Asha SV chapter mtg on 10/20/2010 --------------------------------- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ashasv-vol/message/8007 ========================================================================= Thanks to Meena for most of the meeting minutes. Attendees: Venki, Meena, Niharika, Dhruva, Anshu, Raghu, Ramya*, Anju!, Neehar!, Abhishek, Vinod!, Jay, Madhu, Bhanu, Vijay ! on phone * new vol or external speaker Basera-e-Tabassum [Anju] ------------------------ - Update about tutor funding - Wanted to find out exact numbers - Final exams are happening right now in Oct end - They decided to go ahead and hire tutors in Aug for all 3 centers, and have 2 tutors at each home. They went ahead since there was a dire need. - Average salary of Rs.5000 per tutor per month. Based on that, it is Rs.90,000 for all 3 homes for both tutors. - They are okay with the Rs.85,000 which we have already approved - From next year we will start supporting only for one home (2 tutors only) Q: We are only supporting for 3 months not 5 months, right? A: Yes Q: When is winter break? A: Starts in November Q: The Oct exams - are they final exams for academic year. A: This is annual exam for 2010-2011. Update: We couldn't get a site visit because this area is hard to reach. So, we are going to send funds for now without a site visit. - Request: There is one home in Jammu apart from the 3 in Kashmir, so even if someone can visit that one that is good enough to give us an idea. RangDe [Ramya] -------------- - Ramya thanks for the time to talk about Rang De - Played a video to introduce Rang De - Rang De is trying help people build small businesses - Rang De is a web-based initiative with mission to provide cost effective microcredit to low income households - Concept is based on Dr.Yunus's micro-finance - Rang De org partners with MFI (micro finance initiatives?) and NGOs to identify borrowers - The partner org posts info about the borrowers - Social investors can choose borrowers from the website and fund them - Investors can be induviduals or organizations - Example: Sabita has availed a Rs.5,000 loan to use for her coconut selling business. The loan has helped her to increase profits. More such examples - Played a video which talked about profits made by borrowers Q: Who is the investor and who are partner org? A: Investors are people like us and partner organizations are NGOs which bridge the gap b/w Rang De and borrowers. Q: The partner orgs have a interest rate that they use for lending the money to borrowers. How does that reconcile with the interest rate that Rang De provides? A: Ramya will answer the question in the next few slides. Different kinds of loans: - Loans for business: 8.5% interest flat. (partner 5%, investor: 2%, Rang De: 1%, contingency fund: 0.5%) - Micro enterprise loans: these loans are facilitated at 10% rate flat. Loans will be facilitated for small business. Loan size is excess of Rs.25,000 - Loans for primary and secondary education: 5% flat rate. Used for schools fees, stationary, etc. - Loans for job guaranteed vocational education: 8.5% flat rate. - The partner has to agree to the above rates for all the loans to work with Rang De Q: What if the NGOs cannot operate in this rate? A: Rang De does not support all the running costs for NGOs but support the micro finance part of running expense. - Discussion on if there is a possibility that NGOs operate at Rang De's interest rate for few loans and a different (rather higher) interest rate for other loans they support Q: How easy or hard is it for Rang De to find such organizations who can operate at this cost? A: I am not sure, I can get back to you on this but I do know that Rang De has put a lot of work to find these organizations Q: How does this interest rate compare to other lending institutions? A (Vinod): This is usually 1/3rd of other micro credit orgs and almost 1/10th of financial lending institutions. Q: Do you have a profile how many NGOs are involved and how many borrowers are benefitted? Also what is their operating cost, etc? A: I can get this info needed. Q: Do you also get audited reports of the NGOs and look for the credibility of the partners? A: Yes, Rang De also does site visits, etc. Q: What has been the repayment rate? A: 99% Q: There is a collateral for small enterprise loans, right? A: Yes. There is no collateral for small loans. Q: Do the NGOs provide feedback and help the borrowers to make use of the money effectively and help out in their business plans, etc? A: I am sure the NGOs do because I am guessing it is part of their work but again this is just my thought. Q: What is the duration of loan? A: Typically 1-2 years - Latest stats: - borrowers impacted: 5145 - social investors: 2103 - loans raised: Rs 2.68 crores - loan repaid: Rs 1.39 crores Q: How many orgs are current partners? A: 18 - Discussion about peer group borrowers where 4-5 borrowers are put together. Q: Does the social investor know the timeline of the loan when lending the money? A: Yes Q: These are not policies (how micro-finance is handled) of Rang De but these are from the partners, right? A: NGOs pick the borrowers and give them to Rang De but the interest rates given by Rang De can influence the way NGOs picks the borrowers. - More discussions about how borrowers are selected. Q: Leaving educational loans, what % is given towards income generation loans? A: All of it because Rang De picks only income generation loans, rather Rang De wants the NGOs to give them borrowers who want loans for income generation activities. Proposal for Asha and Rang De: - Rang De needs to generate awareness in US. Asha events can provide the perfect ground for that. - Rang De in turn can help market Asha events Q: You are suggesting that there is no real financial need from Asha but more of publicity help? A: Yes Q: In 2008, we had discussions with Rang De. We can look to continue the same. We had discussed that Asha can help with publicity and in return Rang De can partner with Asha supported orgs that have micro-credit programs (Timbaktu collective, Samruddhi, etc) A: Sure, we can do that. We need to work on both ends to feed in more investors while adding more borrowers to the system. - The investor has to be a NRI (basically have account in India or ability to invest in India) because Rang De doesnt have FCRA Q: Does the NGO partner check on progress of the borrowers in terms of how much profit the borrower is making and how well they are doing this? A: Yes Q: Do the social investors have to pick a borrower or can they just invest? A: It is a choice for the investor. If investor doesn't want to pick a borrower, then Rang De picks a borrower for investor Q: How big is Rang De? How many employees are involved? A: I don't have exact number but handful for employees working out of an apt in Chennai. They do have some volunteers who help out with websites, etc. Smitha and her husband started this org in 2008. Q: Does Asha support organizations that have micro-credit programs? A: Yes we do. We support fellows who run micro-credit programs in Samrudhi and Timabktu Collective. We also support salaries of people who run the self help groups in Asha Darshan. Decision process proposal [Venki] --------------------------------- |- 3 kinds of ways to make decisions: | - online polls* | - voice vote* | - no vote | |For decisions about project funding: |- Online poll open for 2 weeks. Volunteers might need this time to understand the proposal and ask | and get questions answered. |- In case of emergency, voice vote at the meeting will be considered valid. | - Emergency time: Project needs funds in under 3 weeks. | - Emergency reason: Voice vote at the meeting will decide if the reason can be considered as an | emergency. - Discussion about why annual renewals cannot be emergency votes and also what % of budget can be an emergency vote - Everyone agrees to: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For decisions about project funding: - Online poll open for 2 weeks. Volunteers might need this time to understand the proposal and ask and get questions answered. - In case of emergency, voice vote at the meeting will be considered valid. - Emergency time: Project needs funds in under 3 weeks. - Emergency reason: Voice vote at the meeting will decide if the reason can be considered as an emergency. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |For all other decisions - Point 1 |- For process issues that enable coords/volunteers to function more efficiently, and does not involve | either donors or project partners in any way, no voting is necessary. - Discussions about the above point - "more efficiently" can be subjective. It is also good idea to share with the vols about the change. C (Vinod) Remove "coords" from the previous point and make it generic for volunteers. Also, the new process should be shared on sv_vol list. C (Venki): Why should the process change should be shared with everyone? - More discussion about the same. - Everyone agrees with: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "For process issues that enable volunteers to function more efficiently, and does not involve either donors or project partners in any way, no voting is necessary. This new process has to be shared as an FYI in ashasv-vol list. If there are any objections for the this new proposal email, then we will vote on this process by bring it to chapter mtg to voice vote and also open a 5-day online poll (next point)" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |For all other decisions - Point 2 |- For process issues that involve donors/project partners, and all other decisions, the proposal needs | to be presented at a chapter meeting, and a voice vote taken, followed by an online poll for 5 days. | The voice vote includes anyone who has called in to the meeting. - Discussion about online poll. Few folks didnt want online poll and instead just reply to the minutes email expressing the objection. Venki's response was that Vinod brought up a good point that this email business will take longer and will not conclude the issue soon. - The idea of 5-day online poll is to hasten the process. - Everyone agrees with: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "For process issues that involve donors/project partners, and all other decisions, the proposal needs to be presented at a chapter meeting, and a voice vote taken, followed by an online poll for 5 days. The voice vote includes anyone who has called in to the meeting." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - This agreed proposal will be voted for. It will be an online poll for 2 weeks with 70% for votes and with 10 person quorum. - Case study 1: - Let us take the issue of buying good speaker phone for chapter mtg for better participation. Who decides and which point does it come under? - discussions about it - This will be a point 1 of all other decisions - Decision was that chapter votes to elect coords so coords must have ability to spend admin funds to make process efficient. They get some leeway to make these decisions, but they must be posted as an FYI. If anyone has objection it will default to point 2 anyway. - Concern about no voice vote for emergency funds. This has to be changed to voice votes + 5 day online poll because some vols may need more info to vote and vols not in the mtg can also participate. This will not bring in a big delay. It can max bring a delay of 3 days. This is because we can start the checklist and funding process in parallel, thus saving ~2 days. If the nature of emergency is such that the money has to reach in under 5 days? - Decision is to add a third case under Project funding. Eveyone agrees to ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "In case of emergency where funds are needed in under 5 days, a voice vote at the chapter will be sufficient. This decision will be provided to the chapter on the ashasv-vol list as an FYI immediately, and objections can be registered within 1 day. If there is such an objection, it will default to the 5 day online poll emergency voting system". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Case study 2: - Which category will helping/collaborating with Rang De for their publicity come under? - It comes under point 2 of all other decisions, and hence will be brought to a chapter meeting with a voice vote plus 5 day online vote - Case study 3: - TF stars: We had reviewed the proposal and approved it, but due a concerning site visit report, we wanted to have a second site visit. Hypothetical question: What if we could not arrange for a site visit and the project really needed the money? - This would have come under the Emergency clause of project funding with the voice vote plus 5 day online poll, and the partial amount to fund etc. would have been decided at the meeting. -- "The least thing upset him on the links. He missed short putts because of the uproar of the butterflies in the adjoining meadows" - P.G.Wodehouse __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) RECENT ACTIVITY: New Members 1 Visit Your Group MARKETPLACE Get great advice about dogs and cats. Visit the Dog & Cat Answers Center. Hobbies & Activities Zone: Find others who share your passions! Explore new interests. Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___