Meeting Minutes March 23rd, 2006

Date	03/23/2006
Venue	Redmond Town Center, Lake Washington School District #414
Attendees	Kavitha, Kavita, Ken, Vibhavaree, Sri, Srijan, Ravi, Swati, Jayashree, Tulika, Niru

ORGANIZATIONAL: Team of stewards per project - Vibhavaree

The proposal from the last workshop was to have 4 stewards for every new project. We also considered having a similar system for all existing projects. There are both pros and cons of a project team. One problem is that having a large team makes it hard to coordinate. The thought was to limit it to 2-3 people per project. We need to provide guidelines instead of enforcing rules.
For new projects, a minimum of 3 stewards, of which at least one is experienced (if this requirement can not be met, new projects will not be taken) will be needed at least for the initial screening and setup. For all other projects, it will be strongly encouraged (though not required) that there be more than one steward. There is no upper limit on the number of stewards per project.
Voting Results:

ORGANIZATIONAL: Should we take decisions in our workshops - Srijan

If attendance meets the usual minimum voting requirement, and the item was included in the workshop agenda, then formal voting can proceed. If the item was not on the agenda, it can still be voted on, but for the vote to become ‘official’, the item must be brought up at a regular meeting and pass a vote to make it official. The reasoning is that when official decisions are made, they need to be announced beforehand, so that any interested party has a chance to participate. As a side note, it was decided that specific efforts to gather votes over the web were not needed, since if anyone missed a vote, or saw other previously unseen problems, they could always bring the item up for discussion and a revote at a regular meeting.
Voting Results:

PROJECT: Sakshar - Jayashree

Asha Delhi is supporting a project "Sakshar" for 3 years. Rs. 84,000/- of the Rs.3,00,000/- has been raised by Asha Delhi volunteers. This donor wants us to route a portion of his donation through Asha Seattle to Asha Delhi on a recurring basis. Tulika has agreed to be a project steward. She will present Sakshar specific project in the next meeting.
Project description: Sakshar is a preparatory school for kids who live in slums. It goes from Nursery to class 2 and runs for 3 hours every day. They want to get kids ready so that eventually they can be moved to municipal schools.
It is a good idea to support Sakshar through Asha Delhi instead of supporting it directly since we can build and maintain relations with Asha Delhi. We need to try to tie up with other Asha India chapters too.
Voting Results for supporting this project through Asha Delhi :

ORGANIZATIONAL: Chapter decision on policy matters - Srijan

We discussed on ways to deal with policy matters. One idea is to create a post of a Policy steward similar to a Project steward. Policy matters have to be brought up in meetings/workshops.
After the Policy Steward conducts his/her research, he/she presents it in a general or a special meeting. Every body needs to get a chance to air their views.
Policy decisions cannot be voted on for at least a couple of weeks after the initial presentation. Voting has to be conducted both - online and in the meeting. A minimum of 15 votes is required. At least two thirds of the votes should agree on the stance we will be taking.
Policy stance can be revisited upon new information. Policy stance has to be clearly documented on our website. Other measures such as petitions, networking with other organizations etc. can be done on a case by case basis.
Voting Results:

ORGANIZATIONAL: Upcoming Asha Elections - Ravi

We talked about the upcoming Asha Elections for the 2006- 2008 tenure. We need to file nominations by March 25th. There are 7 posts up for election. Some are individual positions and some have a team with one elected member. Nominations can be made either for a team member position or for an elected post. Nomination has to go through a chapter and some other chapter member needs to nominate you. If you want to self nominate, please inform Netika.