Nominees for Various Asha-wide Positions.  Click on the name to get to an introduction of the volunteer.

President
        Prithvi Prabhu
        Netika Raval

Secretary
        Vignesh Nandakumar

Treasurer
        Ajith Krishnamurthy

Directors
Fundraising Coordinator
         Sameer Kalra

Project Coordinator
         Anand Raghavan

Publicity Coordinator
        Minali Balaram
        Subho Bhadra
        Nidhi Chowdhury

Web Coordinator
         Manoj Plakal
         Chandrashekar Shetty
 

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                   NYC/NJ
 

History with Asha for Education:

AZ from 1996-2000, NYC/NJ from 2000-till now, currently a remote volunteer at NYC/NJ
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Asha AZ chapter coordinator from 1997-2000
Asha Kiran editor, cross-chapter newsletter from 1998-2000
Developed focus group guidelines, ARC
Moderated sessions at conferences (chapter coordination at Boston '99 and Asha Strategy at NYC '03)
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Asha * for VESC since 1997 (it was a WAH project in '99)
Involved with other projects as part of the chapter projects group
 

Experiece with other like minded organisation:

Interned with Acumen Fund, a social venture capital incubated by the Rockefeller Foundation in Summer '01, during my MBA
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

Asha is composed of and driven by action oriented volunteers dedicated to improving the lives of the underprivileged in India, primarily through basic education.

It's a very unique organization in a few respects:
* volunteers share a few basic characteristics - belief in 0 overhead, secularism, respect for others, openness, non hierarchical
* a very successful organization despite being almost entirely virtual in nature!
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

I have had a wide variety of experiences within Asha over the years: working closely with projects, working at the chapter level on administrative issues and fund raisers, and at the asha wide level on several cross-chapter initiatives. From 2000 onwards, in addition to my work with Asha, I've been exposed to a number of organizational and management issues at work, and in the non profit sector. These experiences led me to realize that Asha has a very unique and powerful core competency, that of volunteerism. I've also come to realize that Asha has a lot of untapped potential, that we've barely started to harness all the volunteer energy that's out there. I'm standing for President now to realize some of this potential.

To realize some of this potential, in the short term, I believe that Asha should focus on 3 specific areas:
* Continue along the path of making Asha more than a collection of chapters/projects; identify explicit links between chapters/projects and establish processes to take us along this path
* Continue improvements in Asha as an Organization; making processes, roles, and responsibilities more explicit
* Growing the no. of projects, our volunteer base, and the funds raised

If we follow this path, I feel that in 10 years time we'll have grown both in size and in terms of the impact. Specifically:
* Asha will have projects in almost every part of India
* Volunteer based Asha chapters in India will be thriving as they are in the US
* While we will continue to have a wide variety of projects, we will have significant impact in a few types of projects. E.g. disabled children, children of sex-workers, etc.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

In terms of style, I prefer to be hands off, since I have a wife, a life, and a reasonably demanding day job. Having said that I am not averse to taking on day to day responsibility as and when required. I will definitely depend on having more people involved at the Asha wide level, as Melli's proposed.

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                            Asha-Silicon Valley (more commonly referred to as Asha-SV)
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)

I've had the good fortune of being involved with Asha as a volunteer since 1994.  From 1994-1998, I was with the original group that started the Stanford chapter.  Then many of us became non-students and so couldn't justify being the majority members in a student body group on campus.  Therefore two of us (Poornima and myself) started the Silicon Valley chapter in 1998 and I continue to help at the chapter till today.
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Through my 10 years at Asha, I've had the opportunity to be involved in many aspects of Asha's running, both at the chapter and Asha-wide level.  The following traces my journey in Asha:

-->Part of the original Stanford Group in 1994 (alongwith Mahaveer Jain, Dinesh Katiyar)
-->Asha-Stanford Fundraising Coord 1995-1996
In those early days we organized concerts with Pandit Jasraj, Zakir Hussain and his band "Rhythm Experience," and we also organized Asha dinners.
-->Asha-Stanford Publicity Coord 1997-1998
Focused on event publicity and awareness building in the stanford/bayarea community with presentations to social organiztions.
-->One of two volunteers that started Asha-Silicon Valley in 1998
-->Asha-SV Chapter Publicity Coord 1998-2000
The Silicon Valley boom was in full gear - I remember getting a $54,000 check after a 15 minute presentation!
-->Asha-SV Chapter Coord - 2000-2001
Great team at SV - Marathon program kicked off, guidelines for project process etc documented,  guidelines for different coordinator roles/responsibilities documented,  projects tracker started; fundraiser concert at halloween
-->Asha-wide Publicity Coordinator 2000-2002
Attempt at streamlining asha logo, tagline, paying attention to establishing an asha brand at chapter websites, instituted process for writing press releases, collating articles on Asha and by Asha people, helped manage responses to media queries during aftermath of Sandeep's Magsaysay Award.  This was also the year Asha got the Community Service Award at Silicon India Annual Banquet, started a publicity/merchandise tracker
-->Asha-wide WAH Publicity Coord - 2001
-->Asha10 Berkeley Conference - Got P. Sainath as keynote speaker and organized the publicity panel with panel experts in Marketing/PR; Asha12 NYC/NJ Conference - co-organized publicity panel and organized panel on asha merchandise.
-->Asha Annual Report - Part of contributing editors to 2001 Annual Report

I have found my journey in Asha over the last 10 years to be very personally enriching.  Having witnessed the growth of the organization (like many long term volunteers) from the days we banked with ICA to having our own 501(c)3; from being 10 chapters strong to being 66 chapters strong; from working with 29 project partners to working with 385 project partners; from raising $90k to raising over $1M; - it really brings Margaret Mead's quote to heart!
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

It's been great learning with the project people.  The projects I have been involved with are GVVS (Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti) in Rajasthan, VOICE (Voluntary Organization In Community Enterprise) in Mumbai, Sarvodaya (briefly) in Gujarat, Viveka Tribal Center in Mysore and CDDP (Center for Development of Disadvantaged People) in Tamil Nadu through the Support A Child program.  In addition to projects, I have learnt a lot from individuals like Sainath, Harsh Mander, Dr. Balu, Rajashri and Victor, Aruna Roy and Sushma Iyengar.
 

Experiece with other like minded organisation:

I have worked with some India focused development organization (in USA and India) and some mainstream community organizations in the bay area.

Associated with AID (Association of India's Development) - attended their west coast conference and conferred with them at a session for a strategic linkup w.r.to fundraising and projects.  This active understanding and working together has helped us a lot especially in responding to flames on different online discussion groups.  AIF (American India Foundation) - worked on mega fundraisers (like the Clinton fundraiser - where AIF actually had to turn down some press requests due to lack of space!!) gave me an insight on how to raise some serious $$ (upwards of 300k in one evening),  also how having big names on the board both helped and did not help the organization.  ICA (Indians for Collective Action) - particularly around projects because ICA people spend about 6 months in India and have great insight to development issues and field work.  RIM (Rejuvenate India Movement) - mainly when Dr. Parmeshwar Rao was in the US.  I also happen to be on the board of the first India Community Center.  In India I had worked with Manushi many years ago.

When I have time, I also work with the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford that houses kids with terminally ill diseases.  I typically make dinners for the family and cookies for the kids.  Another favorite is a hospice for elderly care.
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

Asha is a great incubator of socially conscious individuals who exhibit a genuine spirit of volunteerism.   Asha Rocks!
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

- borrowing heavily from sentences not written in above answer.

In the age group of a teenager, which is typically marked by angst and rebellion, it would be ideal if in the next 2 years Asha can maintain a middle of the road approach (I don't mean average), keeping the focus to move from good to great and keep the working style simple, not simplistic.  In the specific areas:

1)Organizational

-Continue to maintain a strong communication link with Asha India so that (a) Asha ROW (rest of the world) volunteers continue their learning regarding development and education issues on the ground and (b) Asha India volunteers understand that there are a lot of volunteers in Asha ROW working very hard and are supportive of them
-Continue to maintain strong communication amongst all Asha chapters - making a conscious effort to not be only US-centric Asha for Education.
-Be *very* conscious of keeping controversies, flames even potential ones at bay to safeguard the organizational/legal status.  I don't intend to be phobic, but utmost care needs to be taken here.
- Decentralized running is good - however, we are growing at a rate that behooves us to be aware and cognizant to work *together*.  We may execute in a decentralized manner but it should be towards a common goal - it will be risky to have multiple directions.
-Keep the 100% proceeds go to projects distinguishing factor and cultivate alumni to cover for some much needed admin expense.
-Create an Asha Alumni group - keep the alumni engaged and involved.  They are ones who have some idea of what it takes to keep the organization running and can be approached to give a sum whose interest can cover admin expense.
-Create a "Friends of Asha" board with high caliber individuals in development field, general counsel, media/communications, alumni representative.  Of course, none of these people are paid, but are on board to advise and help in strategic direction as well as some fire-fighting.
-Keep increasing Asha presence through chapter development/cultivation.  Increase virtual visits and in-person visits between chapters.
[[For those that are interested in organization development and organizational behaviour, I prefer Peter Senge's work "The Fifth Discipline"]]
-Posting policy for all Asha groups.
-Encourage volunteers to attend asha conference, both, ROW and Asha-India conferences

2)Projects

-Link chapter project understanding and efforts to larger Asha goal of one project in each district by 2010
-Continue to distinguish our work through initiatives like asha-special group, technology in education etc.
-Stress/Encourage discussions/reading on development issues
-Understand involvement with a project from beginning to end - plan for exit strategy - if not economically sustainable then a responsible hand-off to another agency.
-Work through referrals more and more.  By this I mean people we have established trust with (asha india volunteers and project partners we've worked with for a while)
-High level of integrity and ethical work style - if a volunteer is personally involved in a project, it is only fair that that project should not be funded by the volunteers chapter, but by another asha chapter.
-Keep documentation current and complete - reports, site visits, funding history, email/phone communication etc.  Let's showcase that volunteer work is quality work and not shoddy work.

3)Publicity

Gravitate towards "messaging" rather than just event publicity.  Outward messaging positioned as a little more strategic and internal messaging as a little more tactical.  Outreach to Indophiles in the mainstream community in addition to the people of Indian origin.  Get Asha for Education trademarked, registered as a national body.

4)Fundraising

Sync chapter event calendars so that we all work together rather than in isolation.  Also sync efforts with other organizations so that we can negotiate better.  Crack the $2M milestone!

5)Treasurer

Timeliness in cashing checks and sending receipts to donors.  Keep accounts updated and clean.  Send regular updates to asha-wide treasurer so the team has a sense for cash-flow.

5)Volunteerism

Maintain respect for each other - pick on the issue not the person.  Be responsible for ownership of tasks.  Respond, don't react.  Keep the Asha family.
 

In 2014, Asha would be about 24 yrs old and it would be great if Asha has:

1) achieved our first stated goal of an Asha project in every district in India by 2010
2) a chapter in every state of US and every state of India and every country in Europe!
3) a predictable revenue stream (from signature events like WAH, HOH, NOH plus many more),  have a seed capital of a million in place,
3) been featured on Oprah! :)
4) been featured at some business school as an organization development model!
5) more Asha centers in India
6) innovative/creative thinking and execution at every place - chapter development, projects, fundraising, publicity, finance etc - the sky is the limit!
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

**If you haven't had a chance to read the International Volunteers Pledge, please do - (http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/dynamic/infobase/pdf/2002/021101IND_vol_handbook.pdf )

**two of my favorite quote's - "BE the change you wish to see in the world" by Gandhi and "If not you then who, if not now, then when?" a Jewish proverb - I may have mangled it a bit...

**In the hum of life, always remember to HAVE FUN!!  :-)

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                      St. Louis

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)                              St. Louis, 2 years

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Chapter treasurer, St. Louis; Part of WAH 2003 team from St. Louis; Stand-in secretary since last November; partly involved with various publicity efforts within Asha.
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Anawim Trust/International Ocean Institute, Tamil Nadu; SEED, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu; Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha, 24 Parganas, West Bengal;

Experience with other like minded organization: Volunteer with AID-Minnesota since December 2003.
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

From various perspectives, I think Asha can be viewed as an organization, as a movement and as an ideology.  As an organization, we are a group of volunteers working as a team towards a certain goal [socio-economic development in India]; as a movement, we are a collection of volunteers who want to spread the awareness of the education of children, or rather the lack thereof, and mobilize collective action to address the situation; and as a ideology, Asha is an idea that reinforces the importance of education in socio-economic development of a society; Asha is also an idea that proves that anyone can be part of the collective action through voluntary means and can contribute to the movement; Asha is an idea whose strength comes from a strong belief amongst the volunteers in collective action, in mutual respect and teamwork and in the inalienable right of a child to education and empowerment.

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

Asha has witnessed a tremendous growth in volunteer size, fund raising capability and projects over the last couple of years. We have also seen maturity within Asha to address problems at a larger context too, with the formation of focus groups like Asha-learning, Asha-special and Asha-sanctuary, to look at specific sections of children. Seen in the context of our rate of growth in numbers and in the quality of our work, the next two years are crucial for Asha to consolidate our learning and processes; to explore different ways that we can create larger impact with our actions; and support our projects with more than just funding. Many in Asha have started thinking along these lines; my personal opinion is that we need to focus on such aspects over the next two years. That will lead us to define what we would like to accomplish in the longer term. Given that we are a voluntary organization, the longer term goal will depend on our inclination to draw up larger goals as an organization and as a movement and working steadily towards that. In my view, I think 10 years from now, Asha should be looking at working with the government and like-minded organizations in the realm of education and empowerment. And Asha should be an effective spring board for volunteers to jump into collective socio-economic activism. In short, 2 years from now, Asha should be in a position to define clear-cut, time-bound goals as an organization. 10 years from now, we should be able to use our experiences and learning in evolving public opinions and policies.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

In keeping with the view of consolidating processes, chapters and projects within Asha, I propose the role of the Secretary team in this coordination team over the next 2 years.

Firstly, in the current context, it has become very clear that one person cannot single-handedly handle the role of the secretary for Asha. So, while from a coordination point of view, it will still help to maintain a single point of contact as the secretary, the responsibilities have to be taken by a team of volunteers rather than a single volunteer. I have been working on putting together a Secretary team for Asha towards this purpose. Over the next two years, two distinct responsibilities have been identified for this Secretary team:

1. to establish a clearer new initiative process with the involvement of a mentor group within Asha at all
levels, at the volunteer level, at the chapter level, at a focus group level, maybe if there is sufficient cooperation from Asha-India, at the projects level too, and across geographical locations: US, Europe, Asia-Pac, India. For the moment, since coordination activity in India is a lot more complicated than outside of India, the team will focus on activities outside of India. The need for some kind of mentoring is felt by a majority of the volunteers; the challenge is to have a new chapter/group process without drastically raising the threshold for a person to be a volunteer or start a new initiative within Asha. While we do not have a hierarchy within Asha, the legalities of the world outside of Asha does hold a few roles/persons responsible for Asha’s activities, and the degree of our acceptance of this reality will determine the way we evolve such a process within Asha.

 2. To enhance the level of inter-chapter communication within all of Asha, hopefully including India. The past year has seen many instances where there seems to be disconnect between Asha-India groups and
Asha-Abroad. Though personally, I do not like the classification, it is a bit worrisome to have a difficulty in communicating amongst ourselves. Also, within Asha, there has to be a way of sharing the learning that individual volunteers and groups have built through their experiences, especially with newer groups and volunteers so that we do not reinvent the wheel many times over within Asha. I think the role of the secretary team is to help set up better communication on these lines.

The two roles outlined above have a lot of tasks that have to be accomplished and hence the need for a team of volunteers for this purpose. I also think that the secretary is in no way to be involved with any other activity other than the above for the next two years. As an individual, there is a limitation to how much I can personally accomplish and there is a prioritization of the challenges at hand. Initially, the focus will be on the new chapter process. Depending on the participation of more volunteers in the team, more tasks towards this goal will be taken up. I hope that more volunteers will step forward to help with commitment of their time and energies.

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                       Detroit

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)                            Detroit – 3 Years +

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

I have been the treasurer since I started as a volunteer with Asha. I have been participating in fundraisers, involved in discussions to choose projects and done site visits in India.
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Purna Prajna (Mysore) and Kuvempu Trust (Chitradurga)
 

Experience with other like minded organisation:

None
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

For me Asha is a medium through which we as volunteers could let the people know that there are thousands of children who are not as fortunate as we are in obtaining their basic right, that is Education. Also it is medium through which I can contribute to bring about a change in the lives of hundreds of children in a positive way.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

In the short term I see Asha getting more efficient as an organization, like streamlining the decision making process, utilizing all the volunteer resource to spread the word here and build a strong volunteer base back home to support the grass root level development.

10 years down the line, Asha would be 20 years old as an organization. We should be seeing lot of changes in the positive direction, our dream of bringing Socio
Economic change in the lives of thousands would be evident. I do see a trend in which volunteers/donors visit projects and share their knowledge at the grass root level.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

I would uphold the long tradition of excellent  accounting practice, responsiveness and transparency to the donor.

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                 Central New Jersey
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years):                      Central New Jersey for 2 years

It was in the spring of 2002 that I was researching for an organization whose mission is aligned to the cause that is close to my heart. About that time I came across Asha when it won an award at Silicon India Annual Banquet. I promptly joined the closest chapter i.e. Central New Jersey. Since then I am helping out in various roles.
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Part of Asha-wide PR team – January 2004 - Present
CNJ Chapter Co-coordinator – August 2003 - Present
CNJ PR and Fundraising Co-coordinator – June 2003 – Present
CNJ HoH marathon runner and team member for 2003 and 2004 (planned)
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Performed site visit for Gyanganga project at Pilani in Rajasthan
Presented Project Look Ahead (under Trigger initiative) to the CNJ group; would be project steward upon Chapter’s funding approval.
 

Experience with other like minded organization:

Co-launched the New York Chapter of Santa Clara based Foundation for Excellence (www.ffe.org). The Foundation's mission is to bring about a transformation in the lives of academically brilliant and financially needy students in India.

Organizing a fundraiser for FFE in collaboration with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs)
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

Asha is a group of dedicated, focused and thoughtful individuals striving to make the world in general and India in particular, a better place to dwell by creating hope and opportunities for the impoverished children for a better tomorrow.  The genuine spirit of volunteerism and camaraderie among volunteers sets Asha apart from the rest of organizations playing in this space.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

Short term
Asha would evolve as a more efficient, streamlined and PR savvy organization in the next two years. I would strive to make it a $3 million organization at the end of two years.

Long term
Asha, with its massive volunteer base and enormous linkages in the community has the potential to become a $15-20 million organization within the next 10 years. This would enable the goal of having at least one Asha project in each district of India.

I envision Asha becoming the charity of choice for the Global Indian to fulfill his/her dream of connecting to grass roots and making a difference back home.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

Here is one of my favorite quotes. I believe that every Asha volunteer is living it.

"You are not here merely to make a living.  You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement.  You are here to enrich the world.  You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand."  Woodrow Wilson

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                   Silicon Valley
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)

UIUC: 1999
Berkeley: 1999-2000
Silicon Valley: 2001-present
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Helped start Asha-UIUC, January 1999

Projects Coordinator, SV 2001-2002

Chapter Coordinator, SV 2002-present
 

WAH 2001 Projects Coordinator

WAH 2004 Overall Coordinator
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

As projects coordinator at SV, I have interacted with several projects including the three Asha Fellows that Asha SV supports. I have also been involved with the Asha Darshan project in Assam in the early years of its formation, and stewarded a couple of other projects along with other Asha volunteers.
 

Experience with other like minded organisations:

As chapter coordinator I’ve interacted with local NPOs like FFE, AID, Vibha and AIF about joint fundraisers and projects.
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

To me, Asha’s mission is to support projects and people that empower the underprivileged through education. In terms of funds, what we can address is only a very small fraction of the problem. To scale up, we would have to work with the govt. in making govt. schools better, petition for actionable changes in govt. policy and raise our voices against measures that impact literacy, education and empowerment of the underprivileged. This is what Asha can do for India. What Asha can do for its volunteers is to create a deeper understanding of where education fits into the big picture of poverty and exploitation, and appreciate efforts towards solving this problem. What is unique about Asha is that we give everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions, pick up ideas they want to implement and get them implemented and grow together as a democratic organization. I think how effective Asha can be will be determined by how these values are maintained.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short  (2yrs) and long term  (10 yrs):

Short term:

• More chapters
• More organizations supported.
• More decision making about exit strategy from projects.
• More well defined decision making mechanism across Asha ROW
• More stable Asha India structure with several new chapters.
• More confusion on what Asha is and what Asha should be, and more efforts towards resolution.
• More focus on empowering the undeprivileged with education as the means, rather than the end.
• New means of working with the govt. to improve govt. school facilities identified and implemented.

• Network of Asha Fellows impacting larger and larger number of projects.
• Better process for evaluating impact.
• More synergy with local NPOs for joint fundraisers and projects.
• More training facilities/center for teachers, coordinators and children to benefit from.
• Projects in more districts in India and more projects in underrepresented zones.
• Lot more Asha chapters in India following both models of operation (chapters like Asha-ROW chapters, as well as grassroots chapters).
• Virtual Asha worldwide conferences with folks videoconferencing from all over.
• Asha being the primary contact in the US for agencies looking to work with quality organizations in the field of education and to learn about education related initiatives in India.
• More activism from Asha-ROW in terms of petitioning the Govt on issues related to education.
• More models of success in the field of education for empowerment that are replicable and can sustain themselves to some extent, which other Asha projects can learn from.

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

The elections are only to meet IRS requirements. Let us continue to work towards these goals irrespective of who “wins” or who “loses

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                 Colorado
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)                       Joined Asha Colorado in March 2001.
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Chapter level involvement: Publicity coordination and outreach efforts for Asha Colorado during 2001-2002, project steward for the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Institute for the Handicapped (JNMIH) in Sikkim, asha-wide liaison for 2002-2003, assisted in organizing events and in grant-writing, current co-chapter coordinator and ARC rep.

Asha-wide involvement: Helped with WAH 2002 publicity efforts, part of the team that publicized Sandeep's Magsaysay award, helped coordinate publicity efforts for WAH 2003 with the St. Louis team, presented an initiative at Asha-12 to standardize Asha's internal publicity material (specifically the logo), and general messaging terminology, been responding to emails to pr@ashanet.org, and specific publicity requests on asha-publicity, and of late been monitoring the Sulekha news hopper site and raising an alarm on comments that are direct false allegations about Asha and its work .
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Project steward for JNMIH in Sikkim. JNMIH is a residential school for the visually handicapped in Sikkim, and is also Asha's only presence in Sikkim, Asha Colorado has worked with the school to support the costs of Braille paper, stationery and teaching aids, teacher's training on free MLE speech editing software in collaboration with asha-special, Asha Chennai and Vidya Vriksha, and is currently working on sending JNMIH a Braille embosser.
 

Experience with other like minded organisation:

Periodic discussions/updates/info sharing with AID volunteers at the Boulder chapter
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

I see Asha as a group of individuals who are interested in bringing about socioeconomic change in India by facilitating the empowerment of communities.  By our close involvement with our project partners, by addressing education and the issues affecting it, by our policy to leave no child behind and by our own education of the issues being faced by rural communities, I see Asha as an agent that is working to bridge the gap between the educated elite and the lesser privileged masses.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

In the short term:
Over the last couple of years, Asha has become a truly global presence. I think in the next two years, we will face dealing with several challenges and changes
to the current method of functioning, to adapt to this global growth. I also think that through the various initiatives that have developed over the last two years - for example,  the learning network, asha-sanctuary, asha-special etc., more project stewards will be able to bring together various project groups that fall under the same broad category and facilitate info-sharing, resource-sharing, and mutual learning.

In the long term:
a.Through the initiatives and focus groups mentioned above, we may be able to see entire issues being dealt with (at least at the regional level) in the long-term.
b. I think Asha will truly become more than a mere funding agency to evolve into a global people's movement - we are already on our way here.
c. We will be able to generate more participation from the protagonists and empower communities to the extent that they become the socio-economic change agents for the future.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

As we become a global presence, I feel that it is important for us to present a uniform image to the outside world, and also to highlight the broad spectrum of work that we do. Here is a list of publicity and PR related items that I feel need to be currently addressed:

- improving our internal publicity mechanism by providing publicity material and support to new chapters so that they do not have to reinvent the
wheel

- standardizing our logo, tag-line and general messaging across all Asha chapters so that we are broadcasting a consistent message to the external world

- understanding the needs of the non-US chapters, and make publicity material that is more global/customizable, and non-US centric

- enhancing our current home page with links to articles on our projects and current initiatives, so that visitors can see for themselves exactly what we are doing, and simultaneously countering any false allegations by highlighting our work to the public.

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                   Kolkata, Silicon Valley, Stanford
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)

Around one year as active volunteer with three chapters.

Over 4-5 years prior to that I was distant relative of Asha by attending fund-raisers, keeping myself up-to-date about Asha, until one day when I met some Asha-LA volunteers who injected the necessary courage in me to join Asha.
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

Wide : Volunteer Coordinator (volunteer@ashanet.org), Internship Coordinator (internship@ashanet.org), Work An Hour-2004 Projects Coordinator

Kolkata : Overall Chapter Coordination, Web Master

Silicon Valley : Merchandise Coordinator, Vibha Walk Coordination

Stanford : Gandhi Day Co-Ordination, Vibha Walk Co-Ordination, Publicity and Event Day tasks for Classical Music Concert and Holi.
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

I did not jump into taking the stewardship of a project, rather I am learning from our (mostly Silicon Valley) current projects. Currently I am researching how IT can be used for efficient management of Silicon Valley projects and also forming a team for smooth transition of project information to asha-wide DB. Earlier was involved with Jagriti in an advisory capacity (helping to find volunteers, raising fund, etc) 5-6 years back even before Asha-SV started funding the project. Some of the projects that I found very promising and want to get involved in the near future are : Uthnau, Street to School, Irula, Shikshana Vahini.
 

Experience with other like minded organisation:

Being part of the Steering Committee of Promise of India (https://www.promiseofindia.org), I had a very rewarding experience working with various organizations (as of now, as many as 206 organizations endorsed Promise of India appeal) like AID, AIF, CAC, ICA.

We jointly organized a conference "Linking Peace and Development" in Delhi on January 8, 2004.  Experts in various fields like Dr. Amartya Sen, Aruna Roy, Anu aga, Admiral Ramu Ramdas, Justice J.S. Verma, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, Tarun Tejpal, Nirmala Deshpande, Swami Agnivesh, Cedric Prakash and many other dignitaries came together to share their thoughts on issues like "Peace and Social Development", "Peace and Economic Development", "Justice and Governance", "Role of the Media", "Communal Harmony".

I am also involved in Serve India Forum (http://www.serveindiaforum.net) in which Asha participates as an organization and have been interacting with people from various other organizations.

Some of the India-based organizations that I am in touch with are : ANHAD, Parivaar, Vikramshila, Bengal Service Society, etc.
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

Asha is a social-welfare organization of some progressive minded individuals who have experienced the benefits of education in their own lives and thus believe that "education of underprivileged children" can bring "socio-economic change in India" through TRUE empowerment.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

Over the last few years Asha has increased its volunteer-base and support-base significantly.  In the next couple of years, I can see Asha growing even faster, having chapters in all the states in India.  I am forming a focus group through asha-volunteers yahoogroups to connect all like-minded individuals who believe in Asha's vision. So there is a bigger need to consolidate us, to make sure all the chapters (India and International) are functioning as a synchronized orchestra.

If we can achieve this in the next couple of years, Asha's mission to catalyze socio-economic change in India can be a reality in next 10 years much before media-hyped 2020.

Inspired by Asha-India's grass-root level work and tangible impact, many Asha volunteers will go back to India. Asha will be able to motivate government officials to engage in socio-economic movements and thus influence government policies for education, health and justice.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

Asha's future in next 2 and 10 years depend on many but-and-ifs and our whole-hearted commitment is a pre-requisite for that. Asha is a dormant volcano that we need to rejuvenate in order to destroy all barriers towards a just society with equity in education.

Are we ready for that ? If not yet, now is the hightime!!
 

Experience with PR/Media :
     1. Formed an alumni group of Jadavpur University (http://www.jadavpur.edu) and came up with an Initial Action Plan which featured in Campus section of          The Statesman (http://www.thestatesman.net), a leading (129-years old) English daily from Kolkata.  Titled "No substitute for hard work" the article described the group as one "which is trying to create a pool of "successful" alumni from Jadavpur University, get them to the university as and when they are in Kolkata and arrange for seminars or just plain talks with the juniors." and advised "it’s high time that seniors from the IIMs took an initiative to educate their juniors".

     2. The activities through the informal group later prompted to form Jadavpur University Global Alumni Association.   Organized its first US meet during NABC-2004 (North America Bengali Conference) at Los Angeles which was covered by leading media houses from Kolkata and US and was elected to the nine-member (from US, UK, Canada and India) Executive Committee as Vice-President.

     3. The Sangbad Pratidin (http://www.sangbadpratidin.net), a leading Bengali Newspaper having one of the most popular news website in Bengali, wanted to publish interview about my vision when I was in Kolkata in December'2003. I declined, but had an informal discussion with two of their reporters because I felt it too awkward without enough contribution through "real" work yet.

     4. Through unparallel event coordination and publicity, lead Intel-India Employee Group to become one of the largest and most active employee groups inside Intel and probably in entire Bay Area.  Believe only in statistics ? Well, the group grew from around 400 members to around 900 members in one year!! The Annual Day in November'03 was witnessed by more than 1000 individuals, including Honourable Deputy Consul General of India, San Francisco Mr. Akhilesh Mishra.

     5. Currently involved in forming a network of progressive minds with help from Harsh Mander, Swami Agnivesh, Tarun Tejpal, Shabnam Hashmi, Dr. Satinath Choudhary, Dr. Dilip Basu and others.

     6. Believe in testimony ? Well!! Then you can have a look at the Press Release written and circulated by me on the occasion of Republic Day celebration at India Community Center, Milpitas, CA (probably first ever in Bay Area)  https://www.promiseofindia.org/News-RepublicDay.cfm

     7. If given the responsibility of Publicity Coordinator, I am sure we can take Asha to its next level of brand recognition with pro-active and innovative PR with all-round participation of volunteers across the globe. Don't you wish Asha to become an Intel for Socio-Economic Change in India ?

     8. I hope I was able to convince everyone of my potential as a publicity coordinator.  I have accomplished all these in a short span of time by giving 10+ hours a day disturbed by the so-many issues our country is facing today and will continue to do the best I can for Asha if everybody has faith and confidence in me and rest of us in Asha.

       "Only the extremely ignorant or the extremely intelligent can resist change." -- Socrates

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                                 NYC/NJ
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)                        NYC/NJ - 1.5 years
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

- Have coordinated publicity efforts for the NYC/NJ chapter for the past year or so - thus have helped to organize publicity for fundraisers - including Natraj 2003; Marathon; Penn Masala 2003; Diwali Ball 2003; and currently Nayikas 2004.   In this capacity, have also coordinated  chapter participation at various festivals around the NYC area.  Finally, have attempted to build lasting relationships with live and print media in the NYC community.

- Co-led the planning and development of Diwali Ball 2003 for the NYC/NJ chapter - a first ever event of this type for this chapter.

- Part of the core group involved in the development of NYC/NJ's Advisory Council.

- Have participated in and been involved with contract negotiations; obtaining insurance for events; writing articles & press releases; cheering for Asha marathon runners; and shouting Asha's name in the NYC India Day Parade!

- Was involved in supporting the organization of Asha-12 - the bi-annual Asha-wide conference - hosted in 2003 by NYC/NJ.

- Led the efforts to obtain TV and radio coverage for WAH 2004.  This involved coordination with both the host chapter and all others to organize rate cards and develop a media coverage plan within our budget.  Coordinated the effort to copy and distribute WAH ads in necessary format to specific chapters.  Obtained free coverage on Zee TV, TV Asia, and Asianet TV.
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Have not been involved with any particular project thusfar.
 

Experience with other like minded organisation:

- Work for a non-profit organization whose core mission is supporting early childhood organization.

- Volunteered, through a US based org, in India - at a school in Delhi and in a hospital in a village in HP.
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

Asha is an organization driven by people who share a passion for a common cause.  It provides an opportunity for any person to become involved in a universal mission - that all children have the right to and deserve a quality education.  It creates the means to become intimately involved with projects in India and it allows a unique forum to discuss and share innovative thoughts and ideas.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

In 2 years, Asha will have created a more visible and recognizable brand name - with 'standard' language and templates to make them synonymous with the organization.  We will have created a much larger 'splash' in the media and will become more visible in mainstream media, ie beyond the South Asia diaspora.  We will have a more efficient system in place to respond to media inquiries - and take the offensive on responding to timely issues, rather than acting in the defensive.

In 10 years, Asha will be gold-standard on how to support and fund projects in India.  And we will help to create 'best-practices' on how to measure the 'success' of a project in order to help hone into the most effective and efficient ways to support the education of children in India.

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                              Madison since Fall'99, but currently in transition to the Bay Area (trying out Stanford).
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years)

 I joined Asha-Madison around Sep 1999 and I was an active member till I left Madison in Sep 2003 for the Bay Area. I've been a free agent since then, but I hope to settle down with a Bay Area chapter soon.
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

I was the webmaster and publicity coordinator for Asha-Madison. I maintained the website, made posters for events, solicited sponsorships, helped organize fundraisers and make newsletters, and generally took part in most of Asha-Madison's activities over a 4-year period.

I got acquainted with Asha Web Guru Shailen Mistry around late '99 or early 2000, when I made an innocent inquiry about the backup policy of ashanet.org. Before I knew it, I was helping with some Asha-wide webmastering duties such as handling front page updates. And thenWork an Hour 2000 was upon us, and I was helping Shailen with keeping the WAH backend going. Since then, I've been a co-webmaster for ashanet.org, handling the tasks that Shailen (and now also Chandra) doesn't already get done. The tasks include routine server maintenance and updates, handling chapter requests, and Asha-wide work (archiving news articles and media files, backend monitoring during WAH-2000/2001/2002).

I've also developed new web tools for Asha over the past few years:

• better real-time WAH stats, including the much-reloaded dynamic graph
• the Asha Datastore, our own central Yahoogroups Files without Yahoo or ads, and with more available space. This has been great for sharing large media files, and has been used by the films group.  Some chapters are also making good use of it. More features are planned.
• a proof-of-concept demo of "editable project pages" where stewards could directly edit a project page, upload new docs and photos, etc. I started this          as a way to organize Madison's project data (removingthe webmaster from the update loop). People on asha-web liked it.  Shailen took this half-baked idea and his own ideas of a database-driven project repository, and after much hard work, he produced the Asha Project DB which is probably the one of the most impressive achievements within Asha in quite a while. Nothing else gives us a view of all of Asha's projects.

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

 I have not been a project steward for any Asha project, not have I ever been directly in charge of any project.

 I have had some personal interaction with Dr Sujit Sinha, the coordinator of Swanirvar, a project supported by Madison in West Bengal. I have done a few project reviews (for Madison and WAH), and I have spent time trying to gather documentation for some Madison projects (GIRD in Manipur comes to mind as a tough example) but these were mainly in my role as webmaster/archiver.
 

Experiece with other like minded organisation:

 At the MidWest conference (Manthan) organized by Asha-Madison in '02, I got acquainted with Guha Balasubramaniam of IDS-Cincinatti, who was leading Serve India Forum, an effort to network non-profits in the US that support development in India.  DP is also a big part of this.  I got roped in (along with Paramjit Oberoi   from Madison) to help with the website.  Param and I created www.serveindiaforum.net which is a useful directory of organizations (though the website now needs maintainers!).

I also attended SIF 2002 in Chicago, which brought many of the members of this SIF network together. These include groups such as Asha, AID, ILP, IDS, and     many others. I was exposed to many different organizations working on development in India, made several good friends and contacts, and in general it was fun, and invigorating, and a great learning experience.  I encourage Asha folks to attend the upcoming SIF 2004 in larger numbers.
 

Your idea of what is Asha:

Asha is

• an enabler: disbursing more than $1M annually is an impressive achievement, and makes a tangible difference to all the projects that we support.
• a network: just five years in Asha can expose you to many volunteers, donors, project leaders, as well as volunteers of other groups, activists, thinkers, speakers ...   The network is vast, and diverse, and global, and powerful, and it can be mobilized to do great things.
• an incubator: Asha volunteers get sensitized to the issues faced by our projects, and those of Indian development in general.  Asha the organization cannot do everything that its individual volunteers want to do.  Some fraction of our volunteer base will decide to get involved in development on a personal basis, with Asha serving as the stepping stone and support network.

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

In the short term, Asha is going to experience some growing pains due to the increasing number of chapters in the US, Europe and India. I see Asha evolving from complete decentralization to a model with more communication and interaction between chapters (e.g., more local conferences). I also see the need for recognizing that all chapters are not the same (e.g., some chapters in India don't function like a typical US metro chapter). Some reconciliation and accommodation needs to take place during all this growth, so that we still remain one healthy organism.

Long term is a tough one, my only thought is that in the past 10 years, Asha has matured into a large organization with experience in project support and fundraising.  The next 10 years might see us growing beyond this to take on a really large project at the national level with public milestones. E.g., DP's visions of UQE, AID's 100-Block Project, etc. Having a long-term mega-project can energize the volunteer base, and lets us make a big difference at the national level.
 

Any other thoughts you wish to share with Asha volunteers:

Some random thoughts and ideas:
I think that Asha's most valuable resources are its network of people, and the knowledge that has accumulated over the years. We should think of ways in which we can nurture these assets, as well as ways in which we can archive them and make them available to our volunteers, and to the public at large.  The Project DB is a central repository of all project information. We should aim for similar central repositories for our people network and our knowledge base.

A central directory of people (volunteers, donors, supporters, project coordinators, etc) with annotations and associations would be a very valuable resource (like a Friendster for the social development scene). As would ways in which to archive our thoughts, ideas, experiences, debates, reports, etc in one location. Right now these are scattered across mailing list archives and minutes and misc private documents. We need good tools to build these repositories.

We should think of better ways of outreach and awareness. Right now, chapter events are used at the local level and the website at the global level. We might want to embrace other kinds of media. Our own print publication, or radio/TV show might be a way to go, especially in cooperation with similar development groups.    Several Asha volunteers are good communicators and have media skills (at least, everytime I hear DP speak, I feel like he should have his own talk show). And this might even be a way for people to do Asha work full-time :) But seriously, there are many issues pertinent to Asha that are not taken up by mainstream media, and setting up our own media channel would be an ambitious way of making our voice heard.

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Current Asha Chapter:                                                               Asha Stanford
 

History with Asha for Education: (chapters/years):                Asha Stanford volunteer since 2001
 
 

Chapter level / Asha-wide level responsibilities taken up in the past:

I have been helping Shailen, Manoj and Vivek in handling asha-wide web for the past 2 years, also current asha-stanford webmaster.
 

Asha projects with which you are/have been involved:

Swanirvar, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal
 

Your ideas on what is Asha:

Asha is a group of volunteers who are interested in learning and influencing development in India. Asha focuses on education but the definition of this is still quiet broad and each volunteer seems to interpret in his/her own way. It raises significant amount of money every year for NGOs working in varied parts of India. All in all a good mix of learning and participation.
 

Your idea of where Asha is headed in the short (2yrs) and long term (10 yrs):

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