The Roy Williams Foundation Meeting Minutes, Meeting 28
Date of Meeting: Minutes 28 10/17/2021 1200 MST
Type of meeting: Live, Internet, Zoom
​
Roll Call:
Chairman: Alhaji Bangura- Present
Vice-Chairman: Dave Newton- Absent/At Work
Board Members:
Zach Krause- Present
Kit Steimle- Present
Matthew Anderson- Present
Dexter Pitts- Present
​Secretary/Treasurer:
Bret Collyer- Present
Assistant Secretary:
Vacant
​
Alternates:
Travis Garvin- Present
Guests:
Call to Order.
Additions, Deletions or Changes to the Agenda? : None
Adoption of Meeting Minutes, Meeting #27 9/26/2021: Chairman Bangura made a motion to
approve the minutes, the motion was seconded by Alternate Garvin. Motion to adopt minutes
was passed unanimously.
Old Business:
Formal motion to remove Crevier and appoint Bangura as a signer for financial accounts:
Director Anderson made a motion to remove Crevier and add Chairman Bangura as a signer for
the accounts. The motion was seconded by Alternate Garvin. The motion to make the change
was passed unanimously.
Fundraising discussion: Director Krause began the discussion by talking about the GoFundMe
account efforts he has been spearheading. He stated that he has had multiple shares and the
word-of-mouth has been pretty successful in creating shares. Each re-posting runs for 90 days
and he has learned that if no funds are transferred, the money goes back to the donors. Overall,
he thinks that the GoFundMe model of fundraising is falling out of favor and we should
consider looking at other fundraising platforms. He added that he has spoken to his local gun
shop about a gun raffle and is waiting to hear back from them. He continued that he recently
‘googled’ the “Top ten Fundraising options for non-profits”. He was surprised to see that #1 was
a spaghetti dinner, followed by walk, ride, run sponsorship events etc. Director Anderson spoke
about his involvement in other nonprofits, one involves a children’s home and pointed out that
the organization has been around for a long time and they enjoy a lot of regular donors. We
(the RWF) need to get our name out there. He went on to explain that (for example) the
organization publishes a magazine every year to help communicate with their donors, working
together with churches and VFW’s. Director Krause also spoke of a large auto dealer group he
works with and would like to approach for support. He also spoke of working with college
alumni groups and local businesses. He would like to try to organize an event before the end of
the year, but it will be difficult since it would be just him (only member in South Bend Indiana).
Secretary Collyer said that he ‘appreciates that fact’, noting that it can be difficult to organize
an event without more members in the area to help. Collyer added that organizations like the
American Legion and the VFW have been big supporters here locally and most likely would love
to help organize any events that help Veterans and First Responders. Chairman Bangura
announced that he has been thinking about it and would like to promote Director Krause to
head-up all fundraising efforts.
New Business/continuing business:
Nomination/promotion of Travis Garvin from Alternate to full Director: Since Alternate Garvin
was absent (excused) for our last meeting, this item was tabled until this meeting. There was
little discussion about promoting Garvin to full-Director. Director Krause made a motion to
promote Garvin, which received multiple seconds. The vote was unanimous.
Training Opportunities for our members: Director Steimle has been researching: Director
Steimle began by saying that he has been researching different approaches for helping
Veterans and First Responders in crisis, instead of ‘Peer Support’, which seemed like it was
going nowhere. He has been focusing on training for taking phone calls and person-to-person
interaction. He is working with a group called the “National Stop Hurt” and their ‘Safe Talk’
approach consisting of two-two-day sessions to get his preliminary certifications, which can be
attained all over the nation. The certification classes cost $2400 each and there are three
continuing education classes required per year to keep the certifications current. Steimle stated
that after he gets certified, he can train the rest of the group in the fundamentals of the
program. Secretary Collyer stated that this approach was more in line with the original mission
envisioned for the RWF. It was pointed out that Director Pitts is already CIT Certified as part of
his professional training. Director Anderson spoke in favor of the approach that Steimle was
pursuing adding that it is a really good thing and people will see what we’re doing and they’ll
want to know, “How can I get involved, I would like to help”. Director Garvin spoke about an
organization he works with locally that helps Veterans, known as Veterans Corps ‘‘Battle Mind,
Home Mind”. He added that their founder, Tom Hove has offered to be part of a future Zoom
meeting with the RWF to explain their programs and what they have learned along the way. All
agreed that we would like to have Mr. Hove attend one of our meetings
Changes to Website and possibly mission statement: Chairman Bangura to lead discussion:
Chairman Bangura began by explaining that he has been spending a lot of time thinking about
the website. He is also concerned with the current structure of the organization and has been
working on the mission statement. He stated that he would like to see us adopt an ‘Elevator
statement’, that sometimes less is more. Prior to the meeting, he emailed all members a choice
of three mission statements to consider (as follows):
1) “The Roy Williams Foundation’s mission is to deliver creative solutions to reduce the
high suicide rate among Veterans and First Responders”.
2) “The Roy Williams Foundation is committed to preventing and ending suicide in the
Veteran and First Responder Communities”.
3) “The Roy Williams Foundation’s mission is to prevent or end suicides within the Veteran
and First Responder communities by renewing life’s purpose, instilling hope and
fostering a community where they have access to the camaraderie of service”.
Chairman Bangura stated that he has been discussing this with Vice-Chairman Newton (absent)
and Newton was in favor of either option #1 or #3. Chairman Bangura then called for discussion
of the options. Secretary Collyer added that the original Mission Statement was adopted with
the intent to portray that we were hoping to ‘connect quietly suffering heroes with competent
resources in their area’ and maybe adding such verbiage to the chosen sentence option would
be a good idea. Bangura responded that he was in favor of being less specific with the intention
of ‘not tying us down’. Director Anderson agreed with this sentiment, as did Director Krause;
stating that the word “Community” is huge and that he believes that sentence #3 has the most
potential and we could grow and evolve better under the option. Director Anderson said that
people who reach out to us feel isolated and alone and option three will likely seem more
comforting to them. Director Garvin also spoke in favor of option #3 stating that the option
‘gives us room to grow’. After discussion, Director Steimle made a motion to adopt sentence #3
as our new mission statement, which received several seconds; the vote was unanimous and
sentence three was adopted.
Setting Realistic Operational Goals for the RWF: Chairman Bangura began this discussion by
laying out his four top concerns to move the organization forward, as follows:
1) Finances: Bangura stated that this will always be a primary concern.
2) Structure: Bangura stated that we really need to think about our structure and what it
should look like and how it relates to our operations. If we don’t get it right the first
time, we could adjust it later.
3) Recruitment: Bangura stated that recruiting should be done by committee who should
carefully consider “What are we looking for?” Bangura said that we should plan to
consider this topic during the December meeting.
4) Advertising: Bangura stated that this will be a very important topic as most advertising
costs money, but without advertising, no one will know we exist.
An abbreviated general discussion ensued for each topic and it was noted that training
would also be an important part of this discussion. Bangura noted that he would like to ask
Director Steimle to lead formally the training efforts. Director Steimle replied that yes, he
would be happy to lead the training efforts.
​
Financial Update:
Checking Account Balance: $1,067.47
Savings Account Balance: + $4,399.47
Total Monetary Assets: $5,467.04
Final Bill for 9/11 event to be paid for advertising:
Arkansas Valley Publishing Company (Local Newspaper) $780.00
Credit Card has been received.
Chairman Bangura needs to become signatory for finances. Bangura has submitted needed
items to the bank, we just need to submit the meeting minutes from meeting # 28 approving
him to become a signer. The minutes need to be signed by a member of the BOD. Item #1 on
Old Business. Secretary Collyer agreed to send the minutes to Directors Krause and Anderson
for signatures.
*Anything Else/general discussion:
Recruitment of Alternates: A discussion was had about the need to recruit two new Alternates
to the organization. All agreed that we should look for women to fill the positions so that we
have a diversity of opinions for each topics. Bangura noted that Newton was speaking to a
couple of ladies. Bangura also had a few ladies in mind who might be interested. Director Pitts
said that he had a few ladies in mind who might like to help us, but noted that his entire
department is stretched thin and available time and energy is in limited supply, but that he
would check with them.
Does every member have copies of our founding documents? Most members indicated that
they didn’t have the original founding documents. Secretary Collyer said that he would review
them for accuracy as it relates to our current mission and mail copies to each member and
include some of the generic business cards for everybody. He added that as soon as the
meeting was over, he was going to head to hunting camp, but should be able to work on these
projects every evening in the camper. Unfortunately, his computer did not operate well with
generator power, slowing the effort considerably.
A quick, summary discussion was had reviewing what had been decided, roughly as follows:
Directors Steimle and Pitts would work together to lead training efforts. Fundraising efforts
would be lead by Krause, who stated that ‘training will play a huge role in how we handle
recruiting’. Bangura added that we will work on our formal structure during our next few
meetings. He expressed his desire to ‘hit the ground running in 2022’. Secretary Collyer
reminded everybody that he is ‘here to help everybody in their efforts for their respective
assignments’ and reminding them to communicate with him and everybody else as it relates to
their efforts, not only during the formal meetings, but anytime the need arises. Director Krause
said that he likes the new mission statement and that it ‘justifies a new fundraising letter.
Chairman Bangura replied that he will be happy to draft a new letter for board consideration at
the next meeting.
*Next Meeting: October 31, was passed over with the realization that Halloween will be busy,
especially for those with small children. November 7 th was chosen for the next meeting.
Secretary Collyer noted that November 7 th is also the day that clocks will be moved back by one
hour, so he will make an effort to text everybody beforehand to remind everyone.
*Meeting Adjourned: 1310