Red Cross chapter to meet today, elect board

At its annual meeting, the chapter is expected to approve a board of directors made up of eight new members and 13 incumbents, according to Roz Nasher, a board member and member of the Governance Committee.

A search committee is expected to begin a headhunt for interim executive director Nicholas P. Geier Jr.’s replacement in mid-July, Geier said Monday. Geier, director of health and safety for the American Red Cross of Central Maryland, which encompasses Baltimore and five surrounding counties, took over the chapter on March 24, five days after the six-member Executive Committee removed Crace.

Crace had opposed a March 26 fundraiser during which firemen were auctioned off for dates at a Frederick tavern, telling The Gazette that she viewed the fundraiser as ‘‘selling sex” and ‘‘inappropriate.”

Crace claimed board chair Michelle Leveque did not give her a reason for her dismissal. Leveque would not comment on what she termed a ‘‘personnel issue.”

Board member and Executive Committee member Keith L. Roberson, who will head the search committee for the new director, said Tuesday that he couldn’t discuss the Executive Committee’s vote to dismiss Crace.

Roberson said the committee will widely advertise the job. He expects the position to be filled within several months.

At the 4 p.m., meeting today in Walkersville, the chapter’s three-member Governance Committee will present a ‘‘slate” of hand-picked candidates, both incumbent and new, according to Geier.

Geier on Monday said that the committee – Nasher, Kimberly Price and Chairwoman Linda Despeaux – planned to interview two candidates Monday afternoon.

Roberson said the committee meets year-round to look for new board members. He said it’s likely the chapter’s membership will approve the Board of Directors offered by the Governance Committee.

‘‘To my knowledge, there’s never been a nay [vote],” he said. Roberson said he has been a board member off and on for 10 years, and will remain on the board.

The new candidates are: Mark Smullen, Ricky Sandy, Richard Hines, John Droneburg, Roger Wilmer, Leah Fleming, Michael Henningsen and Peggy Magnanelli, according to Nasher.

The incumbent candidates are: Roberson, Nasher, Leveque, Price, Despeaux, Cathi Replogle, Ellen Chang, Beth Slagle, Susan Pardo, Rick Nielsen, Susanne Cassidy, Sandy Morseth and Lee Stern, according to Nasher.

‘‘These are the people we hope will wind up being the new board,” Nasher said Wednesday. With the proposed board, ‘‘I look for a bright future. The Governance Committee has worked long and hard.”

Officers will be chosen in July, Nasher said.

The chapter has more than 300 volunteers and six full-time staff members. The Frederick County chapter was founded in 1917. In 2006, it moved into a 16,000-square-foot building on Walkersville’s Frederick Street.