Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 10/19/2005. Venue: Redmond Library Attendees: Rahul, Eera, Kavita, Nayantara, Dev,  Nitin, Sujit, Krish, Vaibhav, Mohan, Praveen, Srijan, Bindu, Vibhavaree, Venky, Shefali, Tapoja, Sounjanya, Tulika, Swati, Ravi, Vani, Kavita, Shayon, Neeru, Sandhya, Binay, Aparna Discussion: Miscellaneous Notes [Vibhavaree] Still in the middle of October check sending, so if anyone has not update the information on the site please do so now. [All] All the voting will have online voting also and folks who cant attend will be able to vote online PROJECT: Gramya, URGENT REQUEST - Venky Need a owner for funding request for a project supported by Asha Chicago which needs Immediate Attention Gramya Sanstan in UP is in need of a one time funding request for Rs.2,76,500 Involves setting up Balkendra, group activities for women and children in 10 villages in UP Kavita G assigned as the project steward with Swati as the buddy PROJECT: Vidnyan Vahini - Vani Vidnyan Vahini is a new project near Pune, for which a volunteer is required Vidnyan Vahini helps rural children learn science through experiments and believes in "learning by doing" and runs a mobile lab today. They want to set up a science museum for the kids. Mohan, Praveen and Rahul has been assigned to the project PROJECT: RHEDT, URGENT REQUEST - Vani RHEDT has been established in 1995 and we have been supporting   for nearly 10 years. They run 3 tribal schools in remote village in the Karaikudi district and one residential school closer to the city. In 2004, we funded them $4000 for reconstructing the roofs with no promises for recurring expenses Cost of running the residential school in 2005 is $6000, and they want $3000 of that from Asha. Site visit to residential school is required but has been problematic to arrange, all visits cancelled in last minute Mohan has contacts in Karaikudi district who can help with site visit. Vani will synch with Mohan EVENT: AllGoRhythms on Oct 22, 2005 Need volunteers, contact Vani if interested PROJECT: Aralu – Belaku - Soujanya Project supported by Asha Chicago It is a Residential centre / child home in Bidar, Karnataka for orphans and children of migrant laborers. They have a cost of operation of $9800 for this year and Asha Chicago already raised $5000 They have a need of $4800 from Asha Seattle and this is a one time need Site visit conducted by Asha Chicago volunteer and a favorable report given VOTING Results o        Yes: 18 o        No: 0 o        Abstain: 8 PARTNERSHIP: South Asia Coalition for Peace - Tapoja Presented South Asia Coalition For Peace which is a group formed by 8 people from different parts of the country Aimed at creating a kind of coalition to work on a better Indo-Pak relationship on the two sides of the border in Kashmir Aim is to apply pressure on the governments of the two countries to strive for peace in the region Request for Asha to join the coalition Mission statement for South Asia Coalition For Peace presented Issue of group being too political came up and that Asha donors might not like the group taking sides Plans for the coalition is still unclear and a more concrete plan from them is needed before looking into this again General consensus is that Asha cannot support them as a group but on a individual project by project basis, we can evaluate their need Swati brought up the issue that there might be other groups working on it and they should investigate what else is out there and join in an on-going effort Tapoja has sent out mail and interested folks should contact her PROJECT: Learning Network - Vaibhav Learning network provides resources for educators who are interested in different/new approaches to education They organize annual conferences, workshops on special topics, newsletters and an annual conference magazine called Revive Asha has been supporting them since 2004 and their conference in 2005 was a big success The conferences have been held in Jaipur, Chennai, Bangalore They have targeted workshops for teachers and any teachers from all over India can participate This year they have annual expenses totaling $5258 (Conference = $360, Workshops = $940, Publications = $1180) They need from Asha Seattle $2880 (almost 30% increase from last year's funding request $1600). They are expanding the conference and increasing the workshop sizes Vibhavaree raised the concern that they had some amount left over from last year, Vaibhav will check on this and reduce the budget if there was a surplus Online voting needs to also be setup VOTING Results (conditional upon budget reallocation, folks can vote online) o        Yes: 16 o        No: 0 o        Abstain: 9 PROJECT: Vigyan Ashram - Rahul Vocational training center in Pune Provides a diploma in rural technology for school dropouts and teaches grades 8-10 After schooling, students attend a 1 year internship program where they get real life experience working in areas like animal husbandry, poultry etc which are setup by grads of the school After Internship, the school helps them set up their own ventures Money raised by AllGoRythms will be spilt between Vigyan Ashram and Uthnau Asha Redlands was to fund the project $3000 and Asha Seattle was funding $3000, since Asha Redlands cant raise the money they need us to fund the other $3000 too VOTING Results o        Yes: 17 o        No: 0 o        Abstain: 7 ORGANIZATIONAL: International Registration - Ravi Today there are around 65 - 70 Asha chapters worldwide and they operate autonomously There are lots of problems with chapters becoming dormant, little to no accountability, difference in operation Idea of the international registration is to bring more accountability into the different Asha chapters, We have to review Asha's international registration discussion. There is an online presentation that Ravi has put together which needs to be reviewed some answers need to be given to some answers Decided that a group needs to spend an hour working on just this, by popular vote we will be meeting on Wed @ 7:00p in Microsoft (email will be sent out) PROJECT: Champa Mahila Society (CMS) - Srijan Supporting the project this since the inception of Asha Seattle Provides early childhood centers, total of 35 schools 17 out of 35 schools are being supported by Asha and teachers in this school are being paid Rs.500 per month Students also are given food in these schools 11 schools supported by individual donors and teachers in this school are being paid only Rs.200 per month One time $8640 needed for the year to give the other teachers Rs.500 per month and food for the children in the other schools Issue raised is there a difference in the performance between the children in the two schools Swati is working with a donor for recurring sponsorship to remove the disparity in teacher's salary and provide lunch for all students to promote VOTING Results o        Yes: 26 o        No: 0 o        Abstain: 1

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