The Roy Williams Foundation Meeting Minutes, Meeting 33

Date of Meeting: Meeting 33 3/6/2022 1300 MST
 

Roll Call:

 

Chairman: Alhaji Bangura- Absent, Covid

Vice-Chairman: Dave Newton- Pres- Bangura Proxy

 

​Board Members/Directors:

Zach Krause- Absent/excused Garvin has proxy

Kit Steimle- Present

Dexter Pitts- Absent/Excused Steimle has proxy

Travis Garvin- Present

Ashley Ottmer- Present

 

​Secretary/Treasurer:

Bret Collyer- Present

 

Assistant Secretary: Vacant/Filled ACH

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Alternates: 2 Vacancies

 

Guests: Amber Collyer Holmes

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Call to Order.
 

Additions, Deletions or Changes to the Agenda?: Newton Stated that he would like to discuss
formulating a scholarship program later during the meeting.
 

Adoption of Meeting Minutes, Meeting #32 2/20/2022: Newton made a motion to adopt
the minutes as written, seconded by Garvin. Motion passed unanimously.

 

Old Business:
 

Conflict of Interest Statements Still Due: Newton and Bangura.

 

Two Alternate Director Positions to be filled: Members are still searching for qualified
candidates who may be willing to help us with our mission in the vacant Alternate Director
Positions. There was a discussion about the need to “Really Scrutinize” candidates going
forward so we don’t encounter other individuals who are simply looking to “Enhance their
resume’”, but not perform or attend any meetings.

 

New Business/continuing business:
Consider Amber Collyer Holmes for Assistant Secretary Position: Secretary Collyer asked
members if they had the chance to read through Amber’s LOI, all members indicated that they

had with Director Garvin thanking her for her interest and thoughtful letter which he thought
was ‘very well done’. Collyer then invited her to address the BOD and share some of her
reasons why she wanted to help us out. She spoke at length about her own experiences with
tragedy and PTSD and how she learned to deal with it. She spoke about how important diet and
exercise is to mental health which is why she is a certified health coach and works with
individuals one on one, or in a group. Since she lives in the country, she takes her clients on
“Virtual Hikes” around the mountains close to her house where she has good internet
connectivity and/or leads them in virtual exercise routine if the weather is bad. She spends a lot
of time on social media and is very well versed in how to post/hashtag etc. and is very excited
to get the chance to help the RWF with this aspect of our outreach as effective social media
needs to be constantly updated, several times throughout the day to gain more of a following.
She is also exited to learn about the Assistant Secretary aspect of the job. She is honored to be
considered for this position and has a passion for helping people recover from trauma, sort of
her way of ‘paying it forward’ to those who have helped her through her trauma and low points
in life. After some back and forth from members, Newton made a motion to appoint her to the
Assistant Secretary and (new) Social Media Manager position. The motion was seconded by
Steimle and Garvin. The vote was unanimous and all members welcomed her to the
organization.
 

Consider donation for Loan Star Cruiser Roundup Event $250.00. (Steimle):
Director Steimle began this topic by describing the outdoor land Cruiser Event by explaining
that the “2022 Lone Star Land Cruiser Roundup’’ will be held from March 17-20 in Mason Texas.
It is usually one of the bigger events of the year for the Toyota Land Cruiser Association (TLCA).
It is not unusual for the event to draw 160-250 thousand people. “It is a lot of fun, well
attended and supports an amazing charity called “Mission on Wheels” and a network of smaller
assistance organizations”. Steimle went on to explain that if we (RWF) decided to donate a
toolkit for around $250.00, he could sell raffle tickets for it and possibly double the money
invested in the toolkit. He added that it would also be a good opportunity to ‘drop a generic
business card in each bag’ the registered contestants receive during the event. All members
agreed and Steimle said he would send a picture of the toolkit he had in mind that Collyer
would purchase and have shipped to Steimle, who would provide Collyer with a receipt and
Collyer would mail him more generic business cards prior to the event.

 

Desired changes to website: SEND PICTURES appropriate for website (please).
All members were asked to send pictures, of any subject or event that interests them to be
added to the website. With some members thinking that there should be more content.
Director Garvin said that he has a bunch that could be added to the website and will share
them with Collyer for addition to the website.
 

Logo Change Discussion: No discussion

 

Critical path/Structural Discussion for the RWF:
     1) Fundraising update (Krause): In addition to the previous discussion about the
       Landcruiser event, Collyer stated that he would ask Chairman Bangura to customize a
       fundraiser letter for Director Pitts to bring to his podcast interview with the Black Rifle
       Coffee Company for consideration (Done).
     2) Structure evolution (Bangura): Newton stated that he had a lot of ideas, but that it
       would be more appropriate to discuss them during our in-person meeting rather than
       over a ZOOM call.
     3) Advertising/outreach, Is our social media effective (Pitts): Discussed above
     4) Training opportunities update (Ottmer): Organize Group QPR training. Director Ottmer
       reported that “Yes, I am done with my training and working on my presentation.” She
       went on to explain that her goal is to offer the program to local first responders as well
       as our members. She added that she “is with Dave (Newton); it is hard to talk about
       these issues over a ZOOM meeting” and that she would prefer the in-person format
       when possible for training. She stated that she has been looking into grants, but is still
       uncertain of the ‘Actual Mission’ or the mechanism for supporting Veterans, of the RWF
       and would like to get more information. It can be hard to fundraise without being
       absolutely sure about what we will spend the money on. Newton added that he agrees
       and that he has been worried about liabilities associated with the uncertainties of our
      mission. Newton then stated that he would like to focus on setting up scholarship
      opportunities for youth interested in the Mental Health Professions. Ottmer replied that
      scholarships would be a good focus and that she has been working on “First Responder
      Fridays” within her practice. She explained that she is planning to allow First Responders
      to come in for a session on Fridays, outside of the scope of their departments, to
      eliminate any privacy concerns. Everyone liked her idea and Newton went on with the
      discussion explaining that ‘These scholarships would not be large in size to begin with
      and we could name each grant cycle in honor of a fallen soldier or First Responder. Like
      the ‘Roy Williams PTSD grant or John Wyankoop’, who was KIA. ‘These scholarships
      would be mental health training related’. Collyer asked “How about, for example
      aligning the scholarships with QPR training”? Ottmer responded that the QPR training is
      relatively cheap and the training would likely be geared toward the age and interests of
      the recipient. Collyer asked Newton: Do you envision an application process for these
      scholarship grants? Newton replied ‘yes, possibly an essay contest where we would
      review the essays as a group’. Steimle responded that makes a lot of sense and he really
      likes the idea. Garvin added that perhaps we could narrow down the applicants to the
      children of Veterans and First Responders. Stating that we ‘should focus on those kids
      who are considering making a career in Mental Health’. Collyer reminded the group that
     “This is exactly what our original IRS nonprofit application focused on, was finding a way
      to pay for the education of people interested in making a career out of mental health

      care”. Collyer then asked if he should sketch up a news release for review at our next
      meeting, to be released locally to ask for essays to get the process started? All agreed
      that this was a good approach and instructed Collyer to draft something up. Newton
      stated that we (RWF, BOD) will need to be careful about our wording and will need to
      review it carefully and may need to tweak the wording prior to release. There was a
      general discussion about how this approach and the documenting of such would ‘pave
      the way’ for qualifying for larger grant funding with Ottmer stating that: “The VA
      administers mental health care grants and this will help us demonstrate what we are
      spending our money on, which might open the door to more grant funding to grow our
      program and organization”. Ottmer went on to explain that she believes that there
     ‘needs to be a paradigm shift in our society, the stigma around expressing the need for
      help needs to be addressed’. All members were in agreement and a brief general
      discussion followed.

 

Financial Update: Secretary Collyer updated the finances as follows:
Checking Account Balance:      $ 454.25
Savings Account Balance     + $4,587.69
Monetary Assets:                      $5,041.94
Collyer added that the shipping charges for the bylaws were $68.37 and will be paid via check.
 

*Anything Else/general discussion: Collyer spoke about the Comedy Club Fundraiser. Jason
Benci (Integrity Tattoo and former USO comedian) has offered to arrange a local show to
benefit the RWF at a regular show, the last Wednesday of any month of our choosing to
coincide with our next in-person meeting with 100% of proceeds going towards our mission. He
imports top shelf comedians and the shows are always well attended. Collyer asked members
when they might like to try to come to Colorado for the in-person meeting for 2022, ‘August,
September’? Director Garvin replied that he will graduate in August, so September might work
out very well for him. Newton replied that he was thinking that early November, around the
anniversary of Roy’s death might be better. Collyer stated that he will be talking to Benci about
scheduling and keep everyone informed. This matter will be an ongoing discussion. Ottmer
stated that she has been attempting to ‘reimagine the logo’ and has a few ideas.

 

*Next Meeting The meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 20. Ottmer informed the board
that she will be in Disneyland with her kids on March 20 and unable to attend.
 

*Meeting Adjourned: 1355

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