Sunday Meeting : Discussion with fundraiser program
organizers.

Attendees : Rajesh Elayavalli, Dipali Desai, Uday
Jain, Vinay, Sumathi
Music group organizing members : Krishna Sheshadri,
Varsha Waishampayan, Rekha Gaur, Anjan Mahida, Nanda
Badgi, Jayshree Chitnis

Brief summary of program and performers :
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The music-dance program will be based on the theme
'Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani'. 

The music troupe comprises of 12 people with 8 in the
band(keyboard, guitar, flute etc) and 4 singers(2 male
& 2 female). The band people who prefer to be called
'Sarika troupe' having performed previously with
Unnikrishnan, Jesudas, Anuradha Paudhwal and others. 

The dance troupe comprising of ~20 children come from
the dance class of Ms. Padma Khanna. The troupe will
perform fusion dance for some of the songs in the
show. 

Unlike last year, many people in this year's program
group, are keen to assist in ticket sales and securing
corporate sponsorships.

Program Expenses : 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Upper Cap on program expenses : $3,000 + $500 for
sound.
An additional 'tentative' expense of UPTO $500 for
dancers costumes.(This was a surprise.. Krishna and
Varsha are trying to keep this expense as low as
possible.)
Small momentos and refreshments for the kids who
perform. - approx. $300

Program Date : 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

May 18th .. 

Venue: Not yet finalized!
^^^^^^^^^^^^

Uday, Krishna and Nanda are jointly working on this
and have taken the responsibility to finalize the
auditorium by this friday. 

Following are currently being considered:

1. West Windsor Grover Middle School Auditorium - 
Seating capacity : 650
Cost : $1,300(auditorium, cafeteria, a classroom etc).
An additional requirement was brought to notice during
the meeting .. need the stage a day or two before the
program for dance rehersal. This is likely to be
included in the above mentioned cost. needs
confirmation though.
Auditorium condition : Newly renovated. School is in
very good condition. Location of school although not
very difficult to find.. is about 6 miles away from
Route 1.
Current status : Application Form submitted on behalf
of Asha Princeton on Thursday. Awaiting approval.
Approval process typically takes 2 weeks. There is a
likelihood of being rejected(because of their previous
experiences with bad practices during shows). A
suggestion was to request the school authorities to
check with Crossroads Middle school of how well we
maintained the auditorium and cafeteria last year.
An advantage is that Varsha Waishampayan knows the
principal of the school and she has promised to try
and hasten the approval process.

2. Hightstown High School Auditorium - 
Seating Capacity : 900
State of auditorium ,cost etc : These are yet to be
found out. 

If all these are satisfactory, we will go with this
auditorium.. since, it can seat more people and we can
sell more tickets. 

Ticket Prices:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

1st 2-3 rows - VIP tickets costing $25 (even if kids
are occupying)
10 years of age and older - $15;
children 10 years and younger - $10;
Children 2 years and younger - No charge if they are
NOT occupying a seat. If they are.. then it costs $10.


Food : Same like last year. 

We briefed the program group about the corporate
sponsorship details we had last year. Krishna 
and Varsha promised to get donation from Meriyll Lynch
and Citibank where they work respectively.

POSITIVE UPDATE : 
Kumar has prepared new corporate and individual
sponsorship letters...these were successfully used for
fundraising by Asha-Indianapolis for 6 years! 
He will shortly post it on ashaprinceton for the
chapter to review.

Friends, Please attend the coming meeting, on March
2nd to so that we can make lasting decisions regarding
the fundraiser. Vasundhara project is also up for
funding approval!

Best Wishes,
Sumathi