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.

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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.

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In our second year 2021-22, 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 2022-23, 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. 

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At a national convention in Louisville of the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, International (CAPS), Dr. Schmidt spoke with two professors from nearby Asbury University.  The core values of Asbury are all quite compatible with the mission and style of WELL. In consensus with the Psychology faculty at Asbury, Dr. Schmidt has renamed the Traditional Assessment of Wellness, now calling it the Assessment of Personal Well-being (APW). The new name avoids the political connotations of the word Traditional, and the health care industry association with the word Wellness.

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Asbury is giving the APW to the students of all its psychology courses in the spring of 2024.  Dr. Schmidt heads a university-sanctioned investigating team of four, including two psychology honors students, and Professor Marcus Kilian, PhD.  Both students plan to become licensed counselors.

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In our fourth year 2024, 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.  The data coming in from this study so far indicates the test appears to be reliable, valid, and correlated as predicted with many measures of well-being. The four investigators have submitted the findings for presentation at the next CAPS convention in Atlanta, March 21-23.

One of the student researchers Landon Roberts has proven to be quite efficient as a programmer, and by June 2024, he will be able to do all the technology work, including web-mastering, research, media management, and data security.  Overseen by our new board, the website to-the-well.org will launch in the spring 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. 

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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 Common Copyright will encourage others to create new versions of this test normed on their own base (Christians, college students, etc.).

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

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Our core values:    The Common Good,  Scientific Integrity,  Universal Generosity,  Cross-validation, and Diversity for Synergy

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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. 

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

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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 guide businesses, schools, and counselors.

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 APW.  Promotion in social and traditional media is expected to bring a heavy 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.