Minutes of Asha Seattle Meeting on 05/20/09

Venue: RTC LWSD No. 414, Morton Johnson

Attendees: Hareesh, Kavitha G, Vijay, Ken, Vibhavaree, Srijan, Rajesh, Divya, Sirisha, Kalpana, Nagendra, Binay

1) Presenter: Hareesh Veldandi    Priority: Must Time: 20 minutes

Name of the group: Sri Sai Seva Sadan  Years with Asha: 1   Location: Hyderabad, AP
Reason for presentation: Site Visit Report Presentation
Site Visit status: Feb 2009
Project page: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=993

Some questions:

·         Is this a new school? Yes - for developmentally challenged kids.

·         Is it a requirement that kids stay there? Yes.

Presentation of site visit:

Overall impression was that the project has come up well.

·         Did not meet the target of gathering 25 kids

·         Facilities adequate but could be improved - they are still learning about what they will need.

·         Big enough for 25 kids.

·         Project took a while to establish - we asked them  to raise 25% of funds.

·         Doctor, yoga teacher, therapist, cook/hostel manager, caretaker. 2 special ed teachers. 5:1 ratio.

·         Stil do not have individual goal for each child.

·         Doctor is paid but acting as a consultant. Refers the kids to the hospital after diagnosing and preparing a treatment/care plan.

·         These kids are from needy families.

·         Suggested contacting other hospitals too to identify other kids with the same need. Could use the same doctor to confirm the diagnosis of the other kids before taking them in.

·         Asked them to postpone setting up the daycare center.

·         They also need to guide and instruct the parents on how to handle the child when they visit home. Comment: They shpuld visit the homethe first time and ensure this.

·         They have some learning tools for the kids, but need to get more.

·         Kitchen has a refrigerator donated by a trustee.

·         They have not used by all the money - only a third  - being very conservative. We'll get them to resubmit the next year's budget taking into account the unspent account.

Comments/Questions/Followup Suggestions:

1.       Get Laxmi to visit them or get in touch with them. Also get them to do some parental counselling.

2.       Are parents happy about kids being sent here - is this taken into consideration by the doctor. make sure they have frequent contact with the parents.

3.       How do we evaluate the effectiveness? Make sure they have a plan for each child and use that in the future to measure effectiveness.

4.       Is religion a criterion in selection – no, doesn’t seem that way.

2) Presenter:  Coordinators  Priority:  Must  Time:  15 minutes

Chapter Coords - Binay, Deb, Palani.

· Balaji Sampath talk tomorrow, Please attend. Need volunteers to pick up and host him.

· UW meeting happening next week. Please try and come.

· Chapter coords will send out a monthly update on whats happening at chapter level.

· Rock N Roll Marathon: Asha wont get a chance tpo setup a booth and had no runners initially, so FRPR didnt think of it as usefu and said nol . Good from a PR perspective, but FRPR will reconsider now since we have runners now. Tulika driving this - will need details on runners and fuindraising expectations from them.

· We wont have any attendees for Asha wide this year.

· Algo meetings have kicked off. Phase 1 team is formed. Scheduled for Oct.

· STP: Please join: summer is here.

· Our website is getting updated. Please supply feedback

Project Coords - Hareesh, Nagendra, Shailesh, Vibhavaree, Vijay.

· Some projects need site visits badly esp EQUIP since they will be requesting funds soon. They will be coming up with a modified proposal.

· Priyati Gupta is doing the minutes uploading.

· Balavihar and Jeevan Gnanodaya need stewards.

FRPR Coords - Kalpana, Pooja.

· We are submitting a WAH project for the WAH fundraiser. Need a volunteer. Rajesh volunteered.

· There is a dance performance by Arpan (bharat natyam school) and have requested Asha to setup a both and provide food. We can sell food from an approved food place. This is on June 12. Palani and Sudhir are volunteering for it.

· Setting up a Ragmala booth is on the cards for the 20th.

· FRPR wants to brainstorm on expanding fundraising. Suggestion is to bring it to the next meeting. Inchin's Bamboo garden retaurant will donate 5% of proceeds to Asha in return for publicising. Needs to be brought to a chapter meeting.

3) Presenter: Srijan  Priority:  must  Time: 30 min

Update on financial status, where we stand right now in terms of fundraising & pledges, where we stand with respect to our financial policy guidelines (check:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asha-seattle/files/General%20Chapter/Asha-Seattle_Policies.doc) and what our next steps need to be.

We had a deficit last year. Need more data before a we can have an idea of the financial budget.

We are still discussing the finacial policy and how to phase in budget cuts if needed. Need to provide 6 months notice to projects if doing budget cuts. Cant wait till Sept or even Dec - cuts will be more if deferred.

Breakdown of income from various sources for 2008:
Allgos 13K
Geetanjali 6K
Marathon 15K
Individual (roughly 700 people) 600K  (giving was ~400K)
STP 15K
Golf 10K

In 2009 so far we have raised about the same as last year, but our goal is much higher this year, so we need a bigger push to achieve the 900K+ target.

4) Presenter:  Kavitha Golconda Priority:  must  Time:  15 minutes

Name of the Group:  Gandhi Kasturibhai Village Development Society (GKVDS)  Established: 1993 With Asha: 2006

Location:  Chengam, Tiruvannamalai District, TAMIL NADU

What they do:  Aims to provide non-formal education, health care and vocational training to under-privileged children. We sponsor 5 schools that educate 150 children in the age group on 7-11 years.

Reason for presentation, action needed: Funding approval for 2009

Finance:  Rs. 4,04,700

Size:  150 students, 5 instructors, 1 supervisor, 1 coordinator, 1 assistant coordinator

Site visit status:  yes, 2008 Project page:  http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=801

Project up for renewal for 3rd year. Asking for a 10% raise, but we cant this year due to a freeze on funding increases, so we will tell them that they'll get the same amount as promised last year. Hence no need to re-approve for funding. Kavitha said they need to start new centers as well, so the suggestion is for them to approach other chapters/new donors.

5) Presenter:  Kalpana Priority:  normal  Time:  5 minutes

Proceeds from sale of a technical book being authored by a Microsoft employee and few others will be donated to Asha for Education.  Specifically, it will be the share of 1 person's income from the sales.   Book is scheduled to be released in January 2010.  Publisher is O'Reilly.

No issues.

6) Presenter:  Srian Priority:  normal  Time:  5 minutes

AID asked us if we want to cohost Mr Damodaran. We are hosting other people from the same project (Balaji), so do we host him or not? AID will cover fully if we do not.

Yes -2 - No - 5 Abstain - 6.

7) Presenter: Srijan  Priority:  must  Time: 10 min

We have been following a 6 volunteer quorum requirement for our general votes. We have discussed this before, but always left it kind of open and never documented it in any minutes (not that I could find) or even in emails. The idea here is just to make it a formal decision, put it in the meeting minutes and in the policy doc.

Also the meeting quorum is 6 people.

12 Y- 0 No 1 Abstain. Will be posted online.

Minutes taken by Shailesh Vaishnavi