From:  Asha Princeton <ashaprinceton@y...>
   Date:  Wed Aug 8, 2001  5:01 am
   Subject:  Minutes of Asha-Princeton Meeting(Sat, Aug 04)

   
   Folks,
   Following were the attendees of the meeting held
   at Asha-Princeton on Saturday, Aug 04: Anirban, Giri,
   Shashi, Sumathi, Amrish, Pradeep, Amit, Ravi, Vijay,
   Pranshu, Pushpa, Rohini, Madhav and Kumar.
   Rohini went through a review of where the
   Vasundhara Science on Wheels(SOW) program is currently
   at. Asha-Princeton has supported the SOW project for 2
   of the 3 years that we initially committed to, and as
   such, a new proposal is needed from Vasundhara for
   funding beyond 3 yrs, to cover additional
   project needs.
   Key SOW activities that were covered included:
   - Discovery Workshop - Sunday Science school
   - National Talent Scholarship Exam(NTSE)
   Training
   - Perpetual Science Workshop
   The general feeling of the group was that it would
   be worth exploring replication of the Vasundhara model
   in other Asha projects, where applicable.
   Some of the key questions/answers from the group
   follow:
   Q. Is the project focusing on utilizing local
   resources better ?
   A. To be researched further.
   Q. Isn't the NTSE program slightly separate from
   the rest of the SOW activities ?
   A. Yes. However, it was included in last year's
   proposal since it fit into the overall scheme
   of things.
   Q. Haven't the workshops placed a higher
   emphasis on Physics & Chemistry than Botany &
   Zoology ?
   A. Yes.
   Q. Going forward, should Asha-Princeton compare
   projects considered for funding, so as to
   determine how to put its money to best use ?
   A. No. Should such a situation arise, it might
   be more feasible to raise additional funds so
   no deserving projects are deprived of funds.
   Q. Should Asha-Princeton stop funding projects
   beyond a certain time-period, even if they
   are good ones ?
   A. No, although we should strive to make our
   projects self-sustaining, lest the NGO's
   become too dependent on us.
   Q. Is it possible to derive metrics to measure
   the Vasundhara project performance ?
   A. Attributes of participating students such as
   increased confidence, levels of curiosity etc
   are not easily quantifiable. However, where
   possible, we should attempt to find meaningful
   metrics to benchmark our projects.
   Finally, the decisions to
   - Continue funding of the SOW program for the
   next year
   - Approve funding for partial salary of the SOW
   program's co-ordinator(Rajiv Varthak), at
   Rs.5000/month, were made.
   (Note: Rohini to find out if we also need to
   fund the remaining portion of his salary(Rs.
   5,000/month))
   The next Asha-Princeton meeting is to be held on
   Saturday, Aug 11, at 4:00pm. Details to follow.
   -Giri.