From: Gail J. McGovern
To: Wade Kwon
Subject: Follow-up to your 12/9/16 letter
Date: Dec. 22, 2016

Dear Mr. Kwon,

Thank you very much for following up with me with your recent message.  As always, please know how grateful I am for your support of the lifesaving mission of the Red Cross as a dedicated blood donor.

Mr. Kwon, I am so very sorry to hear about the negative experience you had during your most recent attempt to make a Power Red donation at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church.  On behalf of all of us at the Red Cross, I sincerely apologize for the continued difficulties you've encountered in attempting to make a Power Red donation. Clearly these are not the results we would expect, nor the service we expect be provided to our donors and our blood drive sponsors.

Upon receiving your email, I immediately asked our Blood Services leadership team to look into why a Power Red machine was not available at the recent drive at St. Mark the Evangelist Church.  Based on the information obtained from the drive, it appears that a decision was made by local management to cancel Power Red’s at this drive after reviewing the donation site.  The individual who was running the drive should have consulted with others before making this decision, and I'm terribly sorry that this decision once again resulted in further inconvenience to you.  Rest assured we will address this issue with the individual in question and with other staff within the region to reduce the likelihood that something like this occurs in the future.

Mr. Kwon, I can only imagine your frustration at this point, but I can attest that the leadership team in our Collections unit is working very hard to correct these types of deficiencies - not only in Alabama but across our organization.  We are working on initiatives to improve employee performance, increase the level of engagement of all our staff in collections, provide additional training and education for our front-line and management staff, and to help everyone fully connect with our mission to ensure decisions are made in the best interest of our donors and the patients we ultimately serve.  For this reason, I respectfully ask that you please reconsider your decision to stop donating to the American Red Cross.  I truly believe that our best days are ahead of us, and I have confidence that our leadership team can lead this change and consistently deliver the results that we expect.  It will take some time to fully implement all the planned changes, but actions are already being taken and we expect to see positive results soon from these initial implementations.  In the meantime, I encourage you to reach out to our Chief Collections Executive for Alabama - Mr. Robert Roggeman - should you have any additional questions or suggestions you'd like to share on this matter.  Robert can be reached via email at Robert.roggeman@redcross.org or by phone at 314-658-2030.  Of course, don't hesitate to contact me again for any reason as well.

Thank you once again for following up with your thoughtful note, Mr. Kwon.  I deeply appreciate all you do to support and advance our humanitarian efforts as a selfless blood donor.   I wish you the very best for a safe and joy-filled holiday season, and a prosperous 2017.

Sincerely,

Gail McGovern