Meeting minutes of Nov 20, 2002

Attendees:Amlan, Arbind, Arindam, Jayant, Lakshmi N, Lakshmi V, Preeti, Raj C, Raji, Ravi Raj, Selvam, Srinivas A, Sunil, Swati, Vidyanand & Vinay.

Agenda:

1) SITFORCE : Raji
2) UMBVS budget : Raj C
3) Annual Report : Sunil
4) Change of Meeting Place
5) Uthna
6) WAH Discussion : Swati

1) SITFORCE : Raji described how IT can involve people, introducing
efficient data management at the same time. SITFORCE wants to get into any
Asha Project where IT works are done. They will sent more details and
links.

2) UMBVS Budget: Raj talked about UMBVS: 10 schools in the border
areas in Rajasthan, with about 300 students, are in urgent need of
stop-gap funding. They are in the way of becoming govt-funded.

They had to employ local people -suitably-trained- as teachers. Hence, a
sizable chunk of their money goes for the teachers' training.

They need $5K for next 6 months. $1K per chapter, from five chapters will
solve their problem.

An online voting is suggested for 1K from Asha-Seattle.

3) Annual Report : Drafts of Annual Report are distributed by Sunil.

4) Change of Meeting Place : Discussions over a possible shift in
meeting place (to UW) took place. Swati said that its not possible
immediately because a place is already booked for next two months.

5) Uthna : A possibility of funding (3 -> 3.5K per year) for Uthna is
reviewed.

6) WAH Discussion : Shammuga's, Presi's and St. Louis proposals are
discussed in details. Example of Malgudi project is raised to show how
several different chapters can collaborate in a common project.

Three points came out:

1. We would like to see at fraction (to be decided) of funds raised by any
chapter go towards the chapters general funds i.e. if a chapter raises
$10K
they get
to keep $1K (say) out of that for their own projects. We feel that this
will give incentive to smaller chapters to raise funds for WAH since they
also
benefit from that.

2. We all are very much for the theme based WAH

3. Nominating chapter has to raise 1/3 of the budgetof their project - All
but one of us felt there is absolutely no need for such a bound. chapters
are passionate about the projects they work with & they will work hard to
raise funds for their projects.