Union South 302B;
Sep. 14th, 6:10-7:30 pm;

Attendees: Anita, Avinash, Chandru, Kamal, Lasya, Manoj, Murali, Neeraj,
           Rajat, Rashmi, Sankash, Subbu, Vinod, Vinay, Vidhi, Venki

- Anita, Avinash, Lasya, Rajat, Sankash, and Vinay are new entrants in
   Asha.
- After a round of introduction, the current members of Asha provided
   the new volunteers with information about Asha, its activities,
   the big picture, the projects that Asha-Madison supports and our
   local activities.  There were some questions raised (and answered)
   about how funds are raised, and about Asha-Madison activities.
- Lasya and Vinay have started a new undergraduate organization, SAIVA,
   which tries to find on-site volunteer opportunities with orgns. in
   India.  Currently, they are working with the Combat Blindness Foundation
   which the two will be visiting in December.  There was discussion about
   the two organizations collaborating in our activities to more effectively
   utilize our resources.
- A "todo list", a set of activities that we want to get done in the coming
   year was circulated, and, there was a short discussion about prioritizing
   those activities.  We decided to primarily focus on identifying and
   reviewing projects (which will then be followed by publicity and funding
   efforts).
- Different "focus groups" were identified and formed.  Each focus group will
   concentrate on a specific activity.  All volunteers (and groups) would
   meet once a month to update everyone on their activities and progress.
   Those present signed up for one or more of these various groups.
   The groups formed are:
     -> Projects Group
     -> Fundraising Group
     -> Publicity Group
     -> Asha Stars Group
     -> Awareness Raising Group
   At another extended meeting, we'll try to nail down specific charters
   for each of these groups.  We'll also identify one or two co-ordinators
   who can keep track of the bigger picture.
- The meeting concluded with a visit to our new office that we now have in
   Union South.

The new volunteers (and those of you who want to volunteer in our activities)
should get on to the Asha Volunteers mailing list "asha-v@cs.wisc.edu".
You can do this yourself by sending a mail to "majordomo@cs.wisc.edu" with
the body "subscribe asha-v".  Or, you could send your email ids to
"sastry@cs.wisc.edu", and you'll be put on the list.