Meeting minutes of Nov 20, 2002

Attendees: Arindam, Srishti, Jayashree Krishnan, Archana, Srinivas A, Vinay, Srinivas P, Deepak, Amlan, Lakshmi, Venky, Zoya, Swati

Kid's event next year: This is going to be a IAWW type event where different schools/teachers are going to put up shows for the audience. These teachers are usually very experienced with these kinds of programs & their programs are high quality. We are looking for two possible dates - Apr 5 or Apr 12, both Sat. We had to discuss the timing quite a bit since several other groups have expressed their interest in performing for Asha. A good sign indeed. But we have to keep a bar of one event/fundraiser per month for the impact/ppl coming. Also we had to make sure we don't clash with CRY events. We plan to use Asha ads during the break. Looking into a hall that can acomodate 500+ & has a cafeteria (young kids - parents will bring food). In addition we are thinking of having a exhibition of kids drawings from India & a possible exchange of leeter between children here & there. Few individuals have are also interested in writing to kids in India. One problem is translation. We are also thinking of giving certificates to the kids who'll perform. The ticket prices can be: $12 at the door

                                       $10 general

                                       $ 8 students/children

Along with this there was a proposal from 9th grade students from Leota high. They wanted to do some performance for a group to raise funds & they could not find any group other than us who would give them enough freedom to perform what they want. Unfortunately they do have a deadline i.e. their graduation. But we are very packed in 2003 in terms of events.

Also Malathi from a Bharat Natyam school wants to do Dashavataram + some semi classical dance show for Asha. We have talked & postpones this to the last qtr of the year.

Volunteers needed:

1. Checking venue: involves calling up place

2. Follow up regarding certificate

3. Follow up with the drawing exhibition idea with project coords

4. Follow up with the letter writing idea: involves 2 things -

            a. coordinating with the project coords

            b. getting translators in different languages

REDAG: Srishti gave an update of this project. We have decided to pull off based on negative site visit from Siva, the fact that they are not clearly communicating & the fact that we support a tiny fraction of their budget.

WAH: Swati presented the new WAH model proposed by Shanmuga & we found the new model better since it gives the chapters freedom to choose their own projects & raise funds for them. Regrading how the funds should be disbursed, we felt it should be based on project needs rather than % of what the chapter raised.

Digantar: Lakshmi & Amlan presented Digantar. They have recently taken over this project from Anita. Digantar's annual budget is $50K out of which we have provided them $15K + $10K to sustain themselves while they were waiting for the Govt funding renewal. They have been given verbal promise but nothing in paper. They got 3 months funding from Govt for July-Sept in Sept this year. So we hope that this 3 month fund should sustain them from the next 3 months. They have approached the Govt again for the renewal of their 10 yr funding that they had earlier. Amlan also mentioned Siva's concerns/comments after his (Siva's) site visit -

1. Trying to fund Digantar is like funding Delhi University

2. Rohit rarely goes to the villages