good. I hope they're being honest and are finally beginning to see the light. If they are sincere, I look forward to working with them going forward. But sadly, the only current Director who made public statements and voted against the regime was Buz Mills of Gunsite. All the rest either voted against reform efforts, or sat on their hands.
There are 34 candidates listed on your NRA ballot this year vying for 25 seats on the Board of Directors. Twenty five of the candidates are incumbents running for reelection. Five candidates are "new" names selected by the board's Nominating Committee, which is controlled by the failed regime. Only four, Journey, Marshall, Fusaro, and Knox, are outsiders nominated by petition of the members.
You can vote for up to 25 candidates, but you don't have to vote for all 25. Bullet voting for just the four of us increases the weight of your votes and increases the odds that the four of us will be elected. Due to his name recognition as the owner of Gunsite Academy, Buz Mills always gets enough votes to easily win a seat. He and Ronnie Barrett will be among the top vote-getters in this election, so he doesn't need our help or your vote to win a seat, though including a vote for Buz doesn't hurt us. What does hurt is if you vote for 20 or 25 candidates, even if you include the four of us. Those extra votes serve to bolster the votes of low-information NRA voters who just vote for the Nominating Committee candidates.
To give your votes the most weight, only vote for the four reform candidates. If you personally know any of the other candidates and are convinced that they've seen the light and won't continue to support the cabal that's been driving the Association down the drain, it's your choice to include them, but don't vote for people you don't know, and keep your selections to a minimum.
Again, the best way to ensure that true reform candidates get elected is to vote for only four -- Marshall, Journey, Fusaro, and Knox -- then mail the ballot in well before the April 28 deadline.
There's also a Byalw change question on the ballot. The object of the Bylaw amendments is to create a new officer position called the Chief Compliance Officer. The CCO will be responsible for ensuring that all laws, rules, regulations, and policies are always followed by all NRA personnel. This position shouldn't be needed, as those responsibilities are supposed to be taken care of by the Board's Audit Committee. Unfortunately the Audit Committee has long been just a rubber stamp for whatever the CEO and his minions have wanted to do. The longtime Chair of the Audit Committee is Charles Cotton. The Vice Chair and former Chair of the committee is David Coy. Both have failed spectacularly in their duties and obligations on the Audit Committee, and both have been rewarded for those failures by being elected to serve as President and Vice President of the Board. Are you beginning to see the problem?
That's why I am voting YES on the Bylaw amendment question.
Obviously, it is easy for people to suggest that this post is self-serving, as I am one of the candidates that I'm asking you to vote for.
All I can say in response to that is that I've been a Life Member of the NRA since I started buying my Life Membership on a term plan with my first paycheck out of Basic Training back in 1978. Service on the Board is a volunteer position. None of us are supposed to receive any compensation for serving as a Director. Too many of the current Directors have skirted that rule and been paid "speaking fees" for attending Friends of NRA banquets, "consulting fees" for "advising" the CEO, or holding paid positions within state associations that receive grants from the NRA to pay their salaries. I will not take any money from the NRA beyond reimbursement for actual travel and lodging costs incurred fulfilling my obligatory duties as a Director.
As a professional writer, I would love to have my articles appear in NRA publications, but I will not accept payment, or will donate any payments I do receive, right back to the NRA or the NRA Foundation, for any of my articles that appear in any NRA publications.
I'm not seeking any paid position within the NRA, and I have no desire to serve on the Board for any longer than I absolutely have to in order to help get the organization back on track. Hopefully that would be just one 3-year term.
I've already gone too long in this post so I'll close by saying that I will do my best to monitor this post and answer any questions any forum members post in response.
I'll also reiterate my primary call to action by asking all concerned NRA Voting Members to please vote for only the Four for Reform: Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, Denis Fusaro, and Jeff Knox -- and no one else, and to vote YES on the Bylaw question.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your questions.
In Liberty,
Jeff Knox"
"Ballots have been delivered for the 2024 NRA Board of Directors Election. If you received a ballot package in your March NRA magazine, you're a Voting Member.
I am one of four candidates for the Board that were nominated by petition of the members, not the establishment's Nominating Committee. The four of us are committed to reforming the NRA to get it back on track, end the lies and corruption, and make the NRA strong and effective once more.
The Four for Reform are Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, Dennis Fusaro, and me, Jeff Knox.
We're asking NRA members to mark your ballots for just the four of us and no one else, as all of the other candidates are either incumbents (who have allowed the corruption to flourish) or were selected by the establishment's Nominating Committee.
Each year the NRA sends out about 2.5 million ballots to eligible Voting Members, and each year, only about 5% to 7% are ever returned. That means 92% to 95% of ballots go to waste and are never voted. That's sad.
The NRA is in serious trouble. The official response from NRA President Charles Cotton to the verdicts in the recent New York trial (posted here on this forum) demonstrate the fact that the current "leadership" has learned nothing from the past 5 years of turmoil and collapse. They're now claiming that the guilty verdicts in the NY case support what they have contended "all along," that the NRA was the victim of unscrupulous "vendors and insiders" who took advantage of their positions to reward themselves at the NRA's expense.
While that's partially true, the sad reality is that "all along" was really just the past month, and ignores the fact that the current leadership spent the past 5 years shielding and lying for those "insiders," costing the Association (you and me) well over $100 million in legal fees alone, and resulting in the loss of almost $200 million per year in lost revenue and over 1.5 million members.
The trial will now move to a second phase in which the judge will hear arguments and make decisions regarding remedies to try and get the NRA back on the right path.
The judge could just chastise the current leadership and warn them to do better, or he could dissolve the Board, remove the officers and executives, dismiss the current election, and install a Special Master to take control of the NRA and oversee its reorganization.
He will most likely choose a course of action somewhere between those two extremes.
Whatever the judge decides, it is critical that we have dedicated NRA members in place to help guide that decision and ready to step in to help guide the Association back to a position of strength and effectiveness.
The Four for Reform know that our influence will be limited on a Board of 76 members. We recognize that we won't be able to turn things around by ourselves. But if we don't get elected, or at least do well enough to catch the judge's attention, then the same people who sat by and allowed the corruption and subsequent wasteful coverup to continue, will be the only ones in a position to represent the membership going forward.
That doesn't seem like a recipe for success.
A few of those current board members have recently started talking about serious reform. That's good. I hope they're being honest and are finally beginning to see the light. If they are sincere, I look forward to working with them going forward. But sadly, the only current Director who made public statements and voted against the regime was Buz Mills of Gunsite. All the rest either voted against reform efforts, or sat on their hands.
There are 34 candidates listed on your NRA ballot this year vying for 25 seats on the Board of Directors. Twenty five of the candidates are incumbents running for reelection. Five candidates are "new" names selected by the board's Nominating Committee, which is controlled by the failed regime. Only four, Journey, Marshall, Fusaro, and Knox, are outsiders nominated by petition of the members.
You can vote for up to 25 candidates, but you don't have to vote for all 25. Bullet voting for just the four of us increases the weight of your votes and increases the odds that the four of us will be elected. Due to his name recognition as the owner of Gunsite Academy, Buz Mills always gets enough votes to easily win a seat. He and Ronnie Barrett will be among the top vote-getters in this election, so he doesn't need our help or your vote to win a seat, though including a vote for Buz doesn't hurt us. What does hurt is if you vote for 20 or 25 candidates, even if you include the four of us. Those extra votes serve to bolster the votes of low-information NRA voters who just vote for the Nominating Committee candidates.
To give your votes the most weight, only vote for the four reform candidates. If you personally know any of the other candidates and are convinced that they've seen the light and won't continue to support the cabal that's been driving the Association down the drain, it's your choice to include them, but don't vote for people you don't know, and keep your selections to a minimum.
Again, the best way to ensure that true reform candidates get elected is to vote for only four -- Marshall, Journey, Fusaro, and Knox -- then mail the ballot in well before the April 28 deadline.
There's also a Byalw change question on the ballot. The object of the Bylaw amendments is to create a new officer position called the Chief Compliance Officer. The CCO will be responsible for ensuring that all laws, rules, regulations, and policies are always followed by all NRA personnel. This position shouldn't be needed, as those responsibilities are supposed to be taken care of by the Board's Audit Committee. Unfortunately the Audit Committee has long been just a rubber stamp for whatever the CEO and his minions have wanted to do. The longtime Chair of the Audit Committee is Charles Cotton. The Vice Chair and former Chair of the committee is David Coy. Both have failed spectacularly in their duties and obligations on the Audit Committee, and both have been rewarded for those failures by being elected to serve as President and Vice President of the Board. Are you beginning to see the problem?
That's why I am voting YES on the Bylaw amendment question.
Obviously, it is easy for people to suggest that this post is self-serving, as I am one of the candidates that I'm asking you to vote for.
All I can say in response to that is that I've been a Life Member of the NRA since I started buying my Life Membership on a term plan with my first paycheck out of Basic Training back in 1978. Service on the Board is a volunteer position. None of us are supposed to receive any compensation for serving as a Director. Too many of the current Directors have skirted that rule and been paid "speaking fees" for attending Friends of NRA banquets, "consulting fees" for "advising" the CEO, or holding paid positions within state associations that receive grants from the NRA to pay their salaries. I will not take any money from the NRA beyond reimbursement for actual travel and lodging costs incurred fulfilling my obligatory duties as a Director.
As a professional writer, I would love to have my articles appear in NRA publications, but I will not accept payment, or will donate any payments I do receive, right back to the NRA or the NRA Foundation, for any of my articles that appear in any NRA publications.
I'm not seeking any paid position within the NRA, and I have no desire to serve on the Board for any longer than I absolutely have to in order to help get the organization back on track. Hopefully that would be just one 3-year term.
I've already gone too long in this post so I'll close by saying that I will do my best to monitor this post and answer any questions any forum members post in response.
I'll also reiterate my primary call to action by asking all concerned NRA Voting Members to please vote for only the Four for Reform: Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, Denis Fusaro, and Jeff Knox -- and no one else, and to vote YES on the Bylaw question.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your questions.
In Liberty,
Jeff Knox"
