Governance Reform Urgently Required at Irish Red Cross

I am a member of the Irish Red Cross and have been for many years. Major governance reform of the organisation is urgently required. Personnel change is an absolute must. I will be writing regularly on this blog concerning this matter in the coming weeks and would welcome your comments. The Irish Red Cross is now at its weakest in its 70 year history. This has been caused by a combination of disgraceful governance over twenty years and very weak management over the last two years. In 2009 there has been six highly negative but, sadly it must be said, accurate articles in various media publications about the Irish Red Cross. In addition there has been a constant series of parliamentary questions about misgoverannce and mismanagement at the Irish Red Cross in Dáil Eireann. Certain Central Council and Board members have served continuously for up to twenty years. This is terribly unhealthy. Fresh blood is immediately required. The Irish Red Cross risks terminal decline if the current power brokers on the Board are permitted to continue in their positions for much longer. The organisation also needs senior managers skilled and experienced in organisational management, strategy development, human resource management and who clearly have an understanding and commitment to the ideals, principles and values of the Red Cross Movement. The Board has recently installed an Acting Secretary General reportedly to dismantle the professional staffing capacity of the organisation although this Blog has no confirmation that this is the case. The Irish Red Cross is dominated and controlled by two or three Board members. Its time for the general membership of the organisation to wrestle back control and restore the organisation to an upward trajectory and reverse its downward spiral. Failure to do so will consign the organisation to the scrapheap of irrelevance.