When      : Tue, 6:15 - 7:45 pm at 140C Union South 
Attendees : Anita, Appan, Harit, Kamal, Murali (Ranganathan), Navin,
            Rameshwar & Shakuntala Modi, Ravi (Rajwar), Ravi (Kambampati),
            Subbu, Dr.Surya, Venki (Iyengar), Venky (Ganti)

Projects Update (Kamal):
------------------------
-> A letter of intent has been sent to GIRD for them to obtain prior permission
   to receive foreign funds.
-> The projects groups has tried to streamline the process of project review.
   We are also meeting on the every 2 weeks on Saturday mornings from 10 - 12.
   The next meeting is on the 20th.
-> More projects proposals will be considered.
-> Balaji Sampath, an AID fellow, will be visiting Madison late May.  Before
   then, the projects group will discuss the 100-block plan that he had sent
   us earlier.

Local Community Involvement:
----------------------------
-> Many a time in the past, we have had suggestions that Asha should also
   participate in the local community.  In one of our earlier Asha meetings,
   this was again brought up.  Finally, we feel the group is mature enough
   to appreciate the need for this activity and we decided to give this a try.
-> Navin had volunteered to take the lead and explore opportunities for these
   kind of activities for Asha volunteers to participate in.
-> There was a discussion as to:
   (a) What we hope to get out of such activities?
      -> It binds the group together, especially important to bridge the gap
          between the non-student volunteers and the student volunteers.
      -> It helps in personality development.
      -> It lets us do something concrete besides the 'remote' thing of
          supporting some project back in India.
      -> ... (I forget ... Please free to augment this  -Subbu) ...
   (b) What are the kind of activities that people are attracted to?
      -> Prairie restoration project in the arboretum
      -> Volunteering time with Habitat for Humanity
      -> Volunteering at community shelters
      -> Volunteering at schools
      -> Volunteering at health centers, hospitals
      -> ... (I forget ... Please free to augment this  -Subbu) ...
   (c) What is the frequency of such participation
      -> Once a month (over weekends)
   (d) How many people would be able to commit time for the same
      -> Everyone was enthusiastic and were willing to participate

Conclusion: Navin will explore options and post suggestions of activities
that we can participate in.  Based on how it goes, we can then take this
forward.

Fellowship Proposal discussion:
-------------------------------
(a) There was unanimous agreement about the need for an Asha Fellowship
(b) Regards scope of fellowship, the consensus was to go with (2) (extended
     focus).. and there were suggestions similar to weighting fellowship
     requests (like what is already in the proposal: 65% for education, and
     so on).
(c) People wondered where the numbers 65% (as above) and 80% (of time
     to be spent by fellow doing fellowship work) came from...
(d) With respect to raising funds, there were some suggestions of setting up
     a central corpus fund, of asking chapters to set aside some funds for
     fellows, and of asking chapters to not use general donor funds.  But,
     after much discussion, there was agreement with the proposal that it is
     best left to individual chapters to decide how to go about it.
(e) There were some suggestions made that chapters should set targets to
     support at least 1 fellow and efforts should be made to raise funds for
     the same.  However, it was decided that this is best left to the
     discretion of individual chapters and should not be binding on chapters
     (at least for the initial phases).  It is likely that Madison will set
     a concrete goal of supporting 1 fellow and take it through.  Ultimately,
     this depends on fellowship nominations being made.
(f) Given time constraints, there was not much time spent on discussing the
     fellowship process itself.  Sorry about that, but the meeting had
     already gone on for close to 2 hours by then...
[ UPDATE: This feedback has been sent to the fellowship group. ]