28th December 2009

Chennai updates

  • School had Admistrative Officer inspection.
  • Exams for students got over and the School reopens on 3rd January.

Bangalore updates

  • Bangalore School reopens on 31 December.

2009 Reflection

As 2009 comes to a close, lets take time to reflect on our work

http://saktyavesh.blogspot.com/2009/12/2009-reflection.html

Thank you all for your sincere efforts, contributions, ideas. We can gain strength from the work we rendered and the positive impact it had. Hopefully we participate better and more efficiently in 2010 and beyond.

Do let know your ideas/suggestions

Feel free to spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and in spirit with interested individuals and organizations

Wishing you and your families a wonderful and exciting New Year 2010

2009 Reflection

Our contribution may be a drop in an ocean but the ocean will be incomplete without that one drop
- Mother Teresa
As 2009 comes to a close, lets take time to reflect on our work

  • Had our first major interactions with the Schools with which are partnering - Government Lower Primary School, Bangalore and National Middle School, Chennai
  • We had interacted with the Parents of the Children in Bangalore. Listening to their problems, knowing the short coming from the School, complaints, this was a big step which instilled confidence in the parents that good quality education will be provided at the School
  • The color TV which we donated had helped the students have access to video content
    We had celebrations & activities planned at both the School during major occasions like Republic day, Kamaraj Birthday, Independence day, Teachers day, Gandhi Jayanthi, Childrens day & Christmas. We had visited the School and conducted activities and particpated in the celebrations
  • we are and have been sponsoring a Teacher for Bangalore School. Providing employment apart, this has avoided a single Teacher share more than one class
    We had volunteers among us visiting the School and teach & share knowledge. From basic English, communication, general knowledge like Thirukural, vegetable identification
    Months of the year, reading time, to dance, games etc
  • Provided uniforms for Bangalore School. The Parents, Staff and the Children were really excited with this. The Children felt a lot happier in coming to School
    Helped set up a computer lab at the Bangalore, School. Reparing old systems, providing mouse, Tables for the lab
  • We met the Correspondent of Chennai School for development of the School. We introduced ourselves, talked about our intentions, asked questions and shared information
    We participated in the 'Back to School' program in Bangalore. Meeting the parents at their door step and ecouraging them to send their children to School. This resulted in increased attendance at the Bangalore School
  • Green initiative - we sponsored pots and saplings for the Bangalore School. The students have shown interest in nuturing the plants by watering them. This shall sure increase their bonding with Mother nature
  • We sponsored the SLM kit for Chennai School. This has helped the staff teach maths more effectively
  • The almirah and the tubelights that was given to the Chennai School has helped them organise books and have lighting for dark rooms
  • 2009 was the year when for the first time, the Bangalore School won many prizes at different competitions and proceeded till the district level. this was said by the Head Staff itself. Thanks largely to the active support from the volunteers this shall increase the confidence of the students
  • We had received donations like carom board, chess boards, skipping ropes, toys, books, pencils, crayons, eraser’s, sharpeners, mouses, soft toys etc...
    We had sponsored the Dussehra camp at Bangalore School. During this time the Staff had conducted yoga classes, extra curicular activities
  • We had meeting with Cluster Assistant Education Officer (CAEO) Mrs.Yashoda in Bangalore who thanked us for the support
    We had sponsored the fees for Hindi exams for a few selected students from BAngalore School

    Operational wise
    - we applied for PAN card and received it
    - we moved our donations to Saktyavesh current account
    - We met a professonal auditor and with his help filed our income tax for the period of April 2008 – March 2009

This apart when nature's fury struck we pitched with our efforts and provided whatever was possible from our side

Thank you all for your sincere efforts, contributions, ideas. We can gain strength from the work we rendered and the positive impact it had. Hopefully we participate better and more efficiently in 2010 and beyond

21st December 2009

National Middle School, Chennai

  • Christmas celebration was held last Saturday on 19th December 2009. Four volunteers had been the School on this day. The celebrations started by 10:45am. Drama by the students about the birth of Jesus Christ – group dance by boys – group dance by girls – dance by Santa Claus (one student played this role) – dance by staff was the order of the day. Later gifts were distributed to all the students and the volunteers were given gifts by the staff and students
  • Tiffin box and water cans were distributed as gifts to the Students. Rs 2470 was the total expenses for the gifts
  • Enjoy the pictures in the following link - http://picasaweb.google.com/saktyavesh/NationalMiddleSchoolPallavaramChristmasCelebrations#slideshow/5417739879680561682

Board meeting minutes

New Request

  • Sheela Madam, the Head Staff of Government Lower Primary School, Vibhuthipura has requested us to help the School in constructing a multipurpose hall in 2nd floor. They have already received Rs 2 lakhs for this. As this would not be enough, they have requested us to donate whatever we can from our end (either in cash or in kind). Below are the materials which are needed


MaterialQuantityapproximate rate
cement120bags(280Rs per bag)33,600
hallow blocks2000(25Rs)50,000
sand 2 (15000 per load) 30,000
iron 1 (30000) 30,000
sheet36(800Rs.per sheet) 28,800
tress work 1,00,000
grill 40,000


The hall shall be used for Prayer, to serve lunch to students, have PTA meetings ,to conduct competitions. The total expense request comes to Rs 3,12,400(apart from the Rs 2lakhs) If any of you would be willing to donate or find sponsors, kindly let know

Income Tax filed

  • We have filed our income tax for the period of April 2008 – March 2009 on 11th December 2009. The reference number is 1702002169

Saktyavesh Board Meeting -14th December 2009

Meeting Information
Meeting Date: 12th & 13th December 2009
Meeting Venue: Aneesh Home (beside SAP Labs)
Attendees: Aneesh, Vinay, Prakash & Ananth

Meeting Agenda
Reviewing our work
Immediate steps – pending and new ones
Challenges
Road Map discussion pending
Improvements & feedbacks

Reviewing our work
Meeting with all Bangalore volunteers (All trustees will be invited for this meeting).
Meeting with all Chennai volunteers (All trustees will be invited for this meeting), Meeting place to be decided by Chennai/ Bangalore trustees.
Combine Monthly Meeting with School Activity.
Meeting Frequency should be once in a month, on weekends.
The above meetings will have to happen on a regular/mandatory from January
Need more discussion on one more bank account for international transfers
Receipts to be issued for every Saktyavesh donations/transaction
To check with the auditor on issuing receipts for unknown transaction (since we don’t have the complete account number)
To check with the auditor on how we can issue 80G certificate to the contributors
Review Saktyavesh Account Book with Auditor
For any money contributed to Saktyavesh, send a mail to Vinay, Aneesh and Saktyavesh email id with a subject “Saktyavesh – Finance – xxx” (xxx-contribution by member name)
Process to be put in place for requests from school
Saktyavesh-Feedback required mails has to be closed in 5 days (except Urgent Requirements)

Request Processing
Request will come from the school
The owner of the request will be informed regarding the request and he has to send a mail to the trustees for feedback. Decision should be taken on the request within five business days of the email. If the request is approved by Trustees, it has to go in the next weekly update.
Request Tracker will have to be updated in Saktyavesh Blog School wise

Monthly Meeting Agenda
Purpose of the meeting / Introduction of Saktyavesh
Update from Saktyavesh Trustee on important activities
Review our past work and plan for the next meeting or activity
Assign a owner for the next activity

Tri-weekly Conference Call
We shall continue having the conference call once in three weeks
Conference calls shall be on Wednesdays and shall start by 10.30PM
The call will be for half an hour
Owner of this action item should be sending out the call agenda before 3 days from the call


Challenges
Meeting with Chennai School Management
To review the previous mail questioned to Chennai school management.
Questions unanswered and new questions to be sent via email to Prakash.
Prakash shall answer/get the answers from the Management / Head Mistress and shall reply to all.

Process to get the money flow constantly
Road Map discussion pending
To be discussed later

Improvements & feedbacks
  • Task Execution to be streamlined
  • Planning needs to be little more conscious
  • Replying to mails with history mails & Do not branch out. If you have sent a mail and would like to send a mail again on the same subject. Go to your sent items and send it (to maintain proper mailing history and avoid conversation leaks)
  • All finance information communicated via mail (with Saktyavesh gmail id in cc, Vinay, Prakash, Aneesh. Ex – contribution for Teachers salary, …..)
  • Reply to mails with time (this will help in taking decision faster)
  • Reply to feedback mails
  • Setting a time line for each of actions – sincere, realistic as far as possible
  • If even a mail is not marked with “Saktyavesh” in the subject, do mark it
  • Don’t every get dejected, keep moving
    “One person talks at a time”
  • Realistic expectations & promise
  • Maintaining “time”, very important. If we don’t then we are not respecting other people who are waiting for us and this will lead to dilution of interest and participation(Its understandable if there is an emergency)

Conf call

  • Communicate engagements in Saktyavesh with family (my example). It’s important
  • No Anger and frustration or depression
  • Have proper subjects to the mail.
  • During a conversation, if a discussion changes course,
  • don’t reply with the same subjectRun through the process – all of them being followed till now
  • Mention truthful/factual information. Make sure that the information being shared is truthful to the best of knowledge
  • Keep Saktyavesh Gmail address in Cc
  • Meeting people – once in four/six months (open the gates)
  • Distribution of work


Feedback
Execution
Lack of active volunteers
Planning needs to be proper
Meeting with volunteers
Giving weekly updates in points

14 December 2009

National Middle School, Chennai

  • Half yearly exams for the Children starts this Wednesday (16th December 2009)
  • Christmas celebration is planned the coming Saturday, 19th December 2009. We can conduct different activities on the day (games, dance, drama etc… ). Friends who would like to participate, kindly let know. It will be a good time to meet and exchange ideas as well.
  • As the School comes under SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) they have received Rs 12,000. From this Rs 5900 has been spent on racks, Rs 3000 on a tape recorder. The remaining amount is planned for the toys, for Children

Board meeting

  • The board meeting took place on 12th & 13th December 2009 in Bangalore. The current activities/tasks, immediate tasks which needs attention, future plans and challenges were discussed. The intention is to share information on each and every activity and involve people on the tasks that each individual would be interested in. If any of you think that there is a lack of information or lack of opportunities, feel free to express (possibly with thoughts on improvement)

Feel encouraged to voice your opinion. Do spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and in spirit with interested individuals and organizations

07 December 2009

National Middle School, Chennai
The 4 tube light sets that we had donated to the School has been fixed. The Almirah that was donated, also has been made use of, by using it as a place to have books
Government Lower Primary School, Bengaluru
On Friday, 04th December 2009, Sankara Eye Hospital, had conducted Eye camp at the School. This was sponsored by the Government. Six children have been identified for further check up. They have been asked to report to the hospital for special care accompanied by their Parents
Blog Poll
Every effort is made to communicate the updates of our activities, the happenings in the School we support, in the weekly updates. The same is recorded in the blog (http://saktyavesh.blogspot.com/). Your feedback on the usefulness & effectiveness of the information that is available on the web (either in Website or blog) will be of great help. Request you to take a poll on this – just 2 simple questions
Communicate your ideas & comments. Do spread the message of Saktyavesh in letter and in spirit with interested individuals and organizations