Minutes of conference call held on 04/25/2010 at 9 pm.

A conference call was scheduled for 04/25/2010 at 9pm to discuss the
renewal of Sireesha fellowship.

Present: Ravi, Sowmya, Priya, Sriram, Rithun

1. It was recalled that the discussion on Sireesha fellowship was
started in a conference call held on 03/18/10 at 9.15pm in which the
project steward Ravi could not participate. The participants (Sowmya,
Amrish, Rithun, Rahul, Dilip) discussed the financial proposal along
with the progress report at that time and agreed in principle to
continue support.  The conference call minutes were also posted.

2. Ravi presented again the report on the work done by Sireesha in
2009. Sireesha handled 16 cases in the year involving family
counseling and marriage issues. She organized camps/campaigns and
continued her work as a resource person in various training camps
organized by herself and other NGOs. She also participated in women
parliament organized by a Delhi based NGO. She has continued her role
as a legal advisor, counselor and trainer for MACTS. The report would
be made available on the project website. The report also contained
financial spending during the year 2009. An amount of Rs. 4400 was
left unspent that was allocated for camps. Her work was appreciated
and praised by the participants.

3. Following this, Ravi presented the financial proposal for the year
2010. In the year 2009, there was a left over money of Rs. 4400 that
was allocated for camps. That money would be used in 2010. For the
year 2010, Rs. 8500 was proposed as Sireesha’s fellowship. This is
approximately an increase of 5% over the last year’s amount. For
office assistant, an amount of Rs. 3250 was proposed. This is 8%
increase over the last year’s amount. For office maintenance, Rs. 2000
and for camps Rs. 2000 was proposed. There is no change in these
amounts. The total proposed per month was Rs. 15750. There is an
increase of Rs. 750 per month. The annual amount proposed in Indian
rupees was 189000. The meeting discussed the amount, and the items
included in the proposal, and felt that the increase is reasonable,
and voted to continue the support for the fellowship at Rs 189000. The
meeting also noted that the participants in the previous conference
call, Amrish and Rahul, who could not participate in the current call,
provided their consent for continuation of the fellowship at the
amount proposed. The meeting approved the fellowship amount of Rs.
189000 for the period of Feb 2010 to Jan 2011. The meeting also
decided that the amount would be calculated in dollars at the time the
request would be made to issue a check to send the money for the
fellowship to the Timbaktu collective.

4. The conference call also briefly discussed other ways of generating
income by Sireesha to support her activities. A suggestion, based on
the cases she is attracting, was that she could appeal to the clients
that have decent income to donate money to her cause. However, there
was concern that once she takes that route, despite being called
donation, there may be expectations on the part of clients for more
time to be spent for their issues. This can impact the time Sireesha
would be spending for the poor. The meeting decided to know Sireesha’s
future plans since the fellowship may not be available for ever.

5. The meeting decided that Ravi would update the project page with
the reports and the financial proposal, and Sowmya would initiate the
disbursement process.

Posted by Ravi. 




Reposted by Ravi from the thread......

Here are the minutes from today's (Thursday (03/18)  at 9.15pm)
conference call -  to discuss renewal of Sireesha fellowship. .

Attendees: Amrish, Rithun, Rahul, Dilip, Sowmya

Duration: 30 mins

Almost everyone had already read through the documents with Ms.
Sireesha's work, and were very impressed with her extensive work
accomplished the past year. There was also a brief discussion on
Timbuktu Collective's background and other work. A question was raised
about this funding not adhering strictly to education,. Amrish
recounted past chapter discussions on this aspect and everyone agreed
that although this is does not relate to education as closely as some
of the other projects, the chapter wants to support this equally
important work.

The financial details and new proposal amount was agreeable to
everyone present.

There was no formal vote, but for the record, four people agreed to
the amount Rs 1,89,000 for year 2010 and cast their advanced-vote in
case they are not able to be present during the time of formal voting.
Dilip abstained from voting. Further discussions by email or at next
chapter meeting.

Sowmya