I was at NRA HQ last Friday and Saturday for a budget meeting of the Finance Committee. It was a very busy meeting, but I did have the opportunity to voice some of the concerns and complaints that were posted in this thread. I'll be going to a full board meeting next month and I'll have more time and more people to talk to about these issues. Thanks again Flint for starting this topic.
The NRA does try to address complaints and concerns of its members. The biggest single complaint we have is that people don't like getting numerous letters soliciting donations. A very close second was the complaint that people were getting letters asking them to join the NRA and they were already members! The NRA addressed both of those complaints. All anyone has to do to get off the solicitation list is ask. With millions of members mistakes can happen, but we've done a very good job of honoring requests to be removed, or to be contacted less often.
The membership solicitation issue has been very difficult to deal with because of the way many people join, expire and then join again. For example, it is very common to join as John Smith at 1111 Anywhere St., Houston, TX, let the membership expire, then rejoin as J.A. Smith. There is no way for us to know that these are the same people, so we send a "please join letter" to John Smith. If John Smith moved to a new address, it's even more difficult to identify him as a current member.
To address members' complaints, the NRA had software developed to help "scrub" the database and try to prevent multiple entries for the same person. We also did some other things with the databases that I won't go into. Overall, the efforts have greatly reduced this problem, although sometimes it is not possible to identify two different entries as being the same person.
I also discussed the "hyperbole" issue as Kevin calls it. (I think it was Kevin.) It may come as a surprise to people here, but this is not an issue that is often raised by a significant percentage of the membership. (As noted, there are complaints about fundraising letters, but not the wording thereof.) The short answer is that there is no "fix." The NRA has to raise money to operate and some messages are more effective with some audiences than with others. With some members it is sufficient to say something like "we need X millions of dollars for the
Heller case, so please contribute what you can." With other members, it may be necessary to say something like, "if we lose the
Heller case, then draconian gun laws will be passed all over the country." Both statements are true, but one is presented more casually while the other is stronger on emotion. Every mailing is tested and only those that are proven effective are used. I don't know for certain, but I suspect people who are interested enough in Second Amendment issues to frequent TexasCHLforum and other gun boards certainly don't need the more "serious" message. However, the vast majority of NRA members probably are not as invested in the issue and they tend to respond better to ad campaigns that you and I may not like.
The concept of the right message for the right audience is well known to trial lawyers. After a jury is seated, I thoroughly study the jury information sheets and jury questionnaire, if one was used for that case. I'm trying to get some information about the members of the jury so I can phrase some of my open argument comments, witness questions, and closing arguments in a manner likely to appeal to them and sway them to my side of the case. You have to be careful, because it is highly likely that comments that appeal to some jurors might not impress other jurors, or worse yet, they might be offended. So you just do the best you can with the jury you drew. The NRA is in much the same position, but with a heck of a lot bigger jury panel!
So when you hear or read a fundraising letter that is worded in a way you don't particularly like, please understand that the NRA is doing what it has to do to thrive. And please remember, the threat to the Second Amendment is very real and if our only complaint is the way it is portrayed, then let's just take a collective breath and and accept that "it's for the cause." We all have to do that in many other areas of our lives (wives and kids come to mind
) and we do so because the mission is critically important.
This is all I had time to discuss during this trip, but as I said, I'll be going back next month for a full week. I'll try to address other concerns that have been presented in this thread.
Chas.
