Dear All,
Ananth has communicated the good info about chapter recognition and also
about the excellent arrangements at Pilani.
BITS has been real generous with th comfort of food and accomodation and the
meeting venues.
We from Chennai arrived around 3.30 pm from Delhi. Sandeep and group from
Lucknow and Kanpur and Varanasi also arrived around that time.
We also came to know that the programme was shortened by a day because many
chapters had not been able to make it in person and had sent email updates
to the zonal coordinators.
We missed some presentations from existing chapters that happened before we
arrived. We got to listen to a good summary of these presentations.
We presented on arrival and listened to presentations from other chapters.

About Asha Chennai Presentation-
We were allotted 10 min for the presentation and 5 min for the questions.
Rajaram had made a ppt for the occassion which proved very useful. The
presentation was well received though I felt a little more time would have
done real justice to Asha Chennai work.
The questions raised were
1. What are admin expenses we have shown knowing Asha is a zero overhead
organisation? When the nature of the expenses was explained it was
understood and called "operational expenses". The other question relating to
admin expenses was where do we get the funds for this. It was explained that
it came from donors who knew they were contributing for this purpose. This
was also accepted. 
2. Why was it that Asha Chennai which was doing such good work not accorded
recognition so far?
Sandeep answered this that it was the lack of stability.

About the Recognition
The discussions and voting was taken up on the second day prelunch session.
Sandeep pointed out mistakes in accounting due to lack of knowledge or due
to carelessness. It was suggested to Sandeep that he and Mahesh hold a
workshop on this in the next conference. Sandeep explained the correct way
to handle accounts. (These were exactly the same rules he had explained to
Geetha and us at Lucknow, so it also helped me recheck each of the areas for
better understanding).
The resolution for Asha Chennai went on unanimous vote, everybody approved.
With other chapters some points of discussions came up.

Some appeals from 
Mahesh and Asha Lucknow.
1. Rs15000 was required for an event of taking the children of the children
from the different Lucknow and nearby centres to the "Chidiya Ghar"(zoo
/bird sanctuary?)
2. Design and sponsoring for Asha T-shirts for these 250 kids to wear on
that day.
3. Clothes and collection of money for food and learning material for the
children of the railway platform children centre
Asha Ashram
1. Paromita's fellowship- no movement even though it is six months since the
person has joined the Ashram
2. All funding is through local sources
Sandeep and the Lucnow, Lalpur team are really unhappy about their work not
been receiving any funding support. Sandeep wondered why this team should
take on the accounts work for all over India, when there was total disregard
of their needs.
The attendees did make a point to help with immediate pledges and some
support. We also asked that at least rough estimates of estimated
expenditure be made and forwarded. Asha Delhi is coordinating the efforts.

DP, do you know anything about Paromita's fellowship? Are there any project
funding pending for long from theses UP Centres? Can something be done to
expedate these? There is real funding problem there.
Lakshmi