Minutes of chapter meeting on 03/06/2010 at 4.30pm. 

Present: Priya, Ravi, Sowmya, Kavitha, Amrish, Ritun 


1. Priya made a power point-presentation on Anu & Krishna’s work at 
Thulir (educational support center) during the year 2009. Priya would 
post the presentation on the chapter groups for others benefit. The 
meeting learnt good work done by the Anu & Krishna, and was impressed 
with the progress. The meeting also noted that the activities at Anu & 
Krishna were supported by Asha Bangalore. Asha Bangalore also 
initiated many activities at Thulir. The meeting felt that regular 
interaction of Asha Bangalore volunteers and Princeton chapter 
coordinator, Priya, is a good substitute for site visits. However, the 
meeting felt that it is important for the volunteers to make site 
visits to learn more from the ground. Priya noted that Anu & Krishna 
are constantly visited by many people from different organizations. 
The meeting took up the question of supporting Anu & Krishna’s work as 
a project. However, since Bangalore chapter has been supporting Anu & 
Krishna’s activities at Thulir, the meeting felt that it would be 
effective to support Anu & Krishna as fellows. The fellowship that is 
taking care of livelihood, the meeting felt, would help Anu & Krishna 
focus on the actual work. The meeting decided to renew the fellowship 
for one more year. The meeting, then, took up the budget proposal. In 
the year 2009, the fellowship amount was Rs. 2,40,500.00. Considering 
the increase in the cost of living, Priya proposed the fellowship 
amount for the year 2010 at Rs. 2,52,525.00. This amounts to 5% 
increase in the fellowship amount. The meeting discussed the financial 
proposal and unanimously voted for the fellowship amount of Rs. 
2,52,525.00. The amount was approved in Indian currency so that dollar- 
rupee fluctuations can be accounted for. Sowmya would calculate and 
communicate the dollar amount considering the dollar-rupee exchange 
rate to the central treasury for the disbursement. The meeting also 
decided to expand collaboration with Asha Bangalore for site visits 
and communication purposes. The meeting, in the end, decided to have a 
follow conference call on Anu & Krishna’s work to provide an 
opportunity to the chapter volunteers who could not attend today’s 
meeting to learn more about Anu & Krishna’s work through question and 
answers, if any. This, the meeting felt, would help every chapter 
volunteer know about the good work carried out by Anu & Krishna. The 
meeting suggested to Priya to upload the documents to the project 
website and prepare a check list for the disbursement of money. The 
meeting also suggested Priya and Sowmya to explore if a cashier check 
can be sent. The meeting thanked Priya for coordinating the project 
and presenting Anu & Krishna’s work to the chapter. 


2. The chapter financials submitted by Sowmya were reviewed. The 
meeting took the opportunity and thanked Sowmya for doing a great job 
as the chapter treasurer. The year 2009 started with approximately 
$28347 and ended with approximately $46349. The project disbursements 
were approximately $14657. The fund raising expenses were 
approximately $6800. 
Marathon accounts were also reviewed. Total funds raised from the 
marathon program were approximately $16223. The expenses were close to 
$4546. The shortfall from the expected fund raising goal of $15000 was 
due to some runners not meeting the goals. No decision was taken on 
what to do. One suggestion was that we could ask the runners combine 
the shortfall with future fund raising efforts. 


3. The meeting took notice of pending project renewals and review of 
the progress. It was decided to have conference calls for discussing 
the project renewals if quorum is not available in the bi-weekly 
meetings. 


4. The meeting also took note of the need for volunteers for General 
funds group and upcoming Asha wide elections. 


5. The meeting briefly reviewed the Asha Ustav 2010 status. Amrish is 
still waiting for the official confirmation from the South Brunswick 
school board. At this point, the meeting delved into the amount of 
time spent on the fund raising and lack of time for project and other 
work (projects review, monitoring, talks, etc.) at the chapter. This 
became an issue with the marathon training program as all the 
volunteers are running and volunteering for the training program and 
the program runs for almost 6 months. Questions were raised whether it 
is time to stop marathon training program as it has been consuming a 
lot of volunteer time and fund raising capacity seems to be limited. 
Some felt that the marathon program is taking away too much of 
valuable volunteer time and it will be unreasonable to ask for more. 
Some felt it may be too early to ask that kind of question or come to 
any conclusion. The meeting felt that all the questions raised were 
very important and better to put them on the table and discuss 
thoroughly at a later time. 


6. The meeting ended by deciding to have a conference call on this 
week (preferably Wednesday) on Anu & Krishna fellowship, and to start 
discussion on fellowship renewal of Sireesha. 


Posted by Ravi.