"an old friend" wrote

Fred and Bill and I are all free to have opinions on other subjects

Fred and Bill are Directors, and presumably represent all of us members.

When Fred, then Executive Director of NCI, makes a speech proposing reduction of
the technical content of the entry examination, that implies something about the
position of the organization which he leads.

When the Board of Directors does not issue a disclaimer after that speech,
observers (including the FCC) are likely presume that the statement is more than
just the personal opinion of W5YI.

That presumption is reinforced when the same Board of Directors later
enthusiastically supports free upgrades for nearly two-thirds of all licensees
without answering a single test question pertaining to their new license class.

K2UNK can express his personal opinion (and I believe him), but the actions of
NCI leadership are at direct odds with his personal disclaimers. You and I as
individual NCI members can freely express opposing views, but those individual
views carry far less weight than the Board of Directors who express "official
policy".

73, de Hans, K0HB
Member, ARRL, NCI, FISTS, VWOA, SOC, A1-Op, MWA, TCDXA, etc