Attendees: Vivin, Raman, Radha, Santhosh, Ram, Vinod, Sriram, Karthik,
Sanjeev, Bijal, Anita
 
1. Srishti Special Academy
-----------------------------------
 
Vinod presented the proposal from Srishti. Check the foll webpage for
more details
(http://www.ashanet.org/austin/projects/proposals/srishti.php)
 
The requirement can be broadly placed under the following categories
 
- Salaries for teachers. This can probably be raised through
Support-a-Teacher program.
 ( or Support a Child)
- SAC for nutritional food for the children
- Running expenses of the 2 buses they have
 
Points / questions from the discussion:
 
- We should have a better understanding of Autism, mental retardation.
What is the
 difference between them?
- If the children also come to the school on weekends, when does their
family spend
 time with them?
- How many teachers work on weekends?
- Does the bus bring the parents along on weekends?
- Salaries for teachers range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 8,000. Can we get
more info on this?
- How many children use the bus?
- Is the retention rate of teachers low only due to the pay or are
there other reasons?
- How many children finish the course and leave each year? How many
have graduated
 so far?
- By how much does Srishti grow each year (# kids)?
- How old are children when they come in?
- They seem to be working on developing skills etc. How do they deal
with young kids?
- Do they give admission to any child with spl needs?
- What is the full amount of fees?
 
We took a vote on whether as a chapter we would like to support this project.
Yes 10 ,No 1
 
Here is what people said about their decisions
- A good project. Such projects do not usually get enough support.
- It is a good cause.
- Most of the parents have low incomes. And since such education is
usually expensive,
 it would be nice if we can support them.
- Support the cause and I like the fact that they are working towards
identifying skills
 specific to each child in order to make them independent.
- There is not enough focus on children with special needs. So support
this effort.
- I don't think we should be supporting the running expenses of the buses. Also
 seems to be a mature project.
- They seem to be quite high profile. Should we instead support a
similar project that
 is in more need?
Regarding the last question, Asha does not have a whole lot of
proposals from projects for special children that we can choose from
based on need etc.
 
2. WAH
------------
Asha Austin is coordinating the Work-an-Hour efforts this year. A new
format for WAH will be implemented. Each chapter can propose a project
they have been working with for at least a year and fund raising will
be sort of decentralized. Details of this format at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austinasha/message/839
 
We will need a volunteer from Austin to coordinate the efforts at the
chapter, ie, making a project proposal etc. Sriram volunteered to be
the WAH coord.
 
3. Fundraising
------------------
Radha, Santhosh and Karthik will coordinate the fundraising efforts
with Radha as the lead.