June 9th, 6-7:15 pm, Outside Union South Attendees: Anita, Harit, Kamal, Manoj, Murali P, Navin, Ravi K, Ruchita, Subbu, Venki -> Ruchita, who attended an Asha meeting for the first time, was given a brief introduction about Asha and its activities Projects: --------- -> Venki received a mail from Mr.Ashok Tipnis (who is in contact with GIRD) that GIRD-Manipur, to which we have committed funds, has secured FCRA clearance. So, we can now send them a check for the funds that we have committed them. This is a one-time funding. Future funding will be decided based on the plans of GIRD and what they achieve this year. -> Murali is in touch with Sujit Sinha of Swanirvar which we have funded in 1998 and 1999. He'll keep us up to date about any future fund requirements. -> Regards finances, after current project commitments, we have about $2.5K in our account and can support another project. Asha-Boston has pending project proposals which we will take up. In the future, we'll do targetted fund raising (for specific projects). Work-An-Hour 2000: ------------------ -> Preparations are afoot for the Work-An-Hour 2000 event. Asha-Madison is working on reviewing the 15 project proposals that have been submitted. All Asha chapters are expected to turn in their ranked vote by the end of June. About 6 projects will be chosen for receiving funding this year. Navin volunteered to be the Asha-Madison contact for this WAH event. Balaji Sampath's visit: ----------------------- -> Balaji Sampath, who graduated with a PhD in 1997, and was associated with AID-US is currently working in India with TNSF (Tamil Nadu Science Forum). He is currently in the US touring various Asha/AID/ILP chapters trying to raise support for the 100-block development plan in Tamil Nadu. He'll be visiting Madison on the 16th/17th of June and will be talking on the 17th. -> Kamal is working on the logistics (room arrangement, travel, etc.). -> We'll also be organizing a lunch after the talk on the 17th. -> Manoj will lead the effort in publicizing the event. Fundraising concert in October: ------------------------------- -> IGSA has moved ahead the concert it had planned in October to a later date. -> We now have some freedom in organizing a fundraising dance concert by Ms.Shoba Natarajan in October. -> There is a possibility of collaboration with the Center for South Asia in conjunction with their South Asian Conference. -> Anita will be leading this effort. Other: ------ -> Manoj and co. will be working on the next edition of our newsletter. -> Murali will work on organizing a meeting with Dr.Ashok Bhargava to exchange ideas and notes with regards to more community involvement in developmental activities. -> Previously, there was some interest expressed in Asha volunteers getting involved in local community activities. Navin has organized for Asha volunteers to participate in trail restoration activities in Madison. This will be on Sunday (11th June) from 9am till noon. -> Ravi, Navin, and others will work on preparing a new member packet. This packet will be useful in introducing new members to Asha and our activities. Asha-NAPM discussion: --------------------- -> Subbu gave a short update about what the issue is about. SUMMARY of update and discussion that ensued: Recently, Asha-India had received an invitation from NAPM to join the NAPM umbrella. NAPM (National Alliance of People's Movements) is an alliance of organizations working on various social and developmental issues. They have a well-defined agenda and charter in order to ensure social justice (more information at http://www.narmada.org/NAPM/index.html). There has been an ongoing discussion within Asha (across all chapters) as to what this means for Asha, what NAPM is looking for in Asha, whether Asha should join the organization, whether Asha-India and Asha-US should jointly decide on this issue, whether Asha's goals will be furthered in the process, whether Asha can influence NAPM's stand on various issues, whether we agree with NAPM on all issues, etc. There are a variety of viewpoints that have been expressed by various Asha-US volunteers as part of the ongoing debate. They can be briefly summarized as: GROUP 1 - Agreement with NAPM's ideology and working style: This group of volunteers feel that Asha should join the NAPM since it will further Asha's agenda of social justice. Asha stands to gain from the experience of working with people's movements. Further, the feeling is that Asha will be able to influence NAPM's agenda by bringing in the education component. (NOTE: this is not a universal endorsement of everything that NAPM says and does, but only a viewpoint that feels that there is a lot to be gained by this alliance). GROUP 2 - Generally agree with the NAPM ideology, but are dissatisfied with the way NAPM functions. Further, there is a strong disagreement with some of NAPM's stances. There is also a feeling that it might not be possible to influence the NAPM agenda and its style of working and that Asha stands to lose a lot if it joins the alliance. GROUP 3 - There is a disagreement on the idealogical level. There is a disagreement with NAPM's agenda on several counts and there is a feeling that NAPM is fairly propagandist. Thus, there is a feeling that Asha will be hurting its cause by joining NAPM and might alienate people. At the recent Asha-India conference in Bombay in May, it was decided that the issue of an Asha-NAPM alliance be shelved for the time being because (a) there is still not a consensus within Asha about the issue. (b) there is not a general agreement within Asha about NAPM's idealogy. (c) Asha is not yet ready to take the leap. (d) that discussion go on to learn more about issues. At the discussion at the meeting, viewpoints were expressed to the effect that: (a) Since NBA and WFF were the two prominent and vocal organizations of the NAPM, it might not necessarily be possible to influence NAPM's agenda. It might happen that Asha's voice might be lost out in the process. Even though the NAPM says that they function in a democratic manner, this might not happen. Even though viewpoints might be heard from everyone, they might not necessarily be implemented. (b) The counter to (a) was that the NBA works in a democratic fashion and has been reported as such by a number of people familiar with the movement. Further, within the NBA, viewpoints are solicited and also acted upon. So, given the history, it is likely that NAPM will work similarly (given that we do not have much direct information about NAPM yet). (c) It was also felt that a lot of discussion that was going on was happening without actually involving the NAPM people. All issues that we have with the NAPM should be taken to the NAPM folks and they should provide explanations and clarifications to the numerous concerns that we have. It does not suffice for the pro-NAPM people providing explanations on their behalf. (d) It was not clear as to what it is that the NAPM is looking for in Asha. Are they interested in Asha (as a whole that includes Asha-US)? Or, is it the case that they are more interested in Asha-India (given the nature of Sandeep Pandey's activities)? If the latter, then, what does this mean for Asha-US? So, this issue also needs to be clarified before we can proceed with the discussion of whether Asha should join NAPM or not. (e) Networking of organizations can be useful, but, why join an umbrella of organizations which work on disparate ends and with whom we might not agree with everything. What does it mean to join the umbrella and not agree with something that they do? Can't support be extended on an issue-by-issue basis? (f) One question that came up was: Can't Asha evolve into a more mature and influential organization on its own without joining other umbrellas which are fraught with these kinds of thorny issues? Can't Asha develop its own idealogy? Subbu's response: "It has taken Asha a long time to get a better understanding of education itself and to evolve an idealogy of the kind of education we want to support. The idealogy is still evolving. However, beyond this, Asha still does not have a very clear idealogy of its own on the broader issue of development and social justice. The words "social justice" by themselves do not mean much without a clear articulation of what exactly they mean, the principles that they engender, and the means that are adopted to get there. It is important for Asha to clearly articulate its idealogy of development and social justice, and thus make up its mind with respect to where it stands on issues. Given the democratic nature of our working, as the organization grows in size, it gets increasingly hard to come to a consensus on our idealogy and what we stand for. A lot of work remains to be done on this front and this needs to be done fast to prevent later heartaches for the organization. So, the discussion needs to go on."