MinutesJul-01-2007

Attendees: Anil, Sangeeta, Barnali, Anand, Anitha, Hemang, Kamal, Shezad, JK, Anjali, Aditi, Ashutosh, Ann

1. New Project: Project Sevalaya

Project Stewards: Anand/Anitha

    * Located in Kasuva Village, Tamil Nadu
    * Website: www.sevalaya.org
    * Rural project
    * Seeking funding from the Silicon Valley chapter
    * Project targets orphans and children from disadvantaged families
    * The project serves 1,000 students
    * Literacy rate in the area 100% - due to the project
    * Funding Request: Rs. 200,000 ($ 4,890.57) – for notebooks
    * One time request for funding
    * The project has worked with other Asha chapters
    * Long term goals: Provide college and free higher education for their students
    * Jayakanth from Asha SV did site visit in 2007 – Very impressed
    * Also have a medical center, old age home, and craft training
    * They have paid for some students college education
    * Berkeley chapter approves of the project – pending answers to the questions raised below

Questions:

What have their sources of funding been till now?

Where do the orphan kids come from?

100% literacy – What does that mean?

2. Aseema – Igatpuri Project

    * Aseema has a successful project in Bombay – Not seeking funding for that site
    * A current Balwadi in Igatpuri serves children from 3 villages
    * This project would established a rural school in Igatpuri that would serve 6 additional viallges
    * Pre-primary school
    * The project will for the time being be set up in the government school’s building (inadequate and insufficient in the long term)
    * Will serve 50 students initially
    * Have funding to build their own building – should be completed by next July.
    * Aseema has purchased 14 acres of land to set up an educational center that would eventually serve a student population from pre-primary to age seventeen. Construction though is expensive
    * Plans to move students from the Bombay school with bad living situations to the Igatpuri site
    * The resource center would try to cater to the intellectual and emotional needs of the students and prepare them for life after they leave school
    * Other aspects of the project: Rainwater harvesting, Vocational training, solar energy
    * Seeking funding for the cost of running the balwadi
    * Amount requested is a little bit over $7,000
    * Pending answer to the questions below, the chapter will fund the project for 6 months.
    * The project stewards will also try to pitch the idea to Asha Silicon Valley and Asha San Francisco. If the rest of the funding is not picked up by the other chapters then the project will be up for extension in 6 months.  
    * Kamal will be the primary contact for the chapter and Hemang will try to make as many meetings as possible

Questions:

Plans for transportation once the educational centre is set up?

Any formal agreement with the government to use their site?

3. Post Asha 16 Discussion:

Where do we want to be as a chapter?

What do we want to focus our energies on?

How do we get and share information with other chapters? Replicate good practices

How do we present ourselves to new volunteers and recruit more effectively

A more formal and thorough discussion for the next meeting – Set on the agenda

Need to present Asha Berkeley financials – What money has come in and been spent – Set on the agenda for next meeting

Ask Ayesha to be there

Need to focus more efforts on young professional recruiting to balance

Focus on grad students. Kamal will speak with Professor Isha Ray

Need to establish teleconference option for meetings so people who are not in the area can call in

Regional Conference during the next year: Chapters from Seattle-LA

Berkeley will host

4. Brief IOI discussion

Sangeeta has heard back from 18 groups

Flyer is being worked on – First draft by second week of July?

Look at printing options: Inkworks – Coop printers. Use recycled paper and soy ink

Look at options for selling/ displaying things at IOI