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Former Portage County chief takes over. Committee to be formed to search for leader
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
The Summit County chapter of the American Red Cross has a new interim executive director.
Toby Weber, former head of the organization's Portage County chapter, replaces Craig Chaffinch, who had headed the Akron nonprofit for three years.
Chaffinch, 43, ''resigned to pursue some other things,'' Tom Welsh, chairman of the board of directors for the Summit County chapter, said. ''Folks leave to pursue other things.''
Welsh said Chaffinch's departure was not sudden and that he had no conflict with the board of trustees.
Chaffinch could not be reached for comment.
Weber comes to the position with almost 24 years of experience with the Red Cross.
Most recently, she was director of communications for the national office's shared service initiative, which encourages 800-plus chapters across the country to combine re
sources. That required her to commute from her home in Akron to Washington, D.C., two to three weeks of the month.
Now that Weber, 52, joined the Akron chapter on Monday, she is much closer to home.
Life is moving very quickly — she just found out Tuesday evening, for instance, how to change the message on her voice mail, for instance.
But her experience in Portage County, as a regional coordinator in Cincinnati and with the national office ''gives me a balanced perspective on how the Red Cross operates,'' she said. ''I have a deeper understanding.''
''People will continue to receive the same level of services they have received from the Red Cross,'' she said. ''My belief is that there is not one individual or organization that doesn't have a reason to have a relationship with the Red Cross.''
She is overseeing a chapter that has grown in responsibility over the last couple of years.
It is a regional — or ''hub'' — chapter, which means it provides some support and oversight and governance responsibility for the Medina, Trumbull and Mahoning chapters. Four years ago, Summit County absorbed the Portage County chapter.
Now the Summit County chapter is doing some of the accounting work for other chapters, for instance.
''It makes a lot of sense,'' she said.
The chapter also made advances during Chaffinch's tenure. That included paying off the mortgage on its $7.2 million Akron building a few months early with dollars not pledged to services and launching a new fund-raising initiative that has come to be its largest.
The Breakfast of Champions in April raised $360,000 from almost 400 community members who had previously attended an informative meeting about the Red Cross.
The organization also set a goal to train one person in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid in every household in five years, spokesman Mark Fairhurst said.
Chaffinch came to Summit County from Baltimore, where as chief financial officer he was the No. 2 staffer.
''This chapter is an example of how to do things right,'' he told the Akron staff when he came on board. He said he just wanted to do things better, faster and more efficiently.
The nonprofit's budget was about $3.1 million last year, with about a third of the money coming from the United Way.
Welsh, the board chairman, said he is beginning to assemble a search committee of board members and community leaders to begin the search for Chaffinch's successor.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Summit County chapter of the American Red Cross has a new interim executive director.
Get the full article here.
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