A restructured Red Cross: Officials say changes won't affect services

While not all staff of Southeast Missouri's chapter of the American Red Cross have made it through a national restructuring unscathed, regional representatives for the organization say the changes will not disrupt services and will create a balance of the workload for its local chapters.

Executive director Cheryl Klueppel of the Southeast Missouri chapter was laid off in December due to the restructuring, which cut around 1,500 jobs nationwide. The organization is listed to have had 35,000 employees before layoffs and around half a million volunteers. Sara Gerau, the local chapter's director of financial development, will take over Klueppel's duties.

Gerau said despite the cut in staffing, services the Red Cross provides to Southeast Missouri and as backup to other Red Cross chapters will not change.

"Not at all," Gerau said. "Everything's going to continue. We have the same staff here. All the services are still in place, and we will be still be fulfilling our mission every day."

Included are blood services, disaster relief, service to the armed forces, health and safety and international services.

Last year Red Cross chapters across the country consolidated operations in addition to layoffs.

According to Debi Meeds, director of the Southern Missouri region for the Red Cross, the region was fortunate to only have to cut Klueppel's position and another health and safety position from the Joplin, Mo., chapter during downsizing. Another employee who works in disaster services was moved from the western part of the region to the Van Buren, Mo., chapter office as part of the restructuring.

"When economic times are good, agencies increase their staffs and when times are not so good, especially in the nonprofit world in a time when it's hard to get donations, you have to downsize. We really tried not to do that," Meeds said.

The Red Cross' staffing model is according to disaster risk and southern Missouri has a history of disaster, she said. That may be the reason there weren't more cuts required, she said.

During the restructuring, a new region for the organization has formed, prompting the need for a name change of the Greater Ozarks Region, which included 29 counties in the south and southwestern part of the state. Southeast Missouri and the other three areas to the west will from now on function together as the Southern Missouri Region and be managed by the main office in Springfield, Mo.

"It's the same setup that has always been in place, we are just renaming to speak to the area that we cover," said Nigel Holderby, chief communications officer for the Red Cross' Southern Missouri Region.

Holderby said the restructuring allows those four areas to work together as one region because when a disaster happens the regional office can call in up to 1,600 volunteers at once.

"To pull in the resources from the rest of the region and to already be working together as one Red Cross makes things so much less hectic in an already chaotic situation," she said. "With the restructure, we are able to provide those resources without calling in the national workforce of volunteers."

Holderby said the restructure is designed to be able to provide the same services to all communities.

Gerau said the four areas are now aligned and complement each other. Previously there was some overlap, she said.

Meeds said the restructure of the areas into one region allows Red Cross staff or volunteers to reach most disasters in the region within 10 to 30 minutes. The organization has a target of less than an hour for reaching disasters in the area, she said.

Donations are up 34 percent from 2010, likely because of the massive flooding and tornado disasters that hit southern Missouri in 2011, according to Holderby.

"We hope that means that there is an opening of eyes that are really seeing the Red Cross providing services in our communities and really backing us now," she said.

During spring flooding, the Southeast Missouri chapter provided 5,630 meals, 1,987 overnight stays at shelters, more than 400 cleanup kits and close to 1,000 comfort kits. The chapter managed 92 cases for 173 people

The chapter also responded to 495 cases having to do with fires in 2011, managing 495 cases for 1,523 people at a cost of $299,466.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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