Meeting Minutes - 02/02/02; (Fundraising agenda)


Primarily, three things were discussed in the meeting
1. Fundraiser details and volunteer task allocation
2. Updated Newsletter by Kumar
3. Science textbooks collection by Asha Kher for Vasundhara

Meeting Attendees:(18 volunteers)
Asha Kher, Bidisha Chattopadhyaya, Graziella Dicristo, Arunasri Nishtala,
Vinay and Sumathi Iyengar, Sadhana Gupta, Anirban Hazra, Sudhakar G, Dipali
Desai, Uday Jain, Manoj Prabhakaran, Amit Sahai, Kumar Ramaswamy, Priya Rajan,
Archana Rajan, Srinivas Samart, Rajesh Elayavalli

Meeting Discussion:
III Science Textbooks collection by Asha Kher for Vasundhara:
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Asha got a 100 copies of a middle school textbook, from a friend of hers who
is a science teacher. The textbook is very well written and is full of
easy-to-organize science experiments(I have a few of these copies at home.
please contact me if you want to take a look at the textbook). Asha got them
for the benefit of our Vasundhara Science on Wheels project.  The project
comprises of a science-experiments-van going to several schools in Sindudurg
district in Maharashtra exposing children to hands-on experiments instilling
in them a fervor for science. In one of the previous meetings, when a new
proposal from Vasundhara was presented, volunteers raised the question of
whether we can help with providing experiments.  We will contact Vasundhara
project people and tell them about the availability of these textbooks and
make arrangements to send them. Copies of the textbook are with Kumar, Sumathi
and others.

II Updated Newsletter by Kumar:
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Kumar has prepared a new version of the Newsletter, with inputs from the
project coordinators, Anirban, Sadhana and others. It contains a summary of
our chapter's activities in the past year including a summary of the Asha
summer school, our review of the 93rd amendment bill, summary of our current
projects, our chapter's 2001 financials etc.  Kumar circulated the current
version of the newsletter for volunteers to go through and give their inputs.
On completion, the final copy of the newsletter will be circulated in the
chapter. 

I Fundraiser details and volunteer task allocation:
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Firstly, friends, the more the volunteers the better to raise funds! If you
feel you can contribute in any possible manner to any of the tasks involved,
please contact the respective coordinators or me(sumathivinay@yahoo.com).

Names like 'Utsav-A Musical Nite', 'Surbahaar-2002' were suggested for the
fundraiser.

The Following decisions were made in the meeting:
<a> Who will perform? :
General consensus among people was that we go with the Surbahaar troupe
itself. Sumathi will find out if they can perform. Looks likely that they
will.

<b> When?:
On one of the following dates: April 20th/April 27th/May 4th/May 11th Must
make sure our program does not clash with any other program/cultural event
being held.

<c> Venue?:
Owner of Strand Theater(who also owns Raagas music store in Edison & Hamilton)
said last year that he could give his theater for free for our next
fundraiser.  Given further enquiries our current venue options are: Strand
Theater/Crossroads Middle School/Durga Mandir .  Uday took up coordination of
this task.

<d> Posters and Flyers:
Rohini, our last-year's poster producer has agreed to make the poster for us
this time too. We will follow last year's template for the flyer(you can take
a look at it in the Files/Surbahaar2001 section of
ashaprinceton@yahoogroups.com). 

<e> Tickets:
We will have $15(adults and children >10) $10 for children <=10; no charge for
children < 6; Volunteer will use his/her own discretion when selling multiple
tickets to families.  Unlike last year, we'll have a single ticket color this
year.  Amit has taken up coodinating Ticket Production and Distribution(among
volunteers/ticket sellers)

<f> Ticket Sales:
Rajesh pointed that we should set a target of selling 1000 tickets this
time(it was 500 last year). This can be done if we are having our show in
Strand, which can seat 1,200 people. Corporate sponsors, Asha donors and
patrons should be contacted.

<g> Corporate Sponsors:
These are big fish!!:) Last year we could raise around $3,000 from just a few
of them. If we start early this year, we can raise much more from them. An
Asha-info-Packet needs to be organized that can be distributed to companies.
This would include, chapter newsletter, Asha history etc.  Kumar is
coodinating this task of contacting sponsors.

<h> Contact Asha donors and Patrons:
We have maintained a database of donors and patrons who have supported Asha
earlier. we need to contact them to bring them to the fundraiser.  Sumathi is
coordinating this task. 

<i> Food:
arranging food for the program. We can have pre-packaged food like last time,
or something else more convenient. Priya is the coordinator for this task. 

<j>Online ticket sales:
Sulekha.com helped us with this last time. We will try contacting them this
time too. We need to do this early unlike last year. Bidisha has volunteered
to do this task.

<k>Publicity:
Contacting radio stations/TV stations/Newspapers etc..  publicising our event.
This task has been taken up by Rajesh.

<l>Brochure preparation:
This involves 2 things: i. Coordinate advertisement collection from stores and
professionals.  ii. Typeset items(adverts, Asha info, performers-info) in the
Brochure.  Vinay has volunteered for this task.

<m> Asha Presentation:
Need to make a standard Asha-Princeton presentation and distribute it among
volunteers so that they can use it when needed to raise awareness in their
workplace/club etc. Sumathi has volunteered to make this available. 

<n>Merchandise:
Need to assimilate merchantise to be sold during the event. Anirban
volunteered for this task. He suggested that we can have kurtas with Asha logo
instead of the usual T-shirts.

<o>Fundraiser webpage:
Manoj and Sanjeev, are webmasters will take care of these things.

Hmm.. those are the first list of tasks to be carried out for the fundraiser.
We need as many volunteers as possible to make this fundraiser a grand
success.  So please come forward and volunteer. Any small task you can take up
will be a lot of help!

Best Wishes,
Sumathi