FY15 Red Cross Liaison Report
Craig Ogilvie, Lisa McCoy Nov 2013
Need:
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Red Cross disaster preparation is vital for the safety and well-being of our community.
Red Cross provides vital services for returning armed service personnel.
Strength of Program
Internationally, nationally and in the State of Iowa, Red Cross has tremendous assets that it brings to a
community in times of greatest need. The reorganization in the past two will allow for resources to get to
needed locations faster and easier. The Support of Armed Forces is a critical task.
Weakness of Program
The reorganization that Red Cross has gone through in the past two years has not yet led to a stable operation in
Story County.
 Tony Burke was responsible for Story County for less than 6 months and moved to South Dakota in April
2013
 A replacement started in Oct 2013, 6 months after Tony left.
 The Story County Board was dissolved in 2013, and now has two seats on the Des Moines Board
 Red Cross is now down to one current lead volunteer, John Mathies (note I could not find John via a
google search)
 It is going to take a lot of education and soliciting on Red Cross’s part to engage the community again,
though it is good to see that partnerships with RSVP are developing.
Current Financial Condition and Future Outlook:
Out of this instability, a new plan has been created
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A key position has been created, Regional Disaster Support Function Manager, held since 21 Oct 2013 by
Chrissy Tometich
o She will be in Ames Office 2 days a week with responsibility while she is in Ames for both Story
County and Marshalltown.
o Hence Story County has 20% of her time and effort
o Job description
i.
Liaison with agencies on disaster plan, review disaster plan
ii.
Volunteer recruitment and liaison
Board of Directors
a. Now based in Des Moines
b. Changed responsibility to only networking + fundraisers. No fiduciary
General Assessment
Community support for Red Cross is important as they continue their reconfiguration since disaster preparation
is vital for the safety and well-being of our community. It is unfortunate that Red Cross has not made progress in
the past two years in the key task of recruiting and training Lead Volunteers.
To make progress
a) Red Cross be encouraged to reach a specific target of community Lead Volunteers and disaster Lead
Volunteers
a. A target of 2 Disaster and 2 Community Lead Volunteers before the start of FY15.
b. A target of 4 Disaster and 4 Community Lead Volunteers before the end of FY15.
c. Red Cross indicated that their target is 6 in each category.
b) It is useful to examine the organization chart to help decide appropriate ASSET allocations
Red Cross is requesting ASSET funds (with different titles used in the budge submission :( for Disaster
Program Manager (10% Brian Keath) and a Regional Disaster Support Function Manager (18% Chrissy
Tometich), Regional Volunteer Director(6% Julie Struck) along with three leads for the State (3% each).
c) There is a $9000 increase in the amount requested from ASSET. Are there precedents in ASSET funding a
small fraction of State level positions?
d) In the long-term one option for ASSET to consider is to assign the financial resources from ASSET as
proportional to the number of lead volunteers. This reflects both the time involved for the Regional
Disaster Support Function Manager and incentivizes the recruitment of lead volunteers.
e) Support of Armed Forces (SAF)
a. In the mid-year program update for 2012 they met the needs of 3 veterans and in the mid-year
2013 they served 6. By end of the year this had increased to 21.
b. With the number of returning veterans increasing and an active veterans group on campus
http://www.veterans.iastate.edu/, it seems there might be a larger unmet need and these
numbers could increase for next FY.