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Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 01/02/08 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson Room, Redmond, WA Attendees: Mani, Anisha, Amritani, Ashwin, Marina, Eera, Hareesh, Vibhavareei, Ken, Srijan, Sree, Bindu, Vijay, Swati, Ravi, and a person whose name I forget. Update on Center For Learning (CFL) – Presented by Hareesh Veldandi · A brief overview of the project was presented by Hareesh. CFL was started 25 years back and imparts an alternate form of education with an emphasis to impart practical knowledge. · A site visit report was done by Ravi Mandoli of Asha Hyderabad, who was very impressed. The site visit report does not talk about the general mingling amongst students, but according to Hareesh, Dr.Gurveen Kaur encourages this. · There are 68 students in the school and the school cannot be expanded to teach about 100 students because the teachers do not appreciate the idea of teaching a larger class room. The students are grouped in to different grades based on their individual abilities and not on age. There is a student to teacher ratio of 7:1. The teachers are chosen from amongst volunteers having an educational qualification ranging from between 10th Grade upto Post Graduation. · The funding comes from the TATA Trust Fund, from various Donors, and from the fees collected from 30 % of the students. None of the students are forced to pay any fees and lunch is provided to all the students, even those who do not pay fees. · The Principal of the school is of the opinion that due to the low fee schedule, the school is looked down upon by prospective students and their families, as a school with low capabilities, and hence wants to increase the fees. · Each teacher is being paid Rs 1000 per month as salary. Due to this low amount, there is a tendency of the teachers to leave the school. Dr.Gurveen Kaur wants to thus increase the salary to Rs 3,500 per month. · Dr.Gurveen Kaur is a part of the Learning Network (initiated by Asha volunteers and funded by Asha Seattle) and teaches parents in the evenings. · Despite Telugu being the local language, the education is imparted through English because of the demand for the same by the students. · CFL have a detailed annual report. They currently require a budget of Rs 9.0Lakhs, of which CFL has asked ASHA Foundation for Rs 1.80 Lakhs. TATA Trust Fund will be providing Rs 5.0 Lakhs, and Rs 2.20 Lakhs will be collected as Fees. Vote: Voting was done on providing Rs 1.80 Lakhs to CFL and received the below votes. Yes – 12, No – 0, Abstain – 4 Update Vikasana Bridge School for Child Labor Rehabilitation- Presented by Pavan · A brief overview of the project was done by Pavan. The school was started in 1988 and is run by Vikasana- an NGO. There are 25 students in all consisting of the children of migrant laborers. · The last site visit was done in December 2006. No information can be provided if there would be any done soon. · The budget of Rs. 2,21,350 for the 2007-2008 financial year is more than that of the following financial year due to the purchase of Computers in 07-08. · Along with Asha-Seattle, Asha -University of Florida chapter is also a part of this project but are not involved in the financial aspect as the chapter is composed of students. · The school has children from the 2nd grade up to the 7th grade. The children are put in to the respective grades based on their age. · The bridge school curriculum is for one year. · The staff consists of one teacher. There are also a cook and coordinator present in the school. There is a doctor available, but he charges a fee for his services. · Questions were raised on the feasibility of one teacher teaching 25 students in different grades. The daily routine of the school is not available. The qualification of the teacher and her/his capability to teach students of different backgrounds is not known. Within the students the ratio of the girls to the boys has to be found out. All these questions have to be answered during the next site visit. · Due to the lack of complete clarity on the various aspects as mentioned above, of the school, it was decided that funding would be provided only for the next four months i.e. Rs 87,100. Based on the review of a site visit and following a vote at Asha Seattle, the funding for the remainder of the financial year would be looked in to later on. Vote: Voting was done on providing Rs 87,100 to the Vikasana Bridge School and received the below votes Yes – 13, No – 0, Abstain – 3 Chapter & Project coordinator Update - Presented by Srijan, Ravi & Hareesh · It was agreed by all that when a project is approved the financial aspects of it should be highlighted in the meeting minutes instead of maintaining separate spread sheets for this purpose. The stewards should point to the minutes as proof. · It is better if the minutes of the meeting are done digitally and sent to everyone. · The minute taker should be given a gist on what the meeting would be about. · The stewards have the authority to modify the minutes if they find the need. · A photo or two on every individual project should be sent by the respective stewards to Srijan. · In the financial year of 2006-2007, Asha-Seattle has disbursed $ 700,000. It was decided that separate budget meetings should be held, and there should be quarterly updates on the financial situation. · The next two events involving Asha-Seattle are Geetanjali & STP. The former is going to be held in March (a weekend) for which volunteers are required. Apart from deciding the Hall for the event there has not been anything else done ARC poll on organizational issues – Presented by Srijan · It was agreed by all that Web Domains should be given to every Chapter of ASHA, which was not done earlier due to technical problems. · Local volunteers should primarily constitute a particular Chapter of ASHA, and should be the main deciders and decision making authority in that Chapter. · Due to insufficient time we had to postpone this agenda item. Thus voting did not take place.
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