Bullcrap! Board members are elected every year by the members. Wayne is routinely reelected because he understands how to get things done, and has done a great job working in the trenches to expand gun rights, which is why the gun grabbers hate him. You never hear them complain about the NRA wannabees.
Yes, Board members are elected every year by the members, from people selected by the nominating committee, which is composed of people loyal to LaPierre. The write up of the people nominated is published in the magazines. The magazines are controlled by people loyal to LaPierre.
There is a mechanism for nomination of Board member candidates from the membership, directly, and the reality is that one or two board members can bypass the nominating committee if they have enough organization or support to get people to concentrate by voting just for them. It happens with some regularity. Celebrities like Ted Nugent or Robert Brown can also be elected.
But control of the NRA rests with whoever controls the publications.
In fact, the person or group who controls the magazines controls who is selected to the Board.
There used to be considerable power in the annual meeting. The membership who could vote there could actually get things done. That power was reduced to a minimum after Neal Knox almost succeeded in replacing LaPierre in 1995.
It is rather similar to the politicians in the United States. The people who control the media have a large say about who gets elected. In the NRA this is magnified by who controls what gets put in the NRA publications.
I am not saying that the NRA is not a valuable organization. It has proved its value. It is the 800 lb Gorrilla in the room, and it has been forced to become far more attentive to its members wishes because of competition from other second amendment supporting organizations such as GOA, SAF, and even NAGR.
But the internal rise to power is Machiavellian, from everything that I have heard. This is not unusual. Most large organizations who control considerable money and power have Machiavellian internal power struggles.
The NRA is a bit different because the “bottom line” is not so easy to measure as a stock price or a dividend.