Brief History of WELL, Inc.  2020 – 2024

 

Our original Mission for WELL, Inc. in our Articles of Incorporation was “to promote Biblical wisdom as a pathway to personal and systemic wellbeing, create a helpful and widely used website, publish an anonymous online wellness test as an inspirational learning experience, and perform education and research with its data, to discover how living by these traditional values and beliefs affects personal wellbeing.”  Now our Creative Commons Copyright will encourage others to create new versions of this test normed on their own base (Christians, college students, etc.).

 

Our mission:   To find out what makes us sick, and how we get well

​

Our core values:    The Common Good,  Scientific Integrity,  Universal Generosity, Cross-validation, and Diversity for Synergy   (see website for more)

​

        Our communications will appeal to all interested people.  We promote well-being for any individual or group who wants it.  We’re the first nonprofit to focus not on one’s body or bank account, but on the person who takes care of such things – the human soul.  We define wellness traditionally:  whatever does the most good and the least harm to people in the long run.  All this will inspire medical compliance with doctors’ orders. 

​

       Our primary mission is the Better Life Test, (the BLT).  This free, anonymous online test measures 3 aspects of 9 issues that can build or destroy healthy self-worth:       Truth,  Peace,  Respect,  Love,  Mercy,  Sexuality,  Wealth, Purpose, and physical Health.  

        Secondly, we seek to publish research on what works to make people healthy.  BLT protocols give 19 pieces of demographic information, and this rich database will reveal which attitudes and lifestyles make it easier and harder to be healthy.  Results will appeal to all media, and can guide businesses, schools, counselors, churches, and recovery programs.

        Our third mission is our website www.to-the-well.org.  This interactive website will provide lively experiences with wellness resources our board recommends, including links to programs, products, podcasts, memes, books, articles, research, movies, videos, music, novels, short stories, testimonials, counselors, schools, businesses, and of course the BLT.  Promotion in social and traditional media hopes to bring a flow of international traffic “to the WELL.”

​

           We inspire discernment of what’s healthy and what’s not.  More people will realize they can live the good life – unselfish habits and attitudes flowing from wellsprings of fullness, both from within, and from their relationships with healthier people and communities around them. 

​

            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 for three years informally in one-on-one meetings.  Dr. Schmidt is looking forward to transitioning leadership to younger generations with WELL's values and vision.

 

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 first draft was called 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 it became apparent that Bellarmine had developed a political agenda which was 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 from scratch.  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. 

 

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 was able to get the test online in a reasonably attractive form, yielding “estimated percentiles” for each scale.  Six pages of color-coded email feedback came instantly for those who took the 20–25 minutes to take the TAW. 

At a national convention in Louisville of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, International (CAPS), Dr. Schmidt spoke with two professors from a nearby university.  The core values of this university are all quite compatible with the mission and style of WELL.  We began a pilot study of the BLT at this university in 2023.

 

In year four 2023-4, Dr. Schmidt renamed the Traditional Assessment of Wellness, now calling it the Better Life Test (the BLT). The new name avoids the political connotations of the word Traditional, and the health care industry association with the word Wellness.

Dr. Schmidt headed a university-sanctioned investigating team of four, including two psychology honors students, and a professor of psychology.  In the pilot study, this team gave the BLT to psychology students in the spring of 2024.  This data confirmed the test to be reliable, valid, and correlated as predicted with two other widely accepted measures of well-being.  The four investigators presented these findings at the 2024 CAPS convention in Atlanta, March 21-23. 

To be overseen by our new board, the website to-the-well.org launched in the spring of 2024 to educate test-takers, and others who are interested in our mission.  It will offer a button for test-takers and website visitors who feel led to send financial support to WELL.

​

In our fifth year 2024-5, we will fill out the board with four people to replace Stephanie and John, and raise funds to pay for the software platform, webmaster, and media promotion.  One of the student researchers Landon Roberts has proven to be quite efficient as a programmer.  With consultation and leased software, he is able to do all our technology work, including web-mastering, research, media management, and data security.  He is graduating 12/24, and hopes to be entering graduate school in psychology or theology in the area the following fall.  Landon has agreed to join our board, to begin at its first meeting.

​

​

Our Finances

​

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.)  

 

WELL, Inc. Expenses July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2024  filed with IRS

 

 

2020

​

Received IRS approval & tax ID 5/20

KY incorporation 7/20

Opened our bank account 8/20

 

$    50    Center for Nonprofit Excellence, 1st year membership

$  200    Network Solutions (domain registry, maintenance)

$  250    Avery & Schurman Law (bylaws, articles of incorp.)   

 

$ 500    Yearly Total 2020

 

2021

 

$   293    Ky Nonprofit Network membership & job posting

$ 1790    Jarrod Blackham  (programmer hired to put test online)

$   450    Wizard Graphics  (two promotional videos, initial logo)        

$ 2400    Marketing Squad  (upgrading my website to host WELL)      

$ 1275    Robinson, H & C CPA’s (did 2020 & 2021 taxes)                                                                      

$ 6208    Yearly Total 2021

​

2022

 

$ 3685   Lange Boxdesign  (building TAW platform, front and back)

$ 4880   Ashley Rountree  (consulting about board, fundraising)

$      96   Marketing Squad  (promoting WELL on mynewlife.com)

$    485   Sec’y of State, consultant, webhosting, networking, etc.

$ 1275   Robinson, H & C CPA’s                                                                               

$ 9296    Yearly Total 2022

 

2023

 

$ 6863    David Lange Boxdesign  (publishing and tweaking TAW)

$   810    Landon Roberts (creating BLT, engaging Qualtrics)

$   861    Ashley Rountree  (consulting about board, fundraising)

$   765    CAPS convention Louisville 3/23:  booth rental, signage

$   265    KNN dues 3/3, software 2/6, email storage 6/17

$   530    Wizard Graphics  (two more promotional videos)

$ 1275    Robinson, H & C CPA’s (did 2020 & 2021 taxes)

$   115    Sec’y of State annual fee plus computer consultant

           

$ 10,409    Yearly Total

​

2024 

(1st 6 mos)

 

$ 1145    Landon Roberts (surveys, websites, Qualtrics, asstant $100)

$ 6615    Qualtrics 1 year scoring/reporting/software plus storage

$ 1863    Red Pepper software develpmt/consultation

$   200    Ashley Rountree  (consulting about board, fundraising)

$ 1872    CAPS Atlanta 3/24:  booth, ads, signage, hotel, meals

$   265    KNN dues $95, software 2/5, gmail storage 6/17

$   585    Wix Studio (3 years of Wix Premium Hosting for website)

$   675    Hornbeak Design (design, build, publish to-the-well.org)

 

$ 13,320     6- month Total

​

​

​

​Our CORE VALUES

​

Universal Generosity

To all who might want it, we are giving away personal well-being:  what it is, how to measure it, and how to protect, grow, and share it.

​

The Common Good

In our communications, actions, and work products, we inspire individual and societal wellbeing, by doing the most good and the least harm to all people in the long run.

​

Scientific Integrity

 We validate truth and demonstrate its practical applications by careful experimental design and literature review that avoid filter bias in what we learn and what we teach. 

​

Cross-validation

We seek and validate truth through multiple wisdom streams, such as religious wisdom, philosophical reasoning, historical inquiry, scientific research, objective journalism, life stories, and common sense.

​

Diversity for Synergy

We teach and help a full spectrum of people and society by letting them teach and help us.

​

​