Issue Number 09

26 January 2005

www.SORfoundation.org

Our last update #8, dated 23 November 2004, gave a report on our trip to Vienna to meet and interview the Frankl family and officials of the Viktor Frankl Institute…  this update #9 will bring you the latest news on several fronts…  You will notice an attachment to this update.  It is from the monument sculptor, Gary Lee Price.  He wrote down his thoughts and reflections concerning the monument while we were in Vienna in November.  The attachment also appears on our web site under the “About the Artist’ section.   I encourage you to read it…

• The Foundation officially began our fundraising (prior to having our national fundraising chairman in place) in December 2004.  As a result of meetings in NYC, we have secured a commitment to raise $30 million in a specific industry sector.  One additional cash donation was received in December.
• The Vienna trip resulted in many positive things happening as reported previously.  Additionally, we have obtained official acknowledgement that the President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer, has agreed to sit on our International Honorary Advisory Board.  He is also extending a personal invitation to the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa (a Nobel Peace Prize winner) of Poland, to also sit on that same board.  Both Mr. Havel and Mr. Welesa are ‘friends of freedom’ and will add much to that board.  We are scheduled to take our film crew and photographer back to Vienna in May 2005 to interview President Fischer and hopefully Mr. Havel (in Prague) and Mr. Walesa.
• Dr. Stephen R. Covey, Chairman of the Honorary Advisory Board, sent personal invitation letters to the following:
• James Earl Jones
• Lech Walesa
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Margaret Thatcher
• Oprah Winfrey
• Dr. Phil McGraw
• General Norman Schwarzkopf
• Paul Harvey
• Nelson Mandela
• Senator Elizabeth Dole
• Edward James Olmos.
• A personal letter and project materials was also sent to Anthony Robbins in California.  Tony has since responded and we are continuing our discussion with him regarding our invitation to sit on our Honorary Advisory Board.
• We currently have over 75 people and companies on our master email directory.
• Our Religion Steering Committee is now chaired by the distinguished Dr. Huston Smith of Berkeley CA, author of “The Worlds Religions”.  Dr. Ann V. Graber of St. Louis also now sits on that committee.  Ann authored a wonderful book titled, “Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy – Method of Choice in Ecumenical Pastoral Psychology”.
• The Foundation officially received our IRS non-profit corporate status.   The usual turn-around time is 6 months, we got ours in under 2 months!!!
• Additional new members of our Honorary Advisory Board include: Loida Nicolas-Lewis, CEO of Beatrice Foods and Alice Elliot, Pres. & CEO of the Elliot Group.  Both of these women are leaders in their fields and headquarter out of NYC.
• New to our International Honorary Advisory Board, in addition to President Fischer, is Dr. Alexander Batthyany.  Alexander is Director of Archives for the Frankl Institute in Vienna and has been very helpful (along with Alexander Vesely, Dr. Frankl’s grandson) in getting our film company actual footage of Dr. Frankl which will appear in our DVD.
• Olympic Gold Medalist, Peter Vidmar, our chairman of the Sports Steering Committee, is in the process of inviting Olympic Gold Medalist Mary Lou Retton and U.S Men’s hockey team captain and  Gold Medalist, Mike Eruzioni (if you have not yet seen the movie “Miracle”, you need to…) to also sit on that committee.
• Status on our final project presentation collateral.  Our brochure was just printed.  It is great!  Our ‘Case for Support’ is being finalized this week and will then go to press.  Our introductory DVD is in the final editing stage and will be ready in a week or two.
• Web site.  Several new additions appear on the site.  Extended photos now appear under a separate “Photos” main menu button.  Photos from the Vienna trip will be posted within two weeks.  We met with our web site company, World Net Services, Inc. this week and discussed steps to upgrade our site to make it e-commerce capable (that’s for raising money and taking contributions).  Many more dynamic features will be added in the coming months.  Additionally, as soon as the DVD is completed and approved by our friends in Vienna, it will be viewable on our web site.  Also viewable at that time will be the video clips of the 3-D rendering of the monument that has been created for the DVD.  They are called ‘fly throughs’ because you see the monument as if you were flying in a plane or helicopter.  I’ve seen these 3-D views and they are fantastic…
• We are planning our next big meeting in California.  It will be with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver.
• Also on our web site.  You can now use a shorter URL to access the site.  It is www.sorfoundation.org
• 2005 is our year to launch our national and international pubic relations campaign.  Initially we will partner with all of the Frankl Institute celebrations scheduled around the world to honor the Centennial Celebration of the birth of Dr. Frankl.   These are located in:  Vienna, Salzburg, Mexico City, Dallas,  and Buenos Aires.  Additionally, our PR firm in NYC will coordinate more events in addition to the full page ads in the Wall St. Journal and USA Today.
• We have held meetings with the Austrian Consulate here in the U.S. and continue to hold these.  Topic of discussion is what role Austria should play in the building of the monument…
• As soon as our presentation collateral is completed we will be sending letters of invitation, with our materials, to all the other S.O.R. organizations in the country.  There are five we know of.  We will be inviting them to join with us in making the Statue of Responsibility a reality.
• Also on the web site, you will notice under ‘Contacts’ that we now have offices locations in several cities which can be used by our board members for meetings and to make presentations to prospective donors, the press etc.  These locations are:  Vienna, New York City, Seattle, Salt Lake City, San Diego

A few closing remarks.

1. We need all our project partner companies (who have active web sites of their own), to assist the Foundation appear more aggressively on the internet when someone does a Google or Yahoo search.  We and our web site company are working on many of these ways.  One very important way each of you can help is to post a ‘hot link’ on your site to our site.  We suggest putting this hot link on your home page so it is readily viewable to your customers.  To make this easy for you, we will be sending all of you an email (from WNSI, our web site development company) with a selection of these links to pick from and step by step instructions outlining how to post it.  Please help us with this important item by posting one of these ‘hot links’ on your home page.  More details will follow.
2. I wish to thank each of our project partner companies for their continued support and enthusiasm for this massive project!  We would not be where we are today without their assistance.  These companies have made a serious donation of time, money and materials, which now totals over $400,000.  Thank you.  These companies are:
1. Fillmore Spencer Law Firm
2. Squire & Company CPA’s
3. World Net Services, Inc.
4. Van Schelt Design, L.C.
5. Kenneth Linge Photography
6. Paradigm International, Inc.
7. Gary Lee Price Studios, Inc.
8. Creative Media Group, Inc.
9. Kinateder & Associates
10. Eye To Eye Consulting
11. DAZ Productions
12. Copies Plus Printing
13. Davinci Suites
14. Art Editions Printing
15. Coltrin & Associates

I will be the first to admit that this undertaking is not for the timid or faint-hearted…  The last two years have been a hard and most challenging struggle.  A struggle I might add, that is worth it.  We are about building an agent for change in our country (and others on the planet who thirst after freedom).  This monument is needed in our time.  Soon we will have the support of very influential ‘movers and shakers’ in the form of our National Spokesman and National Fundraising Chairman.  When that happens, each of us will look back to these days and take a pause – a pause of gratitude for having had the distinct honor to do our part.  I have found that extraordinary achievements require extraordinary risk and sacrifice.  Maybe that’s just the way things are…

Thanks Friends,

Daniel Bolz

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