Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 11/06/06 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson Room, Redmond, WA Attendees: Marina, Theresa, Ken, Kavita, Bindu, Smita, Nitin, Vibhavaree, Monica, Girija, Srijan, Mithun, Shailesh, Ravi, Sudarshan, Swaminathan, Palani, Swati, Monica, Saurabh, Lakshmi Kumar, Shayon, Tulika, Aparajita. Coordinator Notes (Srijan) Projects Update – Presented by Sudharshan § Need to clean up the website to keep info as accurate as possible. Project stewards with action items have been contacted already. § From the next year onwards finance information will be entered by project co-ordinators only. Makes update work easier. Workshop Update – Presented by Srijan We have a workshop on 19th of this month. Agenda in the Morning: Jayashree speaks about "Culturally relevant curriculum" which is being tried at her daughters school followed by a documentary: "Class Divided" ... address race issues in the classroom. Also Swati talks about her experiences with rural schools. Compare and contrast two different project experiences. New Volunteer Orientation – Presented by Ravi § 16th is the New Volunteer Orientation. Please attend and encourage others to attend or be a part of the new volunteer team. Presenter: Palani § MS employees: please match your volunteer time. Contact "palanis" at microsoft for details. Wagheshwar Vidya Vikas Trust – Presented by Nitin Ved, Swami Expansion plans for a school. 2500 students (1900 boys, 600 girls) and 100 teachers. Provides free education. Makeshift classrooms and temporary infrastructures - benches, chairs and classrooms. Site visit in August 2006. We need to clarify who did the site visit - not conducted during the classes. We need to look at the lab. Look at parents' opinion? No FCRA clearance. They need Rs. 30,00,000 from Asha Seattle during the first year. Budget expense clarifications on individual employees. How much are we supporting? Other sources of funding? GKVDS - Presented by Kavitha § Landless, poor and women self-help groups in the area. Mostly tailoring training and operation of bank accounts. Plan to include education ... 5 schools. Normal schools are far off. § Rupa from NY/NJ Asha chapter did the site visit. Visited 5 villages and spoke to parents of the kids. No classrooms - open and people's homes. § Good feel for the project. But why so much tailoring? Why kids this young want to be initiated into tailoring? Final vote (pending clearance from finance team about availability of funds) Vote: 13 Yes, 3 No, 7 Abstain CMS - Presented by Aparajita/Swati/Shayon Background information. Amol-da was incharge of all sub-projects. Budget for accountant and co-ordinator and part of expenses $1110. We need annual report of all the things we need to do. We need more clarifications on what the exact nature and responsibilities of the new posts.  Mahila Samakhya – Presented by Tulika Agarwal § Multi-school project. § Needs funding to build school soon - $30K per school. § Not presented for lack of funds at this time.

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