The Roy Williams Foundation Meeting Minutes, Meeting 45

Date of Meeting: Meeting 45 1/8/2023 1300 MST

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Roll Call:
 

Chairman: Alhaji Bangura- Present
Vice Chairman: David Newton- Present
Managing Director: Ashley Ottmer- Present 
 

Board Members/Directors: 
Zach Krause- Present

Dexter Pitts- Present

Travis Garvin- Present

Markus Hugle- Present

 

Secretary/Treasurer:

Bret Collyer- Present

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Assistant Secretary:

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Social Media Manager:

Amber Holmes- Absent/ill

Alternate Director:

 

Call to Order:
 

Additions, deletions, or changes to the agenda?:

 

Adoption of Meeting Minutes, Meeting #44: 12/11/2022: Director Garvin made a motion to accept
the minutes as written, multiple seconds. The minutes were unanimously adopted

 

Old and continuing Business:
1) Fundraising/Events/continuing support and Eligible Grants in Partnership with other organizations:
Review and discuss Director Hugle’s solicited draft letter to the Ross Perot Foundation. The RP
foundation requested an introduction letter as their first step in vetting organization requests. If they
like what we are doing, based on our letter, they will invite us to begin the formal application process.
Once this letter is finalized, it will be signed by Bangura and sent to the RPF. Director Hugle spoke
about the draft letter and suggested a few more edits. Once completed, the letter will be sent to Al,
with supporting documents/information for final vetting, signature, and mailing. A discussion then
ensued about the desire to create a form letter that can be used as a template for all grant inquiries.
The hope is that this letter will be able to be used for that template. Chairman Bangura asked if all
members should sign it? It was determined that the approach would be logistically difficult since everyone
was in a different place. Hugle suggested that it could be signed by Bangura ‘on behalf’ of the BOD. The
conversation continued with Bangura suggesting that he was not sure if including his rank is a good

idea noting that “What we do now is more important than what we used to do”. Newton stated that
he agrees and added that “We are dealing with organizations that have higher ranking officials who
won’t be impressed and it probably wouldn’t help much.” Krause agreed by adding that “Sometimes
dropping rank can quickly work against you and ruffle feathers”. Secretary Collyer spoke about the
resources that Holmes sent and asked if members could help go through them. Regarding the “Amount
Requested” portion of the letter, Hugle asked Ottmer “How much should we expect to pay a qualified
counselor for a year?” Ottmer replied that “It depends on where you’re at and your qualifications, in
some locations you can expect $150-$200 per hour. But you can’t do 8 hours per day do to your own
mental health (degredation). FRF appointments are usually 2 hours long”. Hugle replied “How much do
you think we should ask for?” Ottmer relied that she will “Research the Colorado median.” Bangura
stated that he “likes that they are asking for an amount” Collyer added that they are expecting us to
show some methodology for how much we are requesting. Ottmer (researching during the meeting)
stated that “It looks like the average range is $50-62k but clinical work pays much less. Which is why
the system seems broken”. She added that sometimes it varies between clients, based on their
problem and their ability to pay. Discussion continued.
 

2) Review of Scholarship Application and requirements, specifically dollar amounts awarded and number
of available scholarships: Current application included in the email. Regarding the RWF scholarship
application letter, all members agreed that the letter was fine as presented, we just need to decide the
dollar amount and number of scholarships. Bangura spoke to this stating that ‘we could probably offer
four scholarships at $1000.00’, as the discussion continued, it was reaffirmed that we needed to focus
on Colorado since here is where we are established. Collyer speculated that the reason we didn’t have
any applicants was likely because we ‘got it to the districts too late in the school year’. Adding that ‘if
we can commit to a dollar amount, we could get it out there a lot sooner this year, I will make sure to
get it into the local newspapers right away’. Ottmer said she would send it to the local school
counselors. All members agreed that we would offer two scholarships @ $1000.00 each.
 

3) Structural Evolution. Bangura: Bangura had no comment at this time. He added that he had recently
spoken with Troxell, but there was a lot of other topics to speak about. He will try to follow up with
him about the RWF soon.
 

4) Advertising/Outreach. Is our social media Effective, how can we help? (Holmes): Collyer relayed his
conversation with Holmes earlier in the day when she contacted him about missing this meeting.
Holmes shared that social media is going well and interaction has been good. Collyer asked members if
anybody who pays attention to social media had any thoughts. Director Pitts stated that he tries to
always check the RWF social media feeds, but that ‘It is hard to keep up with everything else going on’.
He added that ‘It’s very important because that is how modern business is done’. A discussion about
the benefits and pitfalls of social media followed.
 

5) First Responder Friday’s and Managing Director Update: Ottmer stated that there wasn’t a lot to report
since she’s been off because of her foot surgery. She added that just prior to her surgery, she created
and passed out newly updated schedule fliers. She stated that she will be back at work next week, so
she would have more to report at the next meeting.

 

New Business:
1) Discussion of 2023 Proposed meeting dates and times, especially the in-person meeting: Secretary
Collyer stated that a few members have asked to discuss regular meeting dates and times that might
work better for everyone. He added that they have been changed many times in the history of the
RWF. It was pointed out that our membership stretches throughout several time zones so it can be
difficult to find the best time for everyone. After some discussion, it was decided that one regular
meeting per month should suffice, on the second Sunday and we would plan on 1600 MST (1800 EST,
1400 PST).

 

Financial Update:
Checking Account Balance              $1,313.63
Savings Account Balance:          +   $11,605.64
Monetary Assets:                              $12,919.27
NOTE: After $500.00 deposit just received brings the balance to $13,419.27
 

Task assignment and follow-through items: Members agreed to check out the websites that Holmes shared
with the group. Ottmer would finish updating the Scholarship letter and send it out. Collyer stated that he
would then send it to the newspapers.

 

Anything Else/General Discussion: Garvin asked to stay on with Collyer after the meeting to discuss a
few fundraising/grant opportunities he has been made aware of. Garvin will weed through them and reort at
the next meeting.

 

Next Meeting: 2/12/2023
 

Meeting Adjourned: 1415

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