2 April 2006 

 

Attendees:

Ashwini, Anita, Arvind,Gaurav, Sanjeev, Radha, Ram, Syona, Santhosh, Ruchika, Murali.

 

Update on pending action items

- Mail the proposal to thegroup and ask for questions and refinement, vote next weekend, get answers toquestions - Arvind.

- Banyan Q & A and newproposal next weekend - Santhosh

- Progress on 35mm slow.

- Ruchika and Sanjeev workingto contact Punjab projects

 

1) Movie Under theStars

Idea in a nutshell: To screen an outdoor movie under the stars, providesnacks (samosa, chat and chai).

 

Issues:

- Zilker permit Ð needs aproposal from us about the event before giving us a quote.

- Zilker may require us toget a insurance.

- If we have a large outdoorscreen it may require expensive audio-video equipment and screen.

- Rights for the movie

 

Suggestions anddiscussions

We may want to do a pilot,60 ppl if we can pull that off we can do a larger event every couple of months.

- Do a pilot in UT? - CanÕtask for donations or charge, we would like it to be a fundraiser.

- Team up with local culturalgroups and screen the movie. Too restrictive, Hindi movie is good.

- Go for big event. Getsponsorship. Will be difficult to publicize through word of mouth, need to workmore on publicity. Need rights for this.

- Vibha gets rights formovies and there is a NJ distributor we can contact. Single screening costsfrom $300-$1200.

 

Action Items

- Work on a proposal forZilker to get information about a movie screening with 60 people, we will needto get rights and ask for requirements of insurance of location. - Sanjeev

- Call Zilker and check about an evening withfriends and no publicity. Can they screen the movie for us- Anita

- Since they do outdoor movie screeningcheck if they have a screen and equipment that we can rent-Anita

- Check the renting ofscreens and AV equipment - Radha

- Get the details of theprojector they suggest for events of both sizes. See if we can use theprojector we have. - Radha

- Check on insurancerequired for events from other organization

-         ICC Ð Ruchika

-         Vibha Ð Sanjeev : Done J.

 

- Copyrights

-         Students groups Ð Harpreet

-     Ask about this on Ashafundraising - Santhosh

-         Check with Tamil Sangam - Santhosh

-         Check with AKS - Ashwini

-         Check online distribution companies for copyrights

-         Houston has a theater that screens Indian movies,need to get someone

-         in Houston to check on this - Santhosh, Gaurav

-         Contact friend who knows movie distributor - Sanjeev

-         Distributor in NJ - Murali

-         Distributor for Eros - Murali

-         Vasu's phone number - Murali can try to get it

-         Check with the NJ distributor  Ð Gaurav

 

Publicity

-         AID upcoming event

-         Ask Barsana Dham for table - Ruchika

 

Movie suggestions

Show Amitabh movie...willpull crowds.

- Sholay *: People wouldhave watched it many times. Will they

actually come to watch it?

- Golmaal

- Rang de basanti

- Andaz Apna Apna

- Hera Pheri

- Chupke Chupke

- DDLJ

- Namak Halal *

- Lagaan: is it too recent?

- Masoom: too emotional?

- Rangeela

- QSQT

Get prices and then we canfigure out which movie to go for.  - Gaurav

 

Have a call on Wednesday tosee if we have finalized the movie etc and can publicize at the Indian Oceanconcert.

 

2) Plan B

If not a movie, then what?

- movie fest in UT

- basketball tournament

 

 

3) Indian OceanConcert Tabling

If we get a table whatshould we do there.

  1. Marathon movie + CD Ð Santhosh, Anita, Sanjeev
  2. Newsletter - ??
  3. Flyer Ð event - ??
  4. Magnets (General Asha) - Gaurav

 

4) BJSA SAC discussion-

- Last donation for SAC cameonly in November, but BJSA does have some remaining funds (Rs 70,000 - willlast for a few months).

The # of children increased,but, the # of teachers and expenses didn't increase. Perhaps requirements of theproject per donor came down.

- Sewing center is closeddown. How was this supported can we support it independently?

- BJSA requires a building -land will be granted by village panchayat. The pradhan is working on it. Constructioncosts may be required.

 

Q: If we have additionalfunds can education be improved ?

A: BJSA has sent the twoteachers for teacher training. We have approved funding for a set of librarybooks for the school. They also have access to books from Eklavaya which can beused.

 

Action Items

-         Find out the budget for the school for an entireacademic year not just at the end of the year. - Gaurav

-         Co-ordinate yearly review of the project - Gaurav.

 

5) ASS update

 

Arvind and Ruchika had aconf call with Neelima, Ravi about participating in the support a childprogram. Neelima and Harpreet are handling the program and are going to splitthe work with Ruchika and Arvind.

 

The update is that 30students had left the school, the teachers have been speaking to their parentsto get them back. They might return to school, have conf call in the evening tofind out update.

Q: Why did the childrenleave?

A: They we elder girlchildren who are in the early grades since they never went to school and didn'twant to sit in the same class as some of the younger children.

25 new kids might join theschool - The total is now around 130 kids.

 

If the project becomesunmanageable for number of kids do we want to consider supporting the projectfrom chapter funds?

 

Q: What happens if fundsraised are not enough to cover project requirements?

A: If the donations raisedis less than the requirements, then chapter funds need to be used. If therequirements are lesser than what the SAC donors would contribute, we need to changethe amount that a donor needs to contribute for the project.

Action Item

- We need updated budgetrequirements for an academic year and check $/child for the next year.