Minutes of the meeting held on March 4, 2006
(Minutes by Amrish and Ravi.)

Present at the March 4, 2006 meeting were: 

Hansa
Manjul Bhargava (first time)
Jalpa
Ravinder
Vikas
Amrish

1. After the introductions, Hansa presented the two AshaWide proposals. 
The proposals ran into several pages and are available at the websites 
that were included in the Meeting notice by Ravi.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-arc/files/Fellowship%20Proposal/)

(a) In brief, the first proposal seeks to establish a minimum and maximum 
dollar amount for the Asha Fellowship. Currently there are 12 Asha 
Fellows. The proposal also seeks to provide a mechanism to support the 
Fellowship through General Funds in the event the sponsoring Chapter runs 
out of resources. 

After discussion, the Chapter voted in favor of the proposal. 

(b) The second proposal seeks to establish a mechanism for automatic 
funding of projects identified by Asha-India through General Funds if the 
projects meet certain conditions.

Hansa provided the necessary background behind the proposal. The rationale 
for the proposal seemed reasonable but there were concerns expressed about 
the lack of a process for tracking the progress of the projects.

Members offered suggestions to modify the proposal. Hansa said that the 
Chapter can only vote on the proposal in the current form.

After discussion the members decided not to support the proposal.

2. Manjul (who is a mathematician at Princeton and also a tabla-player) 
wondered why we had not taken advantage of Zakir Hussain's presence at 
Princeton during the first semester to organize a fundraising event. The 
simple answer was that we were not aware that Mr. Hussain was in residence 
here. But all is not lost. It is quite likely that Zakir Hussain will 
return to Princeton in 2007. If Asha and/or AID decide that they are up to 
the challenge to organize a concert, Manjul will only be too happy to help 
us.

3. Since Aparna Abhyankar was not present, we did not discuss the 
Awareness Event being planned for May 2006.

4. The next meeting will be on March 18. 

Regards. 

Ravi 
Amrish