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Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 09/02/09 Venue: RTC/LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson,
Redmond, WA Attendees: Shailesh, Srijan,
Binay, Hareesh, Vibhavaree, Shivam, Amrutha, Reena, Nagendra Topic #1 Project:
Bhoomiheen Presenter:
Srijan Purpose:
Annual Presentation Visit
done by Srijan - 2 years ago, but has latest updates Introduction Aao
village in UP Primary
purpose - Improve social and economic conditions of the dalit landless
laborers in the region Established
- 1980 90%
of project funds comes from Asha 350
children - b:g =8:5 SC/ST/OBC
: Upper castes = 10:3 Total
15 teachers School
is an independent body. It's a very good school Infrastructure Pre-primary
to middle school building Hi-school
building A
lot of stress on self-expression & creative activities, games etc. -
Lego, Pool etc. They
have music class too Doctor
visits once a month - free medical check up They
have a garden Nice
play area Updates
for the last year No
significant changes NIOS
- open school, vocational courses have started - beauty culture, tailoring,
radio/TV repair, short-hand, mushroom production etc. No
site visit this year - Jayashree talks to them pretty regularly Teacher
retention has been a problem Funding
shortfall is restricting choices and expansion Budget No
budget increase Same
as last year - $60,000 Audit
Report Questions 1.
Is this rural area? Yes,
4-5 hours form Allahabad 2.
Mushroom production - popular? May
be they have a market 3.
How far from Delhi/Kolkata? Around
6-10 hours 4.
How many government schools? Nearby 5.
Teachers are local? No.
Nearby villages 6.
Village atmosphere? Segregated
casteism 7.
How is the book by Lalitji going? Good
read, not giving details. Should be published soon 8.
Any Budget changes? No
budget increase 9.
What was the amount from the specific donor? $1000
x 2 matching - teachers salaries 10.
What’s the management structure? Lalit
ji doesn’t get involved every day. Board is there. He tries to involve local
body, parents etc. 11.
Will they get government support? They
do get some middle school teachers salaries from the government 12.
No second leader - what's the status? Still
the same, the project needs influential leader like Lalit ji. Power struggle
in the atmosphere 13.
Do they appear for 10th class? Yes,
first time. Topic #2 Finance update Presenter:
Srijan Purpose:
September Finance update We
may save money on EQUIP - this year. Vijay hasn't gotten any proposal requests
for this year. NSS
and NAB - 0 So
far this year funds raised - $612,000 From
last year, the projection for the rest of the year- $150,000 Total
possible fund raising - $762,000 Yearly
disbursements for 2009 committed - $775,870 We
better be aggressive in fund raising Looking
reasonably close - we don't need to warn projects about cutting March
will be next update, but we can have interim update We
don't need to do targeted fund raising in GIVE campaign as we don't have specific
cuts planned We
can target inflation and increases in projects messages in the GIVEcampaign Coordinators
need to spread the word to stewards to look for any possible reductions in
the budget Topic #3 FR/PR team name Presenter:
Vibhavaree Do
we need to change the name? Do
we need to make the discussion with FR/PR team in the project? Name
changing is not a solution - we need to address Fund Raising by all the volunteers Jayashree/Bash
thoughts - we should not need to have a dedicated FR/PR team, which might make
other chapter members go easy on fund raising There
was lot of brain storming discussions but it was decided to have discussion
with current FR/PR coordinators before we bring any change. FR/PR
team accomplishments or attempts: Outreach
to SAM, KPC, ... $40K
from 40 days campaign Bringing
famous singer - big fund raising event Momentum
was there - then subsided What
are the consequences of a dedicated FRPR team? Summary/history
of the team We
set up an FR/PR team. They had initial momentum - did some good starts - then
slowed down. The main reason being that both coordinators got side tracked
due to personal issues. The coordinators notified chapter coordinator about
their expected low engagement for few months. Data
points to look at: Other
Asha chapters have FR/PR teams - SV, and NYCNJ How
do we know their FR/PR teams have been delivering? Twice
in the past Asha-Seattle has had an FRPR team, and both times it ended poorly. Primary
reason was chapter dumped its responsibilities onto FRPR team. Everyones
primary responsibility should be fund raising - this cannot/should not be
delegated. We
have been spoiled by past surplus/ease of fundraising. Reasons
for why we are here in the meeting discussing this: We
must make progress in fundraising to avoid cuts What
should the team responsibilities be? Such
a team needs to drive, not necessarily own or does the fund raising Bash's
point is never be able to communicate this difference of owning vs. driving/coordinating Chapter
coordinators need to delegate the FR/PR efforts - so we need the FR/PR group CCs
are buffer resources and FR/PR kind of a team can drive FR/PR Example
- GIVE campaign - too many tasks, too less resources - having a team will
help We
need to agree upon what the team's responsibilities are What's
the short term solution? They
are FR coordinators, not FR/PR team Coordinators
should be catch holders, not necessarily owners Teams
responsibilities - should not be owners or keepers or controllers Group
should be coordinators and helpers. Should
not set or attempt to set chapter's priorities. Priorities should be set in
chapter meeting. Suggestions
(formal vote waiting for involvement/presence of FRPR): 1)
Name change to Event and PR Coordinators. 2)
Event and PR Coordinators should exist. Responsibilities include: i.
Facilitate the chapter's fund raising events and efforts. ii.
Track events and maintain resources and knowledge. iii.
Maintain the calendar year of events and prod the chapter. 3)
As with projects, major fundraising discussions and decisions should be made
at chapter meetings. 4)
Fundraising and PR is the entire chapter's primary responsibility. Everyone
in chapter need to consider helping with fundraising and outreach efforts. Minutes taken by: Ken, Binay
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