Asha Austin Meeting Minutes: 3/4/07

Venue: Anita & Bharath's Place

Attendees: Anita, Santhosh, Bharat Kumar, Gaurav, Pankaj, ArvindV., Murali, Ganesh, Bhavna, Sais, Savita, Rathi

1.      Gnanodaya School (Santhosh)

2.      Fund-Raiser (Rathi)

3.      U Shrinivas Concert

4.      Asha Kaithi (Gaurav)

1. Gnanodaya School Proposal Review

Santhosh gave a brief overview of the past discussions regarding Gnanodaya.  See previous meeting minutes for details.  

Phase 3 questions were reviewed.  See Santhosh's email for details.  Access the document via: http://data.ashanet.org/datastore/data/Chapters/Austin/proposals/Gnanodaya/

The document is "QA_extended.doc"

Discussion on Phase 3 Questions:

Q14 (Food Costs): Is the 3000 for gas reasonable – proportion does not seem right?   It should be noted that this is for 100+ children, and teachers for 3 meals a day.  Do we really need a further break down on costs – ie what value is it?   It may give a good baseline for future projects.

Q15 (Teachers & Salaried): The staff is also included in the costs.   It seems like the salaries are a bit low, avg. govt. salaries are about 6000/month.  We should not push this on the project, it could be discussed, but they need to make the decision.   Also, each project has unique situations, and we should not discount the value of those teaching for the past few years.

Also, they want to hire some more teachers.

Q16 (Vehicle): Ganesh has a friend who works for Tata, he has emailed him to see if they can help.   Santhosh has a relative at Hyundai, he will contact.

Additional Questions:

Q: Should we get more info on the agricultural aspect?  In case DIK pulls out, this may be one more item to fund.

Q: What classes are taught science? From the table it appears like only 6 & 7.

Q: Do they have specific methods to help the children after they leave the school?

A: Nothing specific, however it is being considered at the project.   It needs some further definition and is something we can help the project with as time goes on.

Q: What is the principal's experience?

A: He has about 10 years experience and use to volunteer a lot in college.  

Q: Have we funded food expenses before (Bharath)

A: Yes, Prasanna Jyothi and SAC are examples

Q: What progress do we want to see after the first year?

A: It is difficult to say, it is something that will become clearer as we work with the project.   But, things like attendance are always key.  Follow up and contact are important in this regard.

Q: Does DIK have a time frame to pull out?

A: No specific time frame, just asap.

Q: Should we have a scholarship fund?

A: Probably not, it may distort the school.  Merit can be very subjective in these cases.

Proposal Discussion

Current Funding:  Taking into account existing projects and approved projects, we have sufficient funds to cover Gnanodaya.  Asha Madison is also interested in funding the project.  Other chapters may also be interested - Santhosh will contact.

Santhosh proposes to fund the Teacher & Staff Salaries.  Look at Food and other items later.

Murali suggested that we don't choose the expenditure, but rather approve an amount and let the project decide where to spend the money.   But we need to understand what they propose to spend on, and it should be on items that are listed in the propoal.  This way, their highest priority can be attended to.

VOTE:

Propose to fund $10,000 for 1 year.  Within 6 months, if they need more and things are going well, we can approve additional funds.

For:12  Against:0  Abstain:0

Also, Santhosh has too many projects.  Bharath and Preethi will be helping with Gnanodaya and Banyan.

2. Fund Raising Idea - Talent Show (Rathi)

Fundraising idea has to do with creating some awareness about Asha in Austin.  Idea is an Austin-Wide Talent show for the Indian community.   She has talked to some potential sponsors – Dell has some money available for this type of activity.  Some other companies may also have this type of program.   Basically talent like singing, dances, etc.  We can make age groups and have people from the community to be judges, etc.   All participants would have to pay registration fee, and spectators would be charged a ticket price, and proceeds would go to Asha Austin.  Prizes would be a plaque or similar form of recognition.  

We would have audtions, and need to know length of performance, etc. 

Past experience suggests a hall that can seat 200-300 people.

Bhavna, Anita, and Sais will work with Rathi and make a plan and present next week.  Critical items are expenses, time line, outreach.

3. U Srinivas Event: We have an opportunity to have a U Srinivas concert this year.   The max expense is $7,000.  Decision is required by March 10 if Austin wants to host.  IFA has previously organized a U Srinivas concert.   Sais will contact IFA to see what kind of cost, effort, and benefit resulted.  We will discuss on Wednesday.

4. Asha Kaithi (Gaurav)

Asha Kaithi (UP) is where all Asha accounts are maintained (main office).

Pictures shown of center.

Video of honey making also shown

Some activities:

-Vermi Composting – this was interesting as we are funding a similar activity in Prajnalaya.

-Farming

-Gobar Gas Plant

-Honey Making

-Solar Lamp

Q: What is Vallabh's background?

Q: Will sand mining lead to an increase in flooding?

Q: Where to the bees initially come from?