Wabash Valley Red Cross honored again

Thursday, December 11, 2008

TERRE HAUTE -- For the second consecutive year, the American Red Cross Wabash Valley Chapter has achieved the designation of "Highly Performing Chapter" from American National Red Cross.

The award is earned by Red Cross Chapters based upon their performance as scored across fifteen corporate requirements and eight performance improvement standards. The corporate requirements involve standards that represent sound business practices.

The Performance Improvement Standards captures performance expectations for growing the Red Cross business and cultivating critical relationships. Together, they comprise the most important business drivers that Chapters should be focusing on improving continuously.

Chapters are graded against their prior year's performance and against the performance of their peer group Chapters. For the 2008 fiscal year, the Wabash Valley Chapter was among the thirty-eight Chapters nationwide achieving the "Highly Performing" status and the only Indiana Chapter to do so. There are approximately 700 Chapters nationwide.

"Every volunteer, every employee, every donor, every authorized provider and every community partner plays a critical role in earning this outstanding chapter honor," stated Rod Bosley, Chair of the Chapter Board of Directors. "I know how difficult it is to continually improve results. Our chapter not only does so, but also sets the pace for the other chapters in our peer group."

"And, to be one of only thirty-eight chapters nationwide achieving this award speaks volumes for our people and our community. I am honored to be a part of this dedicated, caring and successful team," he added.

The American Red Cross Chapter Performance Standards system has been formally recognized as a best practice twice since its fiscal year 2005 inception. In November 2005, Red Cross was selected as a "Best-Practice Partner" by the American Productivity and Quality Center, a not-for-profit organization which has specialized in benchmarking and identifying business related best practices for nearly 30 years.

In 2006, the system was recognized as a best practice case study in Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management by Bob Paladino. Five Key Principles of Corporate Performance Management focuses on innovative practices and strategies used by commercial, public, and non profit enterprises as they strive to improve their performance.

The Wabash Valley Chapter serves Clay, Greene, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion and Vigo Counties in Indiana and Edgar County Illinois. The mission of the American Red Cross, a not-for-profit humanitarian organization, is to provide relief to victims of disaster, keep military families connected when separated by deployment and help people save lives through education. Each year the local chapter mobilizes relief to the victims of over 130 home fires and other disasters, sends more than 200 emergency messages on behalf of local military families to their loved ones stationed around the world serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, and trains over 10,000 individuals how to respond to sudden illness, accidents or disasters. The services of the Wabash Valley Red Cross are made possible solely by the volunteer and financial support of the citizens, businesses, foundations and United Ways in the Wabash Valley.

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