Good summary of the meeting Chaitanya. I think you captured almost everything.
I would just like to extend based on my notes. 1) Objective of the group:This took almost an hour's discussion, but the consensus seems to be that we want to help the needy in 3 ways - One time as in medical cases, or other programs - recurring as in educational support. - Continuing as in taking up projects - examples adopting schools or hospitals to start with. 2) Education support - We have to be careful not to publicise this information that specific amount of support is available. Else we will not be able to handle the requests and alot of backoffice work would need to be done to validate and shortlist cases. We will need to identify only genuine cases that are reported to us through various media. The amount budgeted for 20 cases will be applied for education causes only in case the usage is not that much. 3) School adoption: The areas of involvement have been identified, but no budget set as yet. This can be done at a later date based on need. On the interaction with parents for drop outs, it was agreed that we will not directly contact the parents, but will work with teachers instead. Parent teacher meeting would be a good forum. Just wanted to clarify. 4) FDP and other DPs are on hold till we decide how the group involvement will be and what is our target reach for the same. 5) Membership: the amount for people outside India is only a guideline based on what we thought was meaningful and already being done from US members. By the way, can we adjust for current exchange rates? Dollar is becoming cheaper. :) 6) Teams: It was felt that instead of having dedicated teams for each activity, thereby constraining ourselves, leads or POCs would be identified and they would drive it. Remaining members can thus be coordinated for various activities based on interest and availability. 7) Members: At this point, we could not define what is the minimum time commitment for a given period to be considered as active. So the objective value is attend atleast one meeting per quarter. Fees would have to be paid by all members whether active or not. 8) Roles and responsibilities will be discussed at the next meeting and along with it a plan of action. This will give us a chance to gather the group member's ideas in the meantime. Registration will be discussed a bit after that as applicable. 9) If anyone can join me at Niloufer, let me know. We will fix time accordingly. 10) Next meeting will be on SUNDAY JUNE 3RD at Kashyap's bachelor pad. Agenda will be circulated a week ahead. Drinking water and a place to sit are the only expectations from Kashyap. We will make other arrangements as required. Finally, I have been attending meetings mostly regularly since last June. So almost a year. This was by far the most productive we had and good involvement from most of those who participated. Hope to see the numbers go up drastically for next month. We are finally on our way of making a major difference not just to individuals, but society as a whole. So the enthusiasm should start building up. Cheers Suresh A
