MOUNT VERNON — Dan Werner resigned as executive director of the Knox County Chapter of the American Red Cross, effective Dec. 11. Werner cited a number of reasons for his resignation, focusing on his role as head of the local chapter.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Werner said. “When they hired me they hired what they knew was a police officer — an emergency responder, a disaster responder. I was never told how much of the job would be fundraising. I could never come to terms with the board on what my role was. The bylaws clearly state that the board is the No. 1 fundraising body for the Red Cross. When I talked to [Board Chairwoman] Vicki Sant when I resigned, she told me we weren’t raising enough money, that the income wasn’t high enough. And that was why we weren’t getting along.”
Werner said he didn’t feel fundraising was his priority in his position, and that he didn’t get the support he expected from some members of the Red Cross board. He cited the economic conditions as a factor in fundraising shortfalls.
Werner also expressed his disappointment in the lack of training for the job.
“I’m very disappointed that the national Red Cross makes a big deal of training, making sure everybody is trained,” Werner said. “Yet my only training was ‘go to Crossnet and see what you can find and get trained.’” They did away with the executive training they have every year in Washington, D.C. When they got in financial trouble, one of the first things they did was do away with executive training. I was there 10 months and I just felt the training wasn’t there for the expectations.”
“Dan resigned and has worked all along with some universities on writing security manuals, and I think he wanted to pursue that more,” said Sant. “He mentioned to me that he had more of that to do. [As far as fundraising goes], I think there is a difference between what an executive director does and Dan’s perception of what we needed. I think it’s different. We have Keith Hughes and Dee Hoeflich, who is our disaster coordinator and office manager. She does the disaster response and coordinates our volunteers. We have 2,000-plus volunteers who handle that and, yes, there is a difference between that and what the executive director is expected to do.”
Sant said the board will be meeting to discuss the procedure for filling the executive director’s position.
