Friends, Very happy to share that there was really a good response and we came out of the meeting with some action points. These days we are able to close on the action items too and that is a good sign.
Participants: Satyakrishna, Prasanthi, Praveen, Suresh, Challa Sivaji, Kalyan Sudheer, Harinath garu, Diwaker garu, Rajeswara Rao garu, Shailaja and our Dr. Sundar. Sakshi reporter Prakash was also present there. He is a friend of Vamsi Venigalla and also visited Dr. Sai Bhaskar garu. (as part of BosF initiative). He came to propose us an idea of Employable Skills Training only with emphasis only on rural youth and providing them employment by corporate tie ups. His idea is to get teachers from MNCs only. He is not interested to be our member but he has no problem to make this as TMAD activity only. He says that he will do all the work but we need to show the resources. He will take the responsibility of coordination and other stuff but we should go when he meets crucial persons for this project. His idea is to invite famous people and request them to associate with this project by way of giving us funds in providing a permanent venue so that we can run the classes. As most of the members who presented there are new, Prasanthi and Satya explained about TMAD to them and also about all the Chapters. They also requested all volunteers to spend two days a month for TMAD till we revive the Hyd Chapter and be strengthened with more number of volunteers. Thankfully everyone extended wholehearted support. We formed teams and we will be publishing particular team's details on our Web so that anyone can directly make a call to them. 1. Differently Abled Organizations: Challa Sivaji will lead this group and Praveen, Suresh will be part of this team. Kalyan Sudheer will be relocating to Vizag this April and until then he will be part of this team. We have great progress with respect to supporting Visually Challenged. Most of the items that we promised to them are being fulfilled and we are working with them. Sivaji also visited one hostel for Visually Challenged girls and their requirements also are being addressed. (Ramadevi garu of ETV2 contributed the Mixer and Cooler requirement). Some more are there and we are hopeful of arranging them too. Sivaji will take the initiative of forming a platform for people with disabilities wherein those people only will take the lead and we will offer whatever support that is required. 2. Visiting Orphanages and Oldage Homes Rajeswara Rao garu will work on this task. He is very interested and ready to do this alone. So far he is the only one in this group and Shailaja will be helping him in his visits near her place. 3. Education Diwaker garu will take the lead and we decided to take 4 more schools in Hyderabad as we did Mehdipatnam school. Coming to villages we will be working in two schools in Gottigakhurdu, Tandur Taluk, Basheerabad Mandal and two schools in Ballanapalli, Mehboob Nagar Dt. 4. Software/Web site Anything related to software would be the main focus area of Harinath garu. 5. PR/Fund Raising Kasyap would be our PR. He will work on TMAD Branding and fund raising. We do not have any volunteers for Health team. We have to form them from our volunteer base. Satya is Treasurer and Rajeswara Rao garu will help him in managing accounts. Satya would concentrate on building membership. Prasanthi would be concentrating on reviving other Chapters and making sure that there is a communication and coordination among all Chapters of TMAD. In addition, she would continue her stint with BosF. Dr. Sundar is relocating to Mysore and will be there for one year. It is upto Blr members to capitalize on him :) We decided to meet only at the place of our work rather than at a fixed venue. So we will most probably make the schools or orphan/oldage homes as our place of monthly meetings. Action Item 1. Prasanthi, Harinath and Kasyap would be working on updating our Web site and Brochure in another 15 days. 2. To conduct monthly meetings on the first Sunday of every month 3. To come up with T-MAD cloth bags and use them. 4. All members to contribute their membership fee without fail from this month. What makes us a TMAD member? 1. Pledge as Eye Donor and Organ Donor (We will share the details and if convinced, members can register as donors. This clause is only to create awareness. There would not be any compulsion) 2. Use cloth bags and avoid polythene wherever possible 3. Practise all other environment friendly activities 4. Monthly membership fee of 100 rs. 5. Wearing TMAD T-Shirt for our activities 6. Spend at least one day a month for TMAD activities apart from attending meetings Last but not the least, we talked about our TMAD Anniversary and our practise of spending this day exclusively with our TMAD Family. As we are reviving all our Chapters and encouraging each Chapter to chart out a road map, this anniversary is also very crucial for us. Feb 28th falls on a Sunday and I requested all our members to block their calendar on 27th and 28th of Feb. We requested the members not to think of contributing this money for a cause rather than spend on the journey. Our main goal is TMAD to grow as a family and there should be active coordination among all Chapters and celebrating anniversaries together is a good way of knowing all our volunteers and this is how we want to keep the spirit of TMAD family alive. We have to finalize a common place for all Chapters to reach. This would not be a visit for visit sake. We have to find out a place where good social experiments are being executed successfully. We can consider Timbaktu, Rishivalley schools or if possible, Warora (Baba Amte's Ashram). But time is the key factor. Request all other Chapters also to come up with the choice of the places so that we can start planning. Wishing a bright future for TMAD!!
