A chapter meeting was scheduled Saturday, August 18 at 4.30pm in Equad 
building: 


The following was the agenda: 
1. Asha Fellowship proposal - Sireesha from Timbaktu Collective, a 
social worker, working in the areas of womens' issues. 
2. Work an Hour 
3. Marathon training program review. 


Minutes of the chapter meeting held on 08/18/07 at 4.30pm. 
Present: Ravi, Sowmya, Amrish, Kavitha, Sridhar 


The following items were discussed: 


1. Team AshaAID marathon 2007 program review: 


Ravi and Sowmya are coordinating the marathon program for the chapter. 
Ravi provided the current status of the program. Training program 
entered 12th week. Currently, there are 17 runners associated with the 
chapter. Two runners may potentially leave the program. The training 
program in Princeton is going well. Coach payments are being made by 
CNJ chapter, and Princeton would do a fund transfer. Runner web pages 
have been setup to help fund raising. Potential for corporate 
sponsorships were discussed and agreed to accept if there is any 
offer. In turn, the sponsor's logo or company name may be printed on 
the T-shirt, the banner, and the web site. 


2. Work An Hour (WAH) 2007 Fund Raising: 


The chapter has submitted a proposal from LTTO (Khajurdaha) project 
for WAH 2007 funds. Ravi provided the current status of WAH publicity 
at the chapter and funds raised. WAH publicity was posted on the 
google and yahoo groups with a plea to circulate and publicize among 
families and friends of volunteers. So far, chapter raised $1090 with 
7 donors. The target amount is $24974 and the WAH 2007 campaign ends 
on Sept 6th. There is a need for increasing the WAH campaign by the 
chapter. Kavitha volunteered to look at old databases and send emails 
to the potential donors. 


3. Asha Fellowship proposal: 


Ravi introduced a fellowship proposal for supporting activities of 
Shrimati Sireesha who has been working with Timbaktu Collective on 
family counseling and legal advising in 06/23/07 chapter meeting. The 
fellowship was approved by the fellowship committee. In the meeting, 
it was decided to pursue the fellowship proposal further, and the 
meeting suggested to upload the documents to the google groups for 
volunteers to review the proposal. Ravi uploaded all the documents to 
the groups on 07/13/07. 
The discussion started by recapturing the background and the goals of 
the fellowship work. The meeting felt that Sireesha's work is 
important and needs support in the given conditions. The meeting also 
took note of the fact that Sireesha's work is not directly related to 
education. At this point, Ravi highlighted the fact that Sireesha 
would be working among the families of economically and socially 
underprivileged with rampant domestic violence and problems, dowry 
harassments, etc. This impacts negatively the well being of the 
children in these families. Any effort in alleviating this situation 
directly contributes to proper functioning of these families, and the 
immediate beneficiaries are children. Any improvement in the 
environment that the underprivileged children live in will help them 
in their education and overall development. Ravi also brought to the 
attention of the meeting that the fellowships cover broad areas that 
have potential to make social impact such as education, income 
generation, women's empowerment, rural development, etc. 
The meeting also reviewed the budget. The fellowship proposal sought 
Rs. 15000 per month. This amount included salary for Sireesha (Rs. 
8000) and two assistants (Rs. 3000), and allowances for office 
maintenance and transport (Rs. 2000). These details were provided in 
one of the documents uploaded to the groups. An additional amount of 
Rs. 2000 per month was sought for office rent. The meeting felt that 
since this is an effort for community, there may be a scope to find a 
place for free to provide the services. Meeting suggested that to 
explore this possibility. 
The meeting was convinced about the impacts of this fellowship work, 
and approved unanimously the fellowship at Rs. 13000 per month for a 
three year period subject to yearly renewal. The fellowship will need 
to be approved every year subject to review of progress. The meeting 
also decided to take up support of the additional amount of Rs. 2000 
per month if office space is not available for free. 


4. Low chapter meeting attendance: 


The meeting also discussed the problem of low attendance at the 
chapter meetings and dwindling active volunteer base. The discussion 
focused on how to improve the volunteer base. Alternatively, the idea 
of making the chapter dormant or merging the chapter with CNJ came 
up. 


Minutes posted by Ravi.