Minutes of the Meeting held on June 20th, 1995.

EVENTS AND PUBLICITY FOCUS GROUP UP-DATE:

• Summer Picnic: (16 July, 1995)

  The group had prepared preliminary flier for the picnic, certain changes were suggested for the same. It shall be incorporated into the above. Bash (bash@microsoft.com) is doing the flier.

  It was also mentioned that only 13 people had RSVP for the picnic and it was suggested that we ourselves contact 5 or 6 friends personally and urge them to come. It was important that asha_core volunteers also RSVP for the picnic.

  There are many volunteers required for the picnic and if you are free please contact Murali at muralik@microsoft.com. Murali also has the receipts for the event.

  The group shall send the fliers again. All of us should publicise the event. The email flier was sent on Asha core and it has also been put on our Mosaic page.

• Quiz-Show: (August 5th, 1995)

  There have been about 8 responses for the quiz-show. The group had prepared a flier for the quiz-show and some changes were suggested. The group was expecting about 15-20 teams for the event. It was also mentioned that it was a unique event and it should be publicised.

  It was also decided that the flier for the picnic/quiz show should be place in Indian stores and if possible be placed in the IAWW newsletter.

  There are lots of nice prizes for the quiz-show, eg. Dinner for two at an Indian restaurant....

   

• T-shirts sale:

  The Scheme has already made a profit. The group said that new t-shirts were being made by Asha-Madison and as soon as they arrive new orders could be taken. It was also decided that we could take these to the picnic or the quiz-show and sell these items.

   

• Grocery-Coupons:

  It was decided after deliberations that we take the Safeway-coupon deal. The deal is that we purchase value coupons from Safeway and distribute it amongst everybody who will buy groceries from Safeway.

  It was suggested that this was a really useful scheme to get regular income for Asha. Everybody is requested to do groceries from Safeway, Jayashree is going to buy the first round of value coupons. Please email Jayashree at jayjanar@microsoft.com if you want to participate in the first round by giving an estimate of the amount you spend on groceries for one month.

  Safeway offers 5% commission for Asha if we purchased value coupon's worth 5000$ and 4% for 4K and so on. The value coupons are of $5 ,$10 and $20 denominations.

   

• News-letter:

  The group is also preparing the upcoming newsletter for Asha.

   

FINANCE FOCUS GROUP UPDATE

• A statement of Account was shown to everybody present. If anybody is interested in the information then please email Srinivasan at srinivac@microsoft.com.
• Database was being organised to work out the inventory between organisation account and projects account.
• Please mail your contribution to the organisational costs if you wish to do so. It was decided that $5 for students and $10 for everybody else among the Asha-core group was a suggested amount.
• There was also a discussion of creating a positive balance in the organisational account, for big events when we hold them. The discussion remained inconclusive.

PROJECT FOCUS GROUP UPDATE:

• A check of $1000.00 has been sent to our first project. Shamik mailed the check from India. He was unable to visit the site because of floods in the area. Siva will be visiting the site in August.
• The group has asked Champa Mahila Society some clarifications regarding the short duration of school time, statistics regarding further progress of students, incentives that we can provide for students from here etc..
• A further installment of $500.00 will be sent through Siva after the group considers the replies to the clarifications.
• Two more projects are being evaluated. (i) Rhedt in coimbatore and(ii) a project suggested by PPI.
• The group also suggested that we look out for projects and invite proposals personally. A draft letter is being prepared, on what a proposal should contain and exact information we would like from those sending proposals.
• It was also decided to maintain a database on volunteers going to India and if possible visit a site for Asha. This was being worked on since the last meeting.

DATABASE FOCUS GROUP UPDATE:

• It was decide that we should inform people who are not on the internet about meetings. Raj has agreed to do it. Database group will update Raj on things to be done.
• Mosaic page is being monitored as well as the Asha email-accounts are being monitored.
• Email listdist that the group is maintaining is functioning smoothly.

UNIVERSITY QUARTER UPDATE:

• Siva listed all the activities that happened in the University this quarter. If you are interested in the entire list of activities please send an email to athreya@u.washington.edu. An entire update shall be on our next newsletter.