Asha St. Louis needs you. Currently, we have about 10-20 committed volunteers, but our volunteer pool is always in flux. People graduate, change jobs, have children etc. and their ability to commit time and energy varies. We need more people to participate, learn the functioning and norms of Asha and help us continue our work empowering India.

The consistent work we have may appear unglamorous, but it is the skeletal system that Asha & consequently the work we do depends on:

• Treasurer / Financial organization / Account keeping
• Coordination of meetings, Taking minutes and publishing them
• Web page maintenance, updates etc.
• Project upkeep: Awareness, coordination, maintenence
• New volunteer recruitment: Events / Inspirations etc. to get new volunteers and sustain their interest and coordinate their contributions.

The dynamic work we have is more exciting and requires energy and innovation. This is what we are always looking for more people to help with:

• Fund raising - ideas for events, we desperately need LEADERSHIP in execution and coordination of the events.
  
• Project reviews - Need people to review new projects and presenting to the group. Evaluating project impacts to a community, and perhaps even suggesting ways for an institution to improve / increase it's impact / decrease it's challenges through the collective Asha experiences and knowledge base.
  
• Project mentorship - Maintaining contact with project partners in India and looking for ways to support them beyond financial. Keeping tabs of their work and progress and summarizing for the chapter.
  
• Asha liason: Need help keeping tabs with the latest discussions on the Asha wide lists, across all 70 or more Asha chapters. This helps Asha grow and evolve itself into a more mature organization through it's funcationing as part of the larger collective with it's various experiences and wisdoms. Discussions may be
  • philosophical (about where Asha is headed and what we stand for)
  • Administrative (Cohesing Asha as a whole and pooling resources)
  • Legal (pushing for education laws and enforcement of the same in India)
  • Innovations in design, self marketing, fundraising etc.
  • Project related: Discussions on projects and the consequent knowledge base and learning that can come out of it. Sharing resources and ideas, helping with curriculum setting, re-writing text books, evaluating religious tolerance or intolerance in Govt. authorized text books etc.
  • Fund raising related: New ideas for chapters to get together on events, or similar events that can define and brand Asha. Sharing thoughts on successful events and building on that knowledge. Examples: Asha marathon, Amjad Ali Khan Notes of Hope concert, Work and Hour online fundraiser etc.
    
• Community out-reach: We need people to help us stay in touch with our St. Louis community. We have a good supporter base, but we need to stay in touch with them through newsletters, events, outreach programs etc. Need to stay in touch with the heads of various India related associations - from the student campus to the regional associations and more. Need to look for opportunities to network, get Asha's message out and constantly look for commitment, support and help from our large supporter base and look to grow it.
  
• Tapping-in: We need people to help brainstorm about, as well as take leadership in tapping into other resources for Asha. Corporate sponsors, other innovative fund raising ideas and ways of tapping into the St. Louis community for support both financial and otherwise. Connecting the community to the tangible changes for India and getting people to be aware and committed to the process.