Present
Andrew, Aparna, Aru & Shakti, Arvind, Ashvin, Dananjaya, Eleanor, Kamini, Mike, Mike P, Sandeep, Shalini, Shanker, Shiyamala, Sriharan & Devi, Stuart, Tom, Tony F, Vagini, Vakees & Yamunah
Apologies
Ian, Kannan, Parimala, Sulekha, Zaphira
Discussion
Review of Br Shubamrita's meeting.
5 coordinators appointed by Shubamrita: Shanker, Akhilesh, Mike, Kamal and Kamaljit.
K&K have now resigned from organising, and Akhilesh is in the ashram until May.
Appointing key co-ordinators
We need to share the load of contacting co-ordinators to see who will be doing this: a group of people stepped forward to contact a few each. Once we have names for the major roles, we can start building a strategy. But first we have to find out who is prepared to carry on the work they did last year.
Amma said we don't have to like each other, we just need to work together
Negotiations with Alexandra Palace.
Negotiations should start soon. 1st meeting is Monday 25th Jan. The week of 26-30th Oct is available for the Visit, and Heike has been informed.
Initially negotiations will be carried out by Shanker, Aru, Shiyamala and possibly Tom. Later on we will be hoping to enlist some skilled legal help.
We need to build relationships with the council, not just the Palace staff.
The Palace expect the Great Hall to be hired by professional event organisers. Rock concerts are more predictable. Stuart suggested that our own members should have training in negotiation. Also formal training in health and safety, or even event management. He will investigate courses.
We need a nominated person to co-ordinate with Haringey and the Palace. We need to establish in advance such decisions as where to put the boxes when they arrive in the Hall.
Kamal is willing to offer her advice on the negotiations.
Andrew will put the 2009 Event management plan on the website.
Finance
Each department should submit a budget. Shanker will produce a preliminary budget by March 15th based on a given increase over last year's figures. Then each department could give more detail, and submit the revised budget at the next meeting.
Mike will ask Kamal for figures on what was sponsored and what it would have cost, e.g. Portakabins, food, massage tent, minibus etc. We may have received the goods or services for free, but we may still need them next year and need to find the funds. So we should know both sides of the balance sheet, the cost and the contribution.
We have no breakdown on which department raised how much: the tour staff gave the money to Swamini Amma without specifying e.g. Indian or Western Meals.
All invoices should be listed with cost centres, and submitted to Shanker, who will work out which department each is for and then submit them to Aru.
Fundraising and monthly donations
We currently have a number of regular monthly donations, thanks to the efforts of Sue Bharati and Mary & Huw Robson, and now we have the new initiative from Shubamrita of encouraging us to contribute the income from one hour per month. Yamunah pointed out that over 400 people were sufficiently involved to give prasad, so it would be reasonable to approach as many of these as we can contact (around half) to encourage them to set up a regular donation. We also need to check on the forms to fill in for this, ensuring that we take advantage of Gift Aid.
Yamunah is prepared to take the responsibility of driving this forward, and possibly being the named contact for standing orders. Mike will ask Mary if she can take this over.
There should be a monthly summary of how far we have reached in terms of the total target, published in the enews, to encourage us in our endeavours. This is in addition to all the fundraising and sponsorship projects run by Kamal and Kamaljit.
Online bookshop
Aru has opened a new bank account named Friends of Amma PayPal account. Andrew will ask PayPal what information they need.
Establishing good communication and cooperation
Mike said that we have reached a point where we need to change to cope with the ever growing scope of the organisation, but it is ever more important that we can co-operate. We should use the phone more than email, and should think carefully about speaking carefully and with love.
Aparna said we need more definition about who does what so that we can make effective decisions.
Tom said we need a clear path for delegation, but we need to get rid of the blame culture.
The main focus of the next meeting should be to define who does what, and to see how the structure of the organisation should evolve.
Coming events
Tom pointed out that on Jan 31st the newcomers' meeting is expecting 12 new people and 4 or 5 hosts.
It is hoped that there will be a number of smaller meetings to involve the newcomers.
The Cleeve House retreat has been postponed later in the year due to shortage of registrations.
Other
amma.org has a special link to donate for Haiti relief. As does embracingtheworld.org. Amma is organising a relief effort co-ordinated by San Ramon.
The next meeting will be at the end of March/beginning of April (Easter is April 4th). Date to be confirmed later.
AJD 17/1/10