A chapter meeting is scheduled this Saturday, June 23rd at 4.30pm in 
Equad building: 

The following is the agenda: 


1. Marathon training program review. 
2. Asha Fellowship proposal - Sireesha from Timbaktu Collective, a 
social worker, working in the areas of womens issues. 


Minutes of the chapter meeting held on 06/23/07 at 4.30pm. 


Present: Ravi, Sowmya, Amrish, Kavitha, Sridhar, Laxmi Dasika 
New: Adinarayana Dasika, Prashant Gutala, Shanthi Gutala 


The following items were discussed: 


Meeting started with introductions of new attendees. A brief account 
of Asha, chapter activities, and the projects at the chapter was 
provided to the new attendees. 


1. Team AshaAID marathon program for 2007: 


The Team AshaAID is a marathon fund raiser for the chapter. Like last 
year, the program is a collaborative effort of Asha CNJ, Asha 
Princeton, and AID Princeton. The fixed expenses are shared among the 
participating chapters, and variable costs are paid by the respective 
chapter. Ravi and Sowmya are coordinating the marathon program for the 
chapter. Ravi provided the current status of the program. Training 
started on June 3rd. Coach Tom, who coached last year, was hired 
again. The program is in the trial period, and, currently, there are 
14 runners in the program on behalf of Asha Princeton. Total runners 
in the program is about 55 plus. 


The terms and conditions for hiring the coach are same as the last 
year. The coach is paid $7 per week per runner. The chapter needs to 
sign a contract with the coach for the services of the coach, and 
making payments to the coach. The amount paid to the coach for the 
services and other program expenses are treated as marathon program 
expenses. Ravi prepared the draft contract based on the last year's 
contract and discussed it in the meeting. Ravi requested permission to 
sign the contract on behalf of Asha Princeton and CNJ (this practice 
is same as last year) with the coach, and the meeting authorized the 
same. 


Ravi also requested for the approval of payment of fee for the 
services rendered by the coach after the contract is signed, and the 
meeting approved for the same. The program also needs to start Sunday 
training cum running practice at Princeton for which an assistant 
coach is needed. The meeting authorized Ravi to coordinate the 
discussion on this with other participating chapters, and authorized 
Ravi to take appropriate decision along with the other participating 
chapters. 


Meeting also discussed different volunteer needs specifically for the 
marathon program - volunteers for the water stations, taking care of 
finances, web support, training coordination, and overall 
coordination. Sowmya and Ravi volunteered to share the 
responsibilities at the moment. However, more volunteers for water 
stations are needed. 


2. Asha Fellowship proposal: 


Ravi introduced a fellowship proposal for supporting activities of 
Shrimati Sireesha who has been working with Timbaktu Collective on 
family counseling and legal advising. Timbaktu collective is a non- 
profit organization working for sustainable development in the drought 
prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Its alternative education 
program is supported by Asha (NYC/NJ, Stanford, London, WAH). It also 
initiated Mutually Aided Thrift Cooperative Society (MATCS) in each of 
the three mandals it is working in with the external support (such as 
German Foundation). They operate like cooperative banks and are 
created to support the needs of the women. They are owned and run by 
their members with a little support from the Collective. After the 
initial success, MATCS started focusing on women's' issues (issues 
with marriage/dowry, domestic violence, etc) and services, and 
initiated legal aid and counseling centers. Sireesha (with formal 
legal education and registration to practice law) has been working 
fulltime with MATCS supporting the legal and counseling centers. 
However, with a recent decision of MATCS to become self-reliant, 
external funding to MATCS stopped, and MATCS are barely self- 
supporting at the moment. The financial situation of MATCS is not able 
to support the activities of Sireesha's work. However, MATCS realized 
that the work on legal aid and counseling is essential to the women in 
the area, and a need to support Sireesha's livelihood while she 
continues her work with MATCS fulltime. This fellowship will help 
Sireesha continue working on a full time capacity without a break. The 
fellowship application has been approved by the Asha fellowship 
committee. Ravi expressed his opinion that this is an important work 
that helps families function well and support the children. 
With this initial introduction, Ravi enquired if the chapter would 
like to take up the proposal for further discussions. Amrish and 
Sridhar suggested that the discussion be continued in the next meeting 
with more information. Ravi agreed to upload all the documents and 
start discussion on the groups and continue the discussion at the next 
meeting. 


Minutes posted by Ravi.