Stay tuned for our live coverage of the NRA Board Meeting, where we’ll find out what the attendance figures were for this year’s Annual Meeting and Exhibits. We already know part of the answer, since Secretary Land already spilled some of the beans in the President’s reception last night. As of then, his office was still counting.
Houston is a record meeting. This is unexpected, because Houston, in previous years, has generally been an average attendance event rather than a record buster. NRA doesn’t seem to schedule record busting cities for off-election-year events, so not only breaking the record this year, but we think possibly obliterating the record this year, is very welcome news, in terms of the political statement it sends.
Shortly we will head over to breakfast. Scott Bach arrived in last night, and invited us. He’s missed pretty much all of the meeting, courtesy to the folks in Trenton, and he’s flying back immediately after the meeting. We’re headed back later this afternoon, and will be out of pocket for a while. It’s been a good meeting for us, despite the fact that we forgot to book hotel space, and had to spend more than I wanted staying at the Four Seasons (though, their convention rate was a steal). I’ve also been shameless about attending catered events this meeting, and the press room cheese platter has made for adequate lunch. Unfortunately, most of my convention budget got washed away by a misplaced drywall screw.
Look for live coverage to begin. We’re only going to cover the morning business, and really not much of that beyond the stats. Really, NRA Board meetings are pretty dry, especially when they get into the afternoon business, which is nearly entirely about programs (e.g. shooting competitions, etc).