A Franklin County woman who is a longtime volunteer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving is steamed about the group’s reorganization.

Marcia Funk says MADD is going corporate and leaving local chapters and volunteers out in the cold.

“All they care about is the money,” said Funk, who started volunteering for the anti-drinking-while-driving group in the 1980s in Sacramento, Calif., after she witnessed a drunken driver hit and kill a bicyclist. She later moved to Kansas and kept on volunteering with MADD, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Officials at the organization’s Irving, Texas, headquarters disagreed with Funk about the restructuring, saying the group was trying to make its operations more efficient at a time when it has become more difficult to lure volunteers.

What has Funk angry is that MADD is consolidating the Kansas and Missouri state offices and converting local chapters, which have volunteer boards, to Community Action Sites, which would be run by one person and not have a local board.

Funk, the president of the Franklin County chapter, said the essence of MADD is the local boards and volunteers that the organization’s paid staff now want to de-emphasize.

Marcia Funk, the president of the Franklin County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is angered by some recent moves made by the corporate office, which is located in Irving, Texas.

But Kyle Ward, director of field operations for MADD, said the restructuring was aimed at recruiting more volunteers and raising more funds.

“Volunteers just don’t exist like they did in the 1980s,” Ward said.

He said the restructuring had occurred in 17 states so far “and we’ve had positive feedback.”

In this area, the state MADD offices of Kansas and Missouri will be consolidated, moved to the Kansas City metropolitan area and be called the Heartland regional office.

Max Sutherland, the former Kansas MADD director, stepped down to become a victim service specialist to make room for someone more qualified to raise funds, he said.

He wrote a letter to Kansas chapters about the changes, including information about converting local chapters to Community Action Sites.

• MADD.org

But Ward, at the national MADD headquarters, said the decision on converting local Kansas chapters hasn’t been made yet, though that is the direction the organization is going. The biggest chapters in the state are in Topeka, Manhattan, Leavenworth and Girard; smaller ones are in Franklin, Butler, Woodson, Miami and Republic counties.

Sutherland said he had spoken with Funk about the changes.

“I’m not saying she may or may not have some good points, but I think this will be good in the long run,” he said.