All deposits so far have come from earnings and savings of Dr. Paul Schmidt.
($4000 was given to WELL by various individuals for (and disbursed right back out to) a local educational project, sponsored by a national nonprofit, the Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition. This is not shown below.)
Received IRS approval & tax ID 5/20, KY incorporation 7/20, Opened our bank account 8/20
Center for Nonprofit Excellence, 1st year membership $ 50
Network Solutions (domain registry, maintenance) $ 200
Avery & Schurman Law (bylaws, articles of incorp.) $ 250
Total 2020 $500
Ky Nonprofit Network membership & job posting $ 293
Jarrod Blackham (programmer hired to put test online) $ 1790
Wizard Graphics (two promotional videos, initial logo) $ 450
Marketing Squad (upgrading my website to host WELL) $ 2400
Robinson, H & C CPA’s (did 2020 & 2021 taxes) $ 1275
Total 2021 $ 6208
Lange Boxdesign (building TAW platform, front and back) $ 3685
Ashley Rountree (consulting about board, fundraising) $ 4880
Marketing Squad (promoting WELL on mynewlife.com) $ 96
Sec’y of State, consultant, webhosting, networking, etc. $ 485
Total 2022 $ 9296
David Lange Boxdesign (publishing and tweaking TAW) $ 5682
Ashley Rountree (consulting about board, fundraising) $ 860
CAPS convention 3/23: booth rental, signage & pedestal $ 765
KNN dues 3/3, software 2/6, email storage 6/17 $ 265
Total 2023 $ 7572
Total 2020-2023 $ 23,506
We will soon be asking for donations to help with expenses like these.
To find out what makes us sick, and how we get well
Our initial goal was to study the histories of religion, philosophy, and scientific theory and research to define personal illness and wellness in a way that was compatible with all these wisdom streams. We found one defintion that had been around for 3000 years, widely accepted in all Western cultures until the last 100 years.
Wellness is whatever does the most good
and the least harm to the most people in the long run.
This age-old theory of wellness and sickness came complete with nine contrasting sets of beliefs and habits which have been thought to lead people and groups into healthy vs. unhealthy lives. These are quite measurable, and now we have forty years of research confirming they have the effects predicted by the model. So WELL has now published an anonymous online wellness test to provide users with an inspirational learning experience. We can now research the incoming data from this test to discover how living by these traditional values and beliefs actually does affect personal and social well-being.
Our official board consists of the Director Paul Schmidt, his wife, Stephanie, and his son, John. A full-time wellness coach, Terry Gehrke, M.Ed., has agreed to join the board when it expands, and has been advising the Director in one-on-one meetings.
The first year 2020-21 improved our online presence. The Marketing Squad redesigned the director’s website to present WELL, Inc, and our free, online, anonymous test of personal well-being, the Traditional Assessment of Wellness (TAW). The Director wrote instructional materials to go with the test feedback. Six months of efforts to network with Bellarmine University to validate the test were abandoned when Bellarmine developed a political agenda at odds with our core values.
In our second year 2021-2, we hired a software engineer, Jarrod Blackham, to build a platform for the test. He had to stop short of the goal, having reached a ceiling of his ability and available time. Two videos were produced by Wizard Graphics and posted on the website. The Director wrote nine Parenting Guides to go with the Life Lessons and Devotional studies, to complete the instructional tools that are now given with the test feedback. To network for funding and technical support, the Director sought to make connections with Southeast Christian Church, but this proved unfruitful.
In year three 2022-3, a consulting agency, Ashley Roundtree, provided businesses that could perform fundraising and social media networking. But that proved premature until donors and board members could be inspired by a constructive test-taking experience. A new software engineer David Lange has been able to get the test online now in a reasonably attractive form, yielding “estimated percentiles” that simulate what receiving more accurate test scores would be like. Six pages of color-coded email feedback now arrives instantly for anyone who takes the 20–25 minutes to take the TAW.
A booth was rented at a national convention of counselors and college professors in Louisville. The one lead for technical and networking support that emerged from this conference was Asbury University, a one-hour drive from the director’s home. The core values of the university and its seminary aptly describe how the university does business, and it is all quite compatible with the mission and style of WELL.
Dr. Schmidt now actively gives and receives services with four different Asbury professors, three undergraduate, and one from the seminary. One wants to help Dr. Schmidt revise the items and scale descriptions. Another wants to give the test to all students, starting with ones who come into the clinic for medical and counseling help. A third wants to create media interest in the project. All are interested in their students/classes taking the test, recruiting loved ones from around the nation and the world to do the same, and collating the data that is obtained from these protocols. They have expressed interest in the entire student body taking this test in the spring, and we are going through the administrative channels to approve that project. Dr. Schmidt is hopeful that one college professor will want to be the primary co-author of the test, which will likely be renamed this next year. It may soon become the Test of Personal Well-being, perhaps with the word Asbury in front of that name.
In our fourth year 2023-4, we hope to fill out the board with four people to replace Stephanie and John, so that fundraising can begin. One or two of the board members may be Asbury faculty. Both Asbury and WELL, Inc. will be partnering in overseeing the research and education using the TAW. The website to-the-well.org will offer a button for test-takers to send financial support to WELL. We’ll send out a monthly email, with this subject: “What’s free and new at the old WELL”.