Roy Williams Foundation Meeting Minutes, Meeting 16 

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Date of Meeting 12/13/2020 @ 2:00 pm MST

Type of meeting: Live, Internet, Zoom

 

Roll Call:

Chairman: Zach Crevier- Present

Vice Chairman: Dave Newton- Present

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Board Members:

Zach Krause- Present

Alhaji Bangura- Present

Kit Steimle- Present

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Alternates:

Matthew White- Absent

Matthew Anderson- Present

 

Secretary/Treasurer:

Bret Collyer- Present
 

Assistant Secretary:

Hailey Steimle- Absent

Call to Order.
 

Additions, Deletions or Changes to the Agenda? None.
However, it was noted that today is Creviers 29 th Birthday! All wished Crevier a “Happy
Birthday!”
 

Adoption of Meeting Minutes, Meeting #15 held on 11/13/2020
Crevier made a motion to adopt the minutes, Seconded by Steimle; Vote was unanimous.
 

Old Business:
In Person meeting review:
 

What went wrong? Technology, Zoom meeting quality was not good. Screechy audio, video
was confusing to follow. Secretary Collyer noted that the Town (Poncha Springs) now has an
“Owl” system that automatically zeroes in on whomever is speaking to fully record what they
are saying with 360-degree range. Also next year Haley (Assistant Secretary) will most likely be
in attendance.
 

What went right? Masking and Social distancing for COVID 19, though burdensome, did not
create too much difficulty. Director Krause thanked Steimle for walking around with his phone
at the end of the meeting stating that helped him get a better feel for the room. The consensus
was that overall, it went very good, we were well received by our guests. Our guests seemed
very appreciative of what we were trying to accomplish and gave us a lot of good/useful
feedback and advice. The food and service were excellent!
 

Did the following questions get answered?
 

1) Find and complete Crisis Intervention Training either in-person or online?

Yes, we learned that there is a good selection of online classes that we could find and choose
from. Secretary Collyer said that he would reach out to Mandy Kaisner with Solvista
Health to see about arranging some classes and suggest a few different dates and times
to try to find one that will work for most of us. Director Steimle suggested that we
should also consider talking to Michelle Flores with Angel Wings Community Medicine,
stating that she used to be a Police Officer, is a Paramedic and is also now in mental
Health Care and was very excited to help us with our mission. Collyer said that he,

unfortunately missed most of what she said during the meeting because she was across
the room and the recording quality was low, so he was glad that Steimle heard what she
said. Chairman Crevier and Vice-Chair Newton concurred with Steimle stating that she,
indeed was very helpful and enthusiastic. All agreed that we should follow up with her
as well as Solvista.
 

2) Recruit people willing to undergo training and furthering their education?
A brief conversation was had about how important recruitment would become to our
mission. Secretary Collyer spoke about possibly, eventually recording radio ads to
advertise our mission all across the Country. The discussion then returned to Michelle
Flores. Director Steimle suggested that we ask Mrs. Flores for a Biography, stating that
since we had been considering adding another Director to the RWF, that she would be
an ideal candidate and a real asset. She has expressed interest in being a part of our
group. Chairman Crevier noted that further down on the agenda we were going to
discuss adding another member or two.
 

3) How to merge civilian Crisis Intervention Specialists in good standing with First
responder organizations and social service organizations?
A general discussion was had about how we will have to wait and see how things
develop, not only with the RWF, but nationwide. This is a time of change in our Country
and there are a lot of variables in play. It was noted that merging civilian CI/MH people
with First Responder organizations will be largely governed somewhat differently by
every jurisdiction. State and National policies will likely also be changing.
 

4) How can we make it ok for people to laugh again?

Collyer indicated that this has more or less turned out to be a philosophical question. It was noted that the question seemed confusing, because nobody really knew how to answer it. Anderson spoke about the
‘value of humor in everyday life. Stating that people have to be able to create and allow
space for humor. It can be hard for some to be personable and you never know what
battles some people may be struggling with internally. But that we don’t want to feel
like we are constantly walking on eggshells around some people.’ Bangura added that
‘people join the military for different reasons, everybody is different. That is what makes
laughter subjective, what one person finds funny, the other person might find offensive.
Sometimes people simply need a dose of reality to snap them out of it. If we can get
them laughing, that is big. Then we have a chance to get to know them personally,
which is the next step to helping them. Once we get to know them, then we will know
how to treat them; they will all need to be treated differently based on their personality
type. We can then determine what the next step should be, or where to refer them’.
Collyer stated that he would reach out to Jason Benci (local comedian) for more funny
content to place on our website. Steimle said that he finds funny memes and sayings all
the time and agreed to send them to Collyer to be placed on the website. Collyer
suggested that, depending on what we post, we would have to be wary of any copyright

issues.
 

5) How can we seek out grant funding to support our mission?
All agreed that both Solvista Health and Angel Wings stated that they would both be
really interested in helping us identify and apply for (write) grants and that we should
take them up on their offer. Crevier reminded us that if a grant is identified, his friend
Chrissy has also stated an interest in helping us apply for grants and that she does it
professionally.
 

New Business
 

Next Steps?
 

*What questions should we ask next? Director Krause stated that the Salida PD sounded
interested in using us for assistance with de-escalation once we are trained. Crevier listed that
we will need CIT Training, Grants, Fundraising, and recruitment. A general, brief discussion was
had on these topics which will all be ongoing.
 

*CIT Online Training for Group.

Secretary Collyer reiterated that he will reach out to Solvista and/or Angel Wings to try to set up group training options for members.

 

*Roving Phone number acquisition.

Crevier asked the group about this topic and the timing. Collyer stated that once we all get CIT Certified, we should consider getting a roving phone number that will be on our website and distributed among local (to start) First Responder
Organizations, that we can transfer among members to have rotating on-call responsibilities.
The question was asked, “Do we want Verizon, At&T or some other service?” Director Steimle
stated that “Google Voice” would be a good vendor for such a phone number. Steimle
volunteered to look into options and stated that he would take sole possession of on-call
responsibilities, noting that he is already CIT qualified and it won’t be long before the other
members are also qualified. All members thanked him for volunteering to take this approach. A
general discussion ensued with Director Krause noting that his Wife Makenzie (who was a guest
speaker for meeting #14) is still working on her Practicum for the VA in the mental health case-
worker field. Her job description is more centered around finding housing for homeless
Veterans, but it usually involves many other aspects of Veteran care. Such as referring veterans
for medical appointments, mental health counseling, job searches and sometimes, substance
abuse treatment. Noting that the RWF’s mission will most likely be more complicated than
simply talking on the phone.
 

The discussion then turned to the necessity of having a nationwide database of available
resources for Veterans, First Responders and Mental Health providers ‘at our fingertips’, on our
website. Collyer noted that he had created a spreadsheet for Crevier to use for research
purposes to begin tracking organizations with basic information such as: Name, location,
mission, contact information etc. Crevier said that unfortunately he really hasn’t found much

time to work on the project. Directly Steimle suggested that we pay somebody local to work on
our referral database noting that if we found the right person, it wouldn’t take them too long.
The board agreed that this approach was reasonable and Steimle should seek someone out for
the project. Secretary Collyer said he would e-mail Steimle the basic spreadsheet to get the ‘ball
rolling’.
 

*Begin outreach efforts to partner with other non-profits and Mental Health Agencies.

Crevier started the conversation by saying that we will need to begin building relationships with other
non-profits and mental health organizations to be the most effective. Secretary Collyer added
that we should consider inviting representatives from other non-profits to be guest speakers at
our meetings in 2021. Noting that there are a lot of good non-profits in the area as well as the
“Reel Thanks” organization that Newton has been in contact with. It would be good if we could
refer clients to them and they could refer clients to the RWF. Joking that their missions are a
‘lot more fun than ours’ but that our mission is nonetheless very important.
 

*Craft a plan for outreach and advertising for willing CIT trainees.
Focus on Military/First Responders, people with PTSD experience. This topic was agreed to be a
work in progress for the foreseeable future. It was noted that nationwide advertising will be
expensive and some grant monies would be necessary before we are able to proceed on a large
scale. In the meantime, we will focus locally within our means.
 

*Consider addition of new membership.
How big do we want the board of Directors to be?
How many Alternates?
Female/Law Enforcement/EMS or Fire etc?

Crevier noted that Jesse Mitchell, with the BVPD might be interested and would be a good candidate, he was also a very good friend of Roy’s. Secretary Collyer mentioned that we need to decide how big we would like the Board of
Directors to be. He noted that we should retain an odd number of Directors in order to ensure
that any topic we vote on does not end in a tie; therefore, we will most likely need to consider
appointing two new Directors. Collyer also reminded the Board that if we appoint another
Director outside of our Alternates that may be unfair to the current Alternates; they are usually
considered the “Farm-team” for the Directors in the event that a Director resigns, the Alternate
moves to the Director position and is already ‘up-to-speed’ with the business at hand. Alternate
member Anderson assured the group that ‘his feelings wouldn’t be hurt’ if the Board were to
appoint Flores”. Director Steimle then brought up Michelle Flores, reminding us that she is a
former Police Officer, a Paramedic and has a non-profit for Mental Health Care, with a
doctorate, though the degree was unknown. Director Bangura suggested the possibility of
creating a “Professional Adviser” position, adding that everyone who helps us doesn’t need to
be considered a Director. All agreed that we should ask her to write up a biography, and we will
consider her in some capacity, Steimle said he would reach out to her.

 

Financial Update:
Crevier reviewed our finances as follows:
Checking Balance: $1,402.02
Savings Balance: $3,112.59
Total monetary assets: $4,514.61
Secretary Collyer informed the Board that he has opened an account with “Amazon Smile” and
that people will be given the option of choosing a non-profit when they make a qualified
purchase, Amazon will donate a small portion to the chosen non-profit to be paid quarterly. It
may take awhile for this to raise tangible funds but it is a good program and helps us get our
name out there. Crevier said that the online fundraising that his sister has conducted should be
deposited soon and noted that it is around $1300.00. He also noted that for his Birthday he has
asked his Facebook friends to donate to the RWF and that so-far the tally was up to $325.00.
Steimle suggested that “We should all do that on our Birthdays”. All agreed to consider it.
 

Next Meeting:
Will be tentatively scheduled for December 27 th .
But all agreed that we may ‘punt’ if the Holiday schedule for all is hectic.

 

Meeting Adjourned:
3:06 pm