|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 12/16/09 Venue: RTC/LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson,
Redmond, WA Attendees: Srijan, Ken, Hareesh,
Nagendra, Binay, Pratibha, Aanchal, Aparajita Topic #1 Project Coord Update
a) Starting
from Jan 1st 2010, project stewards will have to upload the current annual
budget, corresponding to the check request, on the project web page. b) Starting
from 2010, we will be using a new yahoo database. The records in this
database will have a field with the title "Cover Letter Sent and Budget
Doc Uploaded?(For ex: Y & Y) ". Please put in your appropriate
response -- yes & Yes, yes & No, ... -- when you enter a
record in the database. Topic #2 Chapter Coord
Update a) We had a
project workshop last weekend – was very well organized. Kudos to the
speakers and Srijan for organizing it! More than 20 people showed up. b) Marathon
- we had close to 12 runners, mostly half marathoners. Close to 3K from the
website. Other sources are not considered. So it was not a good fundraiser
this year. Some good news is we have one donor who said he will match all the
marathon money raised, up to 10K. Post mortem will be done by
Chapter coords, marathon coords and anyone else in Asha who’s interested. Topic #3 Project: CFL Presenter:
Hareesh CFL is alternative +
formal education centre. More focus on holistic learning. 65- 70 students, 7
– 15years age range. Money will be used for
repairs(Rs.80,000), new kitchen (Rs.2,50,000), and rest of the money for
storage area construction (Rs. 90,000). Money by donors $3500 + there is
matching, specifically for CFL. This total 7K is in addition to the money
already sent this year. This is a one-time request. Hareesh had visited
CFL about twice and thinks it is legitimate ask. Small budget, though new
kitchen expense seems high. Overall it seems OK since it is in Hyderabad. Ask: Hareesh will get the line by line
break-up of the funding request. Formal vote: approve funding of $7K? Yes – 6 Abstain - 2 Topic #4 CDB Coordination
Database Presenter:
Hareesh Hareesh gave a demo of
the CDB design. Everything will be stored in a single database, for Asha
volunteers. It will contain all information - Project info, steward info,
volunteer info, donor info. Down the line any chapter can use it, now we will
start with Seattle. Records are person, project, partners and chapter; can
send email too using this DB. More importantly it will contain historical
information. - Can
be implemented with just one server, hosting can be done very cheaply. We
need a developer to implement it – designing of CDB is done. - Identified
a few areas where there is duplication between CDB and external project
website. - Pratibha
felt it is great for the newsletter team to find info. - How
many hours of work will this take? There are 59 pages to be developed. It may
take about a month approx time. - Srijan
recommended having a prioritization of the
requirements/components/pages. Reports, Action Items and Administration
are lower priority tabs. - What
problem are we trying to solve? o No good way of tracking and
analyzing donor information o No good way to know which
project had site visits done this year, which projects were presented in the
chapter this year etc. o Will solve the workflow
problems. o From chapter perspective,
need to do data mining easily on all records. - Srijan
pointed out the finance requirements have not been taken into account in this
DB. - Did
you consider Sharepoint DB? Whoever is working on the development can chose
the technology. - Is
it worth the time to develop this? - Started
with designing and requirement gathering almost 2 years ago. Hareesh wants
the chapter to see this as a high priority. - Aanchal
will help in driving this forward – finalizing the design, finding a
developer, simplifying the design etc. Topic #5 Asha ARC poll on
"zero-overhead" policy and Sharing of interest money earned at
Asha central: Srijan presented the
highlights: - Marathon
is a little different from other events. We incur certain expenses like for
T-shirts, coaching fees etc. Where does this come from? If we say 100% goes
to projects, these need to go from the admin expenses. - Asha
Seattle gets money for admin expense from specific admin expense donations
and from selling chai. - Asha
central uses the interest money from banks to cover admin expenses. - For
fundraising events, the net proceeds go to the projects. - Merchandize
sale can be considered towards admin expenses. - Site
visit expenses if incurred, can come from admin expenses. - Fundraiser
loss has to come from admin expenses Vote on Zero
Overhead (ZOH) Policy: A) We want to continue
with our current ZOH policy on donations, i.e., 100% of donations get spent on
educational projects in India. By selecting this option, the chapter acknowledges
all of the implications mentioned in Notes 1A below. B)
We want to go non ZOH on donations. We think the current ZOH policy on
donations is getting too
difficult to stick to. By selecting this option, the chapter acknowledges all of the
implications mentioned in Notes 1B below. C) We abstain from
voting on this question. Votes: A) 6 B) 0 C) 0 Vote on Sharing
of interest money earned at Asha central A. Continue with the
current approach of splitting total interest in the ratio of chapters' yearly closing
balances. B. Let all chapters'
interest earned stay with general admin funds. In return, general admin funds can cover
for all chapters' major admin expenses such as 3% cc fees for donations, etc. C. We abstain from
voting on this question. Votes: A) – 4 Abstain
- 2 Minutes taken by: Aparajita
|
|
|
|
|
|
|