MinutesNov-4-2007

Meeting Minutes Nov 4, 2007

Sandipan, Puneet, Jayanth, Rashmi, Bala, Kamal, Madhurima, Pankaj

Agenda

I. Financial decision regarding Aseema project II. Prachi Academy III. WAH update IV Questions for Project partners (quarterly updates) V. New Treasurer VI. Sevalaya Project Update

I. Assema Project (Kamal)

Background

    * New Educational Center in rural area
    * Awalhkeda, Maharashtra
    * Center is starting with Balvaadi only (but it will house full school eventually)
    * Construction is going on, 2 rooms
    * 3 teachers, 43 Kids (23 boys, 20 girls)
    * Additionally, vocational training is one of the endgoals
    * This area sees lots of rain, so they plan to build a rainwater harvesting pond to help develop the area agriculturally
    * They are also trying to link up with an agricultural college to provide agricultural training
    * This project has been discussed earlier by Berkeley chapter (July 07)
    * In July, Berkeley approved partial operating cost for the first year ($3000)

New Proposal

    * Proposal is to cover FULL operating cost
    * The total recurring cost is $7,000 for first year. Since we approved $3,000 earlier, this new budget approval is for $4000.
    * Decision - Asha Berkeley will support full operating cost for this year, next year's funding will depend upon project evaluation, and how much funds we have next year.

Action Required

         What is the timeline of construction? When will they finish it? When will this school start? (Kamal )

II. Prachi Academy (Puneet)

    * New Project, proposal
    * Secondary school (8th, 9th and 10th) in Rural Orissa
    * Adaspaur, Cuttack district
    * Used to be private school, Now Govt is running this school
    * Proposal - Set-up of science gallery (Details : big lecture room with benches, no experiments will be done, currently it will just be an auditorium, plan is to use this gallery to run the experiment demos in future)
    * ~600 students involved (stds. 8, 9, 10)
    * Sampurna (NGO- health education, women welfare) in Adaspur has requested this money
    * No religious/political affiliation
    * FCRA- Sampurna is registered
    * ~13 teachers, ~4 staff
    * School already has library, playground
    * Follows Orissa Curriculum
    * Teaching – Conventional, No Labs, Practical demos in school
    * Total budget is $11,000 (earlier supported by Asha, Carbondale. They provided $2650 for a year. Carbondale chapter is no longer active)
    * One time cost (construction)
    * Budget for Flooring, walls, roof, benches (excludes science equipments)
    * Size ~ 1050 sq. ft.
    * 200-210 capacity
    * Once they finish construction, they plan to get equipment funding from Govt.
    * But construction is suspended because of lack of funds
    * No site visit has been done yet for the project
    * Pictures of the academy submitted by Ms. S. Mohapatra (Alumnus)
    * Questions - Who owns the land on which construction is planned for gallery? Did Govt. approve this construction (because school is run by Govt.)? Total graduates from academy – 360; why this number is low given Academy is really old?
    * Decision - No clear roadmap. Demos will not give hands-on experience to students. With our limited resources, we think other projects need more attention.

III. WAH Update (Jayanth)

    * Berkeley raised 8.6k for WAH projects. Matching will be done, and our chapter will get 8.6k from Asha's Central account.
    * And then it is our chapter's decision is to give (all, partial or no) money back for WAH projects.
    * Jayanth's suggestion is to give total 10k to projects (8.6k raised + 1.4k from matching).
    * [Deficit will not be covered from general funds, so we ended up donating 20% of our funds back to the WAH projects]

IV. Questions for Project partners (Sandipan/ Jayanth)

    * To be filled out by the steward after a call with the project partner every three months
    * Stewards will present the answers to the chapter.
    * Goal is to increase interaction between stewards-projects.
    * Questions-

   1. What are the three issues/problems you faced during the last year?

 Eg: We had problem keeping teachers with the project, we had problems with excessive drop-outs, etc. 

 2. List three initiatives that have made a difference in the interest levels/intake increase of the school/project.

 Eg: We held a few parent-teacher meetings that seem to have decreased the drop-out rate            

3. What alternative funds have you raised from donors in the last year? Have you contacted any local companies to raise funds?

 4. How would you utilize an extra Rs. 5000 if Asha Berkeley donated you this amount?

 5. Is there any help, other than monetary support, that the project needs?  (Teacher recruitment, course structuring, information regarding vocational training etc.)

 6. What extra-curricular activities (sports/music/drama/theater) do you wish to involve the students in?

7. What are the three goals for the next year?

 8. We would also like the following information to setup a webpage for the project that would help donors to understand the broad details of the project and to connect with the project better.

a. If possible, can the project send a few pictures of the school? (Group pictures only, no pictures of individual children, due to privacy issues).

            b. Can the steward/project partner prepare a succinct table detailing the growth of the group over the last 3 years?

Eg: 2005: Started with 2 schools, 10 teachers, 56 boys, 56 girls, Std I-V,

2006: Expanded to 3 schools, 20 teachers, now with 70 boys, 80 girls, constructed an extra school etc.

Action Required

           E-mail active volunteers' group to seek comments/suggestions (Sandipan/ Jayanth)

V. Treasurer

         Madhurima is new treasurer.

VI. Sevalaya Project Update (Bala)

    * Anand & Anitha emailed Asha SV for providing funding for Sevalaya. Asha SV will evaluate the project and get back to us.