The Roy Williams Foundation Meeting Minutes, Meeting 55

Date of Meeting: Meeting 55 03/23/2024 1300 MST

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Roll Call:
 

Chairman: Tom McConaghy- Present
Vice Chairwoman: Hailey Fuller- Absent
 

Treasurer: Robin Olson- Present

 

Secretary: Bret Collyer- Present
 

Assistant Secretary/Social Media Manager: Amber Holmes- Present

Board Members/Directors:
Dexter Pitts- Absent/working
Markus Hugle- Present
Samuel Vena- Absent
 

Directors:
Two Vacancies
 

Alternate Directors:
Three vacancies
 

Guests:

 

Call to Order:
 

Additions, deletions or changes to the agenda?: Collyer noted that there will be a Veterans Event and
Fundraiser on Saturday March 30 at 5pm at “A Church” in Salida and it might be good for the RWF to have a
presence and ‘see how they do fundraising’. He added that the cost is $28 per ticket and there will be a ‘Swag-
bag’ for attendees.

 

Adoption of Meeting Minutes, Meeting #54: (Action Item): Hugle made a motion to adopt the
minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Olson. The minutes were adopted unanimously.

 

Old and continuing Business:
 

1. Armed Forces Day Event (May 18 th , 2024)
      a. Who? … Venue (Bowling Alley)
      b. Schedule of events
      c. Invitations (Robin)
      d. Advertising
      e. Printed Materials / Promotion (Tom and Robin)
McConaghy began the conversation by asking if Collyer had a chance to reach out to the bowling alley? Collyer replied
that he dropped by a few times, but the owner wasn’t around, despite his truck being there. McConaghy asked him to

keep trying, Collyer said that he would. Hugle asked if the flier had been completed yet? Olson replied, not yet, we need
to figure out the specifics of what we’re doing first, when and where. Collyer suggested that maybe we could structure it
as “Veterans and First Responder’s bowl for free, sponsored by the RWF, with a silent, or live auction”. All members
liked this idea with McConaghy stating that “Robin (Olson) keeps saying that we need to be spending more money”.
Hugle said that he gave Fuller the contact information for an auctioneer from the Buena Vista area. Olson mentioned
that she was “All in on Free Bowling as we need to show that we are spending money on our mission”. Olson also asked
if we could award the scholarship at the event? McConaghy replied that “We haven’t received any applications yet” and
suggested that we “Move the application deadline back until May 1st”. Collyer asked if a May 15th deadline might make
sense to ensure that we get some applicants? After some discussions, Olson suggested that May 1st deadline makes the
most sense. All agreed to set the scholarship application deadline to May 1st. McConaghy encouraged all members to
participate in seeking sponsors and businesses to donate items or funds for our fundraiser event. Collyer replied that he
might be able to find a list from the businesses who donated to our effort from a few years ago in the archives.
McConaghy added that he would contact the newspapers and the radio stations about advertising. Hugle noted that
having a flier on hand will be very helpful in gathering items for our fundraiser and for advertising.
 

After some more discussion about who (from the RWF) might like to attend the Veterans Expedition Fundraiser on
March 30th. McConaghy stated that he recently reached out to Nick Watson about the event. Olsen made a motion to
purchase three tickets for the event, which was seconded by Hugle. The motion passed to purchase three tickets for
McConaghy, Olson and Hugle to attend.
 

2. Donation to family who lost house - $2000 - Julia Richardson
 

A) Comedy Show Fundraiser – Establish a date, Budget funds?,
 

B) Christian at Elevation (Hailey), Veterans Day (with other group)? Fuller absent
Conflict of Interest Forms (signed and returned) – Tom, Dexter, Amber, Samuel
 

McConaghy began the discussion about the Richardson family who lost their home to the fire a month or so ago.
Although Julia and the father had gotten a divorce, the children’s father was still an active duty army soldier, leading us
to become involved with helping them. Hugle spoke about his efforts with Leisl Hammond (C.County VSO officer) to help
find them suitable housing, which is ‘hard to come by, the one house he looked at with them was junk’. Collyer informed
the group that he just learned from Liesl that they just found a house. It was noted that the children are aged 4, 8 and 12
and that they lost everything except the clothes they were wearing. McConaghy asked for a motion to provide some
funding to help them. There were multiple firsts and seconds and the vote was unanimous to provide $2k to the family.
Olson said that she will ‘write a check and call her’.
 

McConaghy asked where things stand with planning the Comedy Show Fundraiser? Collyer stated that the last time we
spoke about it, we were going to find a day that works for everyone and have lunch with Benci to discuss it. McConaghy
agreed and said that we will work towards a lunch date that works for everyone.
 

New Business:
 

   1. Donation to Community Garden – Amount?
   2. Resource Fair in June or July – Leisl Hammond, VSO
Collyer gave a quick history of the Poncha Springs Community Garden (PSCG), started in 2011 and how they have
recently received a grant to build some raised garden beds for the elderly and infirmed to more easily tend their
gardens. He added that Hugle helped him build 10 of the beds last spring and now we are working towards making the
surface wheelchair friendly and developing a handicapped parking space. Collyer said that he expected the beds to be a
real nice feature for the veteran community as they age. Collyer suggested that in addition to investing in the Handicap
parking space, the RWF may also ‘sponsor some beds at $40 for any Veterans that may be interested in using them for a
season”. McConaghy suggested that “sponsoring beds should be a conversation for another meeting”. He then asked
Collyer how much money would help them with their handicap parking spot. Collyer replied $500.00 would go a long
way to getting the project done. Collyer made a motion for a $500 donation to the PSCG, seconded by Hugle. The vote
was unanimous.

 

Treasurer Report (Action Item) – Robin Olson: Olson reported that the $50 check to Guidestone for renting
their building for our last in person meeting was finally cashed. She noted that she has not yet received the $300
quarterly check from the VFW from Collyer (Collyer checks the mail) who just received it. She stated that we have
$2,640.12 in the checking account and $14,118.32 in the savings account (total $16,758.44). Olson informed members
that she intended to move $2k from savings to checking to cover the $2k donation to the Richardson family. Olson also
reported that all year end tax forms have been filed and/or completed. McConaghy asked if there were any objections
to Olson’s report, there were none and the Treasurer’s report was gratefully accepted.
 

Anything Else/General Discussion: (for the good of the Foundation): Collyer reported that he has put all of the
RWF files that he has on his computer on flash drives to give to the Executive Committee. So if his old computer crashes,
there are copies of everything. McConaghy reiterated that ‘our next meeting will be very important for all to attend
because we will be planning our fundraiser’. Olson stated that she will buy the tickets for the VETEX fundraiser asap.

 

Next Meeting: Exec Meeting – April 6th , 2024, 1300 Mountain Time; Board Meeting April 13th ,
2024, 1300 Mountain Time
 

Meeting Adjourned: 1343