Preparatory work to be carried out prior to proposal writing

A project proposal is a detailed description of a series of activities aimed at solving a certain problem. The proposal should contain a detailed explanation of the:

• justification of the project;
• activities and implementation timeline;
• methodology; and
• human, material and financial resources required.

The project proposal should be a detailed and directed manifestation of the project design. It is a means of presenting the project to the outside world in a format that is immediately recognised and accepted.

Conducting preparatory work prior to proposal writing

A quality project proposal is the final product of a participatory process that involves considerable study, discussion and learning from past experiences

Interview past and prospective beneficiaries: Though feedback was likely received when the previous project ended, new benefits and conditions may have arisen since that time. Speak to prospective beneficiaries to ensure that what you are planning to offer is desired and needed

Review past project proposals: Avoid repeating mistakes and offering to reproduce results that have already been achieved. Donors will be unlikely to provide more funding for something that should already have been done.

Review past project evaluation reports: Don't count on project members to remember all the mistakes and areas for improvement from previous efforts

Organise focus groups: Make sure that the people you need are willing and able to contribute

Check statistical data: Don't let others discover gaps and inaccuracies in the data you are relying on

Consult experts: Outside opinions will give you ideas and credibility

Conduct surveys, etc. Gather as much preliminary information as possible to demonstrate commitment to the project to refine the objectives

Hold community meetings or forums: When the public feels that they have been consulted on an issue, they will be much more likely to cooperate and support the project


Adapted from "Project proposal writing" by Besim Nebiu

Writing a good report to the donor

The word “report” has many meanings, most associated with the idea of “carrying back” information. The sorts of reports you will be writing may be defined as the delivery of information in response to an instruction or for a particular purpose. Everyone who works on projects has to write reports. You must always report to a donor on the progress of spending the project funds and progress towards achieving objectives. This means explaining the outputs you produced in the project and the longer-term impacts you have begun to identify in your community.

Remember the three most important things about writing reports:

1. Know as much about your reader as possible before you put pen to paper; keep thinking about your reader all the time you are writing.
2. Bearing your reader in mind, use the simplest words and sentences to express your meaning clearly. In other words, spoon-feed your reader. Make your writing as easy to read as possible.
3. Before you begin a paper, write a plan.

In report-writing the key to success is planning—that is, writing a good outline. A good outline will enable you to structure and organize your thoughts in a logical way that will make it easy for your reader to absorb your information.

A Report Outline

Some partners or donors may have forms they want you to use when reporting on grant agreements. In cases where there is no preferred format, the following generic report outline should prove useful. It can also be used for a variety of other reports that you may be called on to prepare in the course of your career.

The generic report format below can be used for all sorts of reports, not just for reporting to donors. When reporting to donors, it is useful to identify what type of report you are writing. For instance, it might be an annual report, a final report, a semi-annual report, or a special report.

Generic Report Format

Covering Letter/Memo Report Title Summary (may be omitted in short reports) Terms of Reference (or Purpose of the Report)

Covering Letter: This is where you address the person most interested in the report. Following the most important thing about writing, the more you know about this person, the better your covering letter will be. If possible, have that person in mind as you write.

Your covering letter will summarize the reason for the report and its content, and provide an opportunity to highlight any sections or recommendations that you think will be of particular interest, or on which you especially wish to receive feedback. You should mention if the report is annual, final, special, or other.

In signing the covering letter, you (or your Director) are taking full responsibility for the content of the report.

Report Title: The title should leave the reader in no doubt as to the subject of the report. If necessary, use a subtitle. HIV/AIDS Education Through Rural Radio: First annual report is a better title than Report on HIV/AIDS Education Through Rural Radio.

Summary: As with a proposal, the summary of a report is often the most important section , because it is likely to be the only part that most readers look at. You need a summary for all reports longer than, say, five to seven pages.
The summary will briefly mention all the most interesting points in the report, as well as the report's purpose and main conclusions and recommendations.

A summary may contain subheadings to make it easier to read.

Be careful not to waste words in a summary—make every word count. Don't say: Conclusions about the success of the radio programs are drawn. Instead, repeat the specific conclusion: Unexpectedly, the radio programs led to listeners (on average 95%) making at least one effort to change their attitudes towards those affected by HIV/AIDS.

Because the summary makes reference to all the other sections of the report, it must be written after the other sections are complete. A report summary must always be written last.

Because the summary is all most readers (including the most important) will ever read, it requires time to get it right. Allow enough time to write the best summary you can, and then re-read and edit it.

The summary should be as short as it possibly can be. President Ronald Reagan required his staff to give him a one-page summary of world activities every morning. They had to work all night to squeeze information on many, often momentous, events into a single page. They learned it could be done. The summary should be no longer than 10% of the length of the final report.

Terms of Reference or Purpose of the Report: This is easy to write, and should take no more than a single paragraph. Here are some of the reasons you might be writing to a donor:

• The purpose of this report is to summarize progress on Project X from June 2002 to June 2003.
• This is the final report on Project X, which has been underway in Uganda since 2002.
• This is the second annual report on Project X; significant delays outside the control of the project mean that the rural radio station X is hereby applying for a no-cost extension. If this request is granted, the project, now slated to end in March 2005, will be extended for completion in March 2006.
  

Monitoring Procedure: This section describes the steps taken to collect information that monitors or evaluates progress in the project. As in the summary, avoid vague statements. Instead of a number of farmers were interviewed use twenty female farmers from each site in Region A were interviewed by the volunteers from radio station X at the Farmers’ Association meeting held in January 2004 in Kaduma.

If you are reporting to donors on a specific grant, use the grant agreement and/or the project proposal to structure your report, and make specific reference to outputs promised in the project concept note.

In this section you may want to refer to the project management arrangements. For instance, you may report that two project workshops were held during the reporting period, which were attended by farmer representatives and all partners. Such meetings, as well as any training sessions or radio programs developed, might be important milestones for your project and should be mentioned in the monitoring procedure part of your report.

Findings: In this section you present all the information you gathered without interpretation. To some extent, use tables and other aids to help your readers to understand the information or data as quickly and easily as possible.

Conclusions: Here is where you present your interpretation of the findings. You may wish to use the same headings as in the Findings section. Remember, there is no shame in reporting failure if lessons have been learned. If things are going wrong with your project, do not be tempted to blame everything on others, or events outside your control. Sometimes the fault is yours or that of your colleagues. If so, tell the truth, explain what you learned and how you will avoid making the same mistake in the rest of the project or in future, and move on. Donors are human. They will respect your honesty and learn to trust you more.

Recommendations: These are the steps you think should be taken, or not taken, based on the conclusions in the previous section. You can write recommendations using “should.” However, you may want to make some recommendations more strongly than others. In this case you can use “it is suggested that” for the less strong, and “it is recommended that” for those points you feel more strongly about. Good recommendations are not just your own opinion, but those logically based on the findings and conclusions.

Attaching a Financial Report: Some evaluation reports that are sent to donors, and certainly all annual and final reports, need to be accompanied by a financial report that shows accurately how money has been spent in the intervening period.

It is recommended that these reports be prepared by the accountant or person in charge of the radio station accounts, and then reviewed together with the project leaders before being sent to the donor. It is very important that the financial information be correctly and clearly presented.

If all is going well with your project, you may not need a recommendations section in your financial report, or your recommendation may be to continue to implement the project as designed.

If, however, implementation of project funds is not following the plan envisaged in the grant agreement or contract with your donor, you may wish to propose a redesign. As noted earlier, this might involve a request for a no-cost extension, or for flexibility among budget items. You may also wish to eliminate one site, accelerate the project, add another partner, or redirect your attention to a related area.

Annexes: This is the place for details that you cannot bear to leave out, but which the donor will not need to follow the logic of your report. Annexes are where to put examples of outputs like workshop reports or radio scripts, lists of people interviewed during monitoring and evaluation of the project’s progress, etc.

How long should a report be? As short as possible. Spare your time, your reader’s time, and the paper. The most effective reports are crisp, clear, open, honest, and short.

This article is extracted from a training module by ISNAR prepared by Marian Fuchs-Carsch Zenete Franca on “How to Write a Convincing Proposals.” Adaptations for rural radio stations were made by Helen Hambly Odame (University of Guelph, Canada).

Transfer of Trust format

Dear Sir or Madam:

This is to inform you that I intend to transfer the property described herein to ____________ (“Trust”). This Trust is a ___________________Trust. The undersigned is the Grantor and sole beneficiary.

Please acknowledge receipt of this letter and confirm that the intended transfer will not cause any undue adverse effect. Please indicate your consent to the above transfer without any negative effect by signing and dating the enclosed copy of this letter and returning it to me in the enclosed envelope.

If I do not receive your reply objecting to the proposed transfer within thirty days from the above date, I will assume that you consent to the transfer and that there will not be an adverse effect from this transfer.

If you need me to fill out forms for your organization, please forward them to me at the address on this letterhead and I will do so immediately.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

__________________
Grantor

Date:

Acknowledgment: _____________________

Enc. Second copy of letter for signature; self-addressed stamped envelope for return.

Format for Trustee Resignation

I, __________________, Trustee of __________________________________ do hereby resign on _______________ (Date) all of my Trustee responsibilities, rights, title, and any other interest whatsoever I may have or had in this trust or trusts.

Before resigning, I appoint __________________________________________ (Name and address) as the successor Trustee.

In witness thereof, I hereby sign my Resignation as Trustee of the above trust (s).


________________________
Trustee


________________________
Notary


________________________
Witness

______________________________________________________________________

Trustee Resignation

Review List

This review list is provided to inform you about the document in question and assist you in its preparation. It is imperative you get this Trustee Resignation following the appointment of a Trustee to represent your interests in any way. You should get the Trustee to resign in one document in favor of yourself or your spouse or close relative, and in a second document, in favor of another of those parties. This must be done after the first agreement has been signed, and better if done a few days later. There is nothing to prevent you from first doing it at the initial closing contemporaneously with the close and then again a few days later. Keep the resignations in your safe and only use them if you find the need to do so. Again, an ounce of caution is better than a pound, or perhaps two!, of cure. This prevents trouble if you ever have a falling out with a Trustee on this or other matters, which is an all too common experience.

Nominee Agreement

This Agreement was made on ____________ between ___________ of ___________ ("Nominee") and ________________ of ___________________ (the "Owner").

Whereas Owner is the sole beneficial owner of the land described in Exhibit 1 to this Agreement, including all buildings and other fixed improvements thereon and all interests therein and rights appurtenant thereto;

AND it has been agreed between Nominee and Owner, at the request of Owner and as a matter of convenience, that for the time being the said land will be registered in the name of Nominee and that Nominee shall hold, as nominee for Owner on the terms and subject to the conditions hereinafter set forth, the said land and all related rights and interests (including without limitation those under agreements and other documents such as mortgages, charges, easements, leases, licenses and by-laws) that Owner may from time to time assign to Nominee (such land and related rights and interest are collectively called the "Real Property"), Nominee having itself no beneficial interest in the Real Property;

NOW in consideration of these premises and the mutual covenants, conditions and agreements herein contained, and for other good and valuable consideration (the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged), the parties hereto hereby covenant and agree as follows:

1. Nominee hereby acknowledges, declares, covenants and agrees that:

(a) Nominee will hold, as and from the date hereof, the Real Property, and all right, title and interest therein and benefit to be derived therefrom, as nominee for and on behalf of the Owner;

(b) Nominee otherwise has no legal or beneficial interest in the Real Property; and

(c) All other attributes of the beneficial ownership of the Real Property shall be and remain in Owner.

2. Nominee covenants and agrees, subject to the indemnity hereinafter provided, that it shall at all times and from time to time deal with the Real Property as nominee for Owner only in accordance with the written or verbal instructions and directions of Owner and not otherwise; and that it will do no act relating to the Real Property without the express authorization and direction of Owner, and that it has no active or independent duties to perform in respect of the Real Property except as may be specifically provided for herein.

3. Nominee shall enter into, and execute and deliver as nominee for Owner only, all such instruments, including, without limitation, all such documents, assignments, deeds, transfers, leases, subleases, assignments and surrenders of leases, mortgages, charges, hypothecs, servitudes, easements, licenses, privileges, management contracts, personal property security contracts and other agreements, (collectively called "instruments') as may from time to time be requested by Owner in connection with the Real Property, including without limiting the generality of the foregoing a conveyance and transfer in registrable and/or other form(s) of all right, title and interest of Nominee in the Real Property.

4. Nominee acknowledges, declares, covenants and agrees that all rents, profits, emoluments and other receipts and revenues of any nature or kind arising from the Real Property or the use thereof shall belong legally and beneficially to Owner, and that Nominee has no legal or beneficial interest in such rents, profits, emoluments and other receipts and revenues. Nominee shall, subject to the rights of any mortgagee or other secured creditor, promptly remit to Owner all rents, profits, emoluments and other receipt and revenues of any nature or kind arising from the Real Property, which may be received by Nominee as nominal party to any instrument. Nominee shall incur no liability to any person for making any such remittance as directed in any notice from any such mortgagee or other secured creditor, or, in the absence of such notice, pursuant to a direction from Owner. Nominee shall, at the request and expense of Owner, account to Owner for all sums received with respect to the Real Property.

5. Nominee shall promptly deliver to Owner all instruments with respect to the Real Property, together with all recording information relative thereto, to the extent that Nominee may come into possession of any thereof.

6. Nominee shall promptly transmit to Owner copies of all notices, claims, demands or other communications, which Nominee may receive and which relate in any way to the Real Property. Nominee, upon the request of Owner, shall be a nominal party to any action in response to or as a consequence of any such matter. Any such action, proceeding, negotiation or other response shall be conducted by Owner, with counsel selected by him, and Nominee shall not, nor shall it be obligated to, take any such action itself, its only obligation being that of a nominal party thereto subject to the indemnity hereinafter provided.

7. Owner acknowledges, declares, covenants and agrees that he shall be responsible for all encumbrances, charges, costs, expenses, losses, damages, claims, demands and liabilities in any way connected with or related to the Real Property (collectively called "expenses"), that Nominee has no active duties to perform in connection with the Real Property, and that all obligations (including any mortgage obligations), responsibilities, acts or omissions pertaining to the Real Property shall be the responsibility of and shall be performed or omitted to be performed by Owner.

8. Owner hereby releases Nominee from any and all liability that Nominee may incur in respect of any action taken by Nominee either pursuant to the authorization or direction of Owner or pursuant to the terms of this Agreement. Owner shall indemnify and hold Nominee harmless from all liabilities of whatsoever kind and character that may arise out of any act or omission by Nominee pursuant to the terms of this Agreement and from the said expenses, obligations and responsibilities during the entire period of time that the Real Property is vested in Nominee pursuant to this Agreement.

9. It is understood and agreed between the parties hereto that the relationship between them shall be that of principal and bare nominee only, that there is no intention to create a relationship of partnership, or agency between Owner and Nominee, and that this Agreement should not be construed to create any trust, association or joint venture between Owner and Nominee.

10. Each of the parties hereto covenants that it will from time to time as may be deemed necessary and requisite do all such acts and effect such further and other assurances as may be reasonable necessary or desirable to effect and carry out the true intent and purpose of this Agreement.

11. This is the entirety of the Agreement. No changes can be made except in writing and signed by both parties. This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of the State of ________________.

12. This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of the parties hereto and their respective successors and assigns.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the parties hereto have executed this Agreement as of the date first written above.


__________________ ____________________
Owner Nominee

__________________ ____________________
Witness Witness

Articles of Association format

Articles of Association

To further the purposes set forth herein, the members agree to be, and hereby are, organized under these Articles of Association as a not for profit service and social club, for the Association to be named _____________________________.

ARTICLE I - THE ORGANIZATION

1.0 Name of Association

The name of this Association shall be: ________________________

2.0 Offices of Association

The principal office of the Association shall be at the home of the President of the group. The Association may have such other offices as may from time to time be designated by its members or its Executive Board.

3.0 Purposes

The primary purposes of the Association is to provide a community service by:

improving __________________________;
share information;
educate and encourage newcomers to join and participate in the Association;
provide social activities for members;
further the art, science, and enjoyment of the subject matter.

The activities of the Association shall be held and maintained in the spirit of these purposes.

4.0 Powers

The Association shall have all the powers necessary to provide activities to conduct its purposes including, but are not limited to, the power to collect, hold and disseminate information consistent with its purpose: to conduct seminars and workshops, and the power to collect dues and disperse funds for the membership.

5.0 Membership

Any individual interested in the subject is welcome to be a member in the Association as long as said member remains in “good standing”. A member is in “good standing” when: - the member pays his/her annual membership dues when required.

A member is no longer in “good standing” when: - the member fails to pay his/her annual membership dues when required.

In the judgment of the majority of the members, the member no longer supports the best interests of the Association.

If a member so elects, he or she may include within his or her membership any or all of the interested parties who reside in his or her household. In the event of such an election by a member, said member and all of the interested parties who reside in his or her household who he or she has elected to include within his or her membership shall be deemed to be one member of the Association and entitled to one newsletter. In addition, regardless of the number of such interested parties, any member may elect to include within his or her membership, each member of the Association shall be entitled to only one vote on each Association matter to be decided by a vote of the members. Additionally, household memberships are limited to one entry into any prize drawing that require membership. Yet, at any time any member of an included household, may become a voting member by paying dues appropriate to becoming a member.
Complementary memberships are extended to both students and faculty of any bona-fide institution of learning, to include additional complementary memberships may be granted to persons in key positions of authority as deemed appropriate by the Executive Board, and voted upon by the general membership.

6.0 Dues, Assessments and Fees

The Association’s activities shall be funded through the use of annual membership dues, assessments, and fees charged to the individuals who take part in the Association’s various activities. Except for any excess fees refunded as provided hereafter, all the funds collected by the Association shall be used by it to provide for the various activities permitted by these Articles.

The annual membership dues required for membership in the Association, and any assessments which may be required of the members, shall be established by a majority vote of the members of the Association, upon the recommendation of the Executive Board. The annual membership dues for any fiscal year shall be established at such an amount per member as will, when multiplied by the number of individuals which the Executive Board estimates will be members for the fiscal year for which the annual membership dues are being established, be sufficient to pay at least 80% of the “normal operating costs” which the Executive Board estimates will be required to operate the Association for the fiscal year for which the annual membership dues are being established. The balance of the “normal operating costs”, if any, shall be paid from assessments assessed against the membership, investment income, and/or surplus funds available from prior fiscal years. The annual membership dues and any assessments may be varied from fiscal year to fiscal year, but any such dues and/or assessments in effect for any fiscal year shall be the same for all individuals.

Fees shall be charged by the Association to pay the costs of any of its activities, or parts thereof, which do not fall within the meaning of “normal operating costs”. Said fees shall be established by the Executive Board at an amount per individual per activity, or part thereof, which shall not exceed the amount which is reasonably estimated to be necessary to pay the costs of said activity, or part thereof, which do not fall within the meaning of “normal operating costs”. Should the fees established and collected for any activity or part thereof, not be sufficient to pay all the costs which do not fall within the meaning of “normal operating costs” which are generated by said activity, or part thereof, the deficiency shall be paid as a “normal operating costs” of the Association. Should the fees collected from any activity, or part thereof, exceed the costs of such activity, or part thereof, which do not fall within the meaning of “normal operating costs”, and should such excess exceed the greater of $200 or 20% of said non “normal operating costs” incurred to provide said activity, or part thereof, said excess shall be refunded pro-rata to the individuals who paid the fees for such activity, or part thereof. The fees established for any activity, or part thereof, shall be the same for all individuals who take part in such activity, or part thereof, regardless of whether they are members of the Association or non-members.

7.0 Fiscal Year

The Association shall operate with the calendar year as its fiscal year.

8.0 Funds Management and Authorities

No individual member has the authority to obligate the Association in any way. In doing so that member becomes personally responsible for that obligation and not the Association.

Elected Executive Board Members may obligate the Association for up to $25 on non-recurring expenses.

The President with the approval of the treasurer may obligate the association for up to $100 on non-recurring expenses. The President and Treasurer should monitor all increases in recurring expenses.

The Executive Board in simple majority may obligate the Association for up to $200 on non-recurring expenses.

The Membership in simple majority must approve non-recurring expenditures in excess of $200.

New recurring expenses must be approved by simple majority of the membership. Increases in existing recurring expenses do not require approval of the membership.

These Articles describe the rules by which the Association is to be governed. Any situation concerning the governing of this Association which is not specifically described in these Articles shall be governed by “Robert’s Rules of Order”. In any situation in which these Articles conflict with “Robert’s Rules of Order”, these Articles shall prevail.

ARTICLE II - THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

1.0 OFFICERS’ DUTIES

The Executive Board is composed of the officers elected by the general membership at the November general membership meeting. The officers are responsible for the daily operation of the Association as described in the officers’ duties. The order listed below indicates the order of succession to the presidency.

The following describes the duties of each of the officers:

PRESIDENT - The office of President is the primary person responsible for the business operation of the Association and presides at the regular membership meetings and the Executive Board meetings.

VICE PRESIDENT - There shall be one Vice President. He / She will have one vote on the Executive Board. The Vice President is responsible for the performance of the President’s duties in the absence of the President. The Vice President, along with the Executive Board, is responsible for the program planning for the general membership meetings. He / She shall schedule speakers for each month’s meeting and publish the planned topics and speakers’ names in the newsletter on the month prior to when the topic is scheduled. The Vice Presidents are also responsible for the coordination of obtaining audio-visual materials required by the speakers.

SECRETARY/TREASURER - The Secretary is responsible for maintaining the non-financial records of the Association’s operations. The Secretary provides meeting notes of all general membership and Executive Board meetings. These notes/minutes will be recorded in a Secretary’s book and will be available (posted in the newsletter) for the general membership to review. The Secretary is also responsible for all non-financial correspondence for the Association business activities. The Secretary shall act as the Treasurers primary alternate to conduct the everyday business of collecting dues and signing up new members. The Treasurer is responsible for all the funds of the association. The Treasurer shall maintain a detailed listing of the clubs membership and dues records. The Treasurer shall publish a monthly financial statement, report to the membership and publish a summary report in the Association’s newsletter. The Treasurer shall maintain a record which he or she shall make available for inspection within five calendar days of his or her receipt of a written request for such an inspection from any member or a written or verbal request for such an inspection from the Executive Board. The President or Vice-President may perform the duties of Treasurer as required. The Treasurer shall maintain the membership records for the Association.
MEMBERS AT LARGE -There shall be two members at large whose duties shall be deemed by the President.

2.0 ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Nominations will be opened at the September general meeting and close just prior to the election at the November general meeting. Absentee ballots will be accepted, if delivered prior to the November general meeting. Nominations and ballots will be published in the November newsletter. The election will be held at the November meeting with the results announced at the end of the meeting. Officers will be installed at the January meeting. Each officer shall serve for a term of one year from the date of his or her installation and until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified. In the month of October the President will select a nominating committee, subject to the confirmation of the Executive Board. The committee will choose a slate of candidates and will place their names in nomination. In addition, nominations for any office may be made from the floor or written-in, prior to elections being held, by any member. If the members who have been so nominated consent to run and to serve if elected, and if their respective nominations have been duly seconded, their names shall be placed on the ballot along with the names of the members chosen by the nominating committee. The election of officers shall be a simple plurality of ballots presented to the Secretary during the November meeting.

Officers must be members in good standing at the time of their election and must maintain their good standing throughout their term of office.

2.1 Removal from Office

Any officer may have his or her duties suspended by a unanimous, unopposed vote of the remaining members of the Executive Board. The suspended officer may request a reinstatement vote by the general membership, following the rules of elections of officers at the next general membership meeting. If the suspended officer does not request a reinstatement vote or if the vote is opposed to reinstatement, the Executive Board must then select a successor to fill the vacant position. The selection is subject to general membership confirmation by a majority vote at the next regular meeting.

ARTICLE III - APPOINTMENTS

The President or Executive Board may select members to serve special assignments of need. The appointments will be subject to approval by the general membership.

ARTICLE IV - ADVISORY BOARD

The Advisory Board is composed of the appointed members appointed by the president and approved by the Executive Board. The members of the advisory board positions are not appointed for a specific duration and may be replaced at any time by the President with the Executive Boards approval. The appointees serve as technical advisors and subject matter experts to provide added expertise to the executive board and meet with the Executive Board at the Executive Board meeting. The position listed below serves only as a guide to the advisory board’s positions and are not limited to those positions.

1.0 General Membership Meetings

The entire membership meets monthly. The meetings are conducted by the President or designated alternate. Meetings shall consist of programs of general interest to the membership, brief announcements, and club business. A minimum of 5 members must be present to conduct FORMAL club business.

2.0 Executive Board Meetings

The Executive Board shall be called by the President as needed or as designated for purposes indicated at the General Membership Meeting by a majority vote of the membership present. The Executive Board Meetings shall be open to the general membership. Executive Board Meetings and location shall be announced in advance to the membership whenever possible. A minimum of 3 voting members (or designated representation) must be present to conduct club business.

ARTICLE VI - NEWSLETTER

1.0 Purpose

The content of the newsletter shall be under the control and responsibility of the newsletter Editor and approved by the Executive Board. The club will only publish articles (information) which are clear and free of legal encumbrances and copyrights.

2.0 Publication

The newsletter shall be published and made available at the General Membership Meetings to members in good standing. Anyone providing articles or notices is required to provide the information to the Editor for publication at least 10 days before scheduled publication.

ARTICLE VII - REPRESENTATION OF THE CLUB

The use of the name of this Association or its identifying symbols by any person or organization will be subject to the consent of the majority of the Executive Board.

ARTICLE VIII- AMENDMENT OF ARTICLES

Two methods exist to propose an amendment to, addition to, or repeal of, any provision of, or all of these Articles of Association.

1.0 By Executive Board

The Executive Board may propose any such change in these Articles by presenting said changes at a General Membership Meeting.

2.0 By Members

Any member may propose any such change in these Articles by submitting to any member of the Executive Board a petition which sets forth the proposed change and which is signed by at least 2/3 of the members at a meeting to be voted on at the next meeting. The membership list of the month previous to the month in which the petition is submitted shall be used for determining the membership count.

Any proposed change must be published in the newsletter one month prior to the meeting in which the votes are due to be submitted. Approval of any amendment to, addition to, or repeal of, any provision of, or all of, these Articles of Association requires a majority of the submitted signed, votes received from the members.

ARTICLE IX - DISTRIBUTION OF ASSETS

In the event that the Association ceases to function, or in the event that the members decide to terminate it, the Executive Board shall, after paying or making provisions for the payment of all of the Association’s liabilities, distribute all of the remaining assets of the Association to such organization or organizations which the Executive Board shall select which are then qualified as exempt under Section 501 © (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, (or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue Law). Any assets not so distributed shall be distributed by the Court of Common Pleas of the county in which the principal office of the Association is then located, or was most recently located if the Association has ceased to function, to such organization or organizations which said Court shall select which are then qualified as exempt under Section 501 © (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, (or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue Law).

_____________________
Founder of Organization

_____________________
Founding Members (each should sign and initial)

Dated:

Introduction to Steriods

Drugs have been used in sports almost as long as sports themselves have been around. The ancient Incas discovered that the ashes from burned leaves of the Coca tree gave the people great stores of energy, and made sleep unnecessary for hours or even days, it was later discovered to be the stimulant cocaine. They would take it before long hunts, battles, and even found it useful in ancient sport competitions. It wasn't until 1886 that the first drug-related death in sports occurred. A bicyclist took a mixture of cocaine and heroine, called the "speedball," and died from it. Little were the doctors aware the epidemic that would follow in the next century.

Anabolic steroids, developed in the 1930's in Europe, are drugs that help to build new body tissue quickly, but with drastic side effects. Anabolic means the ability to promote body growth and repair body tissue. It comes from the Greek word anabolikos meaning "constructive." Steroids are basically made up of hormones.

Steroids were not always used for sports, they started out the same way most drugs did, medicinal purposes. Victims of starvation and severe injury profited from it's ability to build new tissue quickly. They also helped prevent muscle tissue from withering in patients who had just had surgery. Steroids are used to treat Addison's disease.

Anabolic steroids are drugs that come from hormones or from combinations of chemicals that achieve the same result as hormones. Hormones may be given to an individual in their natural state, or in a synthetic one. The synthetic state is sometimes more potent than the natural one. Testosterone and progesterone are hormones used in steroids, another kind comes from the adrenal glands, which secrete various necessary bodily chemicals. The steroids themselves can be taken orally, as tablets or powders, and can also be liquids that are injected into the muscles.

The steroids taken by athletes contain testosterone or chemicals that act in similar way to testosterone. Testosterone is found in men and women, but in women it is present in much smaller amounts, mainly because it is produced in the testicles in men. More than one hundred and twenty steroids are based on the hormone testosterone. There are many brand names, such as Durabolin, Winstrol, Pregnyl, and Anavar.

Basically anabolic steroids control the bodily functions that are normally under control of the bodies natural testosterone. As well as turning women into men and men into manly men it has a stimulative effect on skeletal muscle mass, some visceral organs, the hemoglobin concentration, and the red blood cell number and mass.

Of course, most people take anabolic steroids illegally to stimulate growth in muscle cells. Once a person is born, he/she will not grow anymore muscle cells throughout their life. So when muscle mass increases it is the individual cells growing in girth to compensate for either an increase in work, or the release of androgen hormones(found in all anabolic steroids.) Exercise alone can stimulate the girth of muscle cells to increase by anywhere from thirty to sixty percent. The presence of androgen hormones allows for even greater growth. Anabolic steroids act like our natural androgen hormones in that they stimulate anabolic metabolism in the muscles. Anabolic metabolism involves the buildup of larger molecules from smaller ones and includes all the constructive processes used to manufacture the substances needed for cellular growth and repair. As a result of steroids stimulating anabolic metabolism, muscles increase in size to a substantially greater size than they would have been if the individual only exercised.

Doctors take different views on prescribing steroids. Most dislike the use of them in sports, and some will not prescribe them at all for use in sports. They see them as dangerous for healthy individuals, and the taking of drugs to get a winning edge they see as cheating. Others don't like steroids, but will prescribe them, knowing their patient, if not given them by their doctor, will get them from somewhere else. This way they can regulate them, tell the patient the correct way to use them, and keep an eye on them. Still others doctors consider steroids safe when administered under medical supervision, which includes carefully regulating dosages and watching for the first signs of trouble.

A fourth view doctors take is recognizing the possibility that although sometimes steroids do serious harm, the same can be said of minor drugs, such as aspirin. Millions of people take aspirin daily, because the benefits greatly outweigh the risks, and suffer no harm as a consequence, and the doctors feel the same is true about steroids. When under medical supervision, doctors feel their patients are safe because of their good physical condition and the drugs can be stopped if trouble begins to show. They feel that with steroids, much like with aspirin, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.

None *of these views can be proven correct or incorrect, but one thing is certain. Steroids used without medical supervision do the greatest harm. The athletes generally do not know how much to take and take doses too large right from the start.

Many doctors believe that steroids can lead to heart attacks and even strokes. Steroids cause extreme bloating because they create an imbalance of chemicals in the body and to regain that balance the body holds water. This extra fluid raises the blood pressure and could cause strokes and heart-attacks. Steroids are also suspected of bringing on liver and kidney failure. The steroids seem just as capable of destroying tissues as creating it.

Women are seen as being especially endangered by steroids because of the increased amounts of testosterone. Testosterone steroids are androgenic drugs, which means they promote masculinity, as seen in the young basketball player mentioned above. Although women produce small amounts naturally, it is a male hormone. The testosterone present is kept in balance with estrogen, the female hormone. Like testosterone for males, estrogen gives females their feminine characteristics. The woman may bald, grow excess bodily hair, including a moustache, they lose the gentle curves of their body, their skin roughens, weight is gained, and the voice deepens. An unborn child is also endangered, female's unborn babies will develop such male traits as extra hair, and all unborn children, according to a few doctors, are subject to be handicapped and deformed.

Men also are endangered. They may experience a shrinking of the testicles, called atrophy, accompanied by a lowered sperm count, a lessening of sexual desire, infertility, and an enlargement of the prostate gland that men under fifty usually do not suffer from. Men will often develop breasts like those of a woman.

Steroids are dangerous when used incorrectly, and should be used only under medical supervision. It has undesired side effects for men, women, and even the unborn. When abused steroids are no longer anabolic, they stop building the bodies tissue and start tearing it down as anything will when used in excess.



Bibliography
Davidson, Julian M. Groliers Encyclopedia. Steroids. New York: Grolier, Inc., 1993
Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Drugs in Sports. New York: Franklin Watts, 1986.
Strizak, Alan Marc. MD. Groliers Encyclopedia. Sports Medicine. New York: Grolier, Inc., 1993.
Taylor, Willam N. MD. Macho Medicine. North Carolina: Mcfarland & Company, Inc., 1991

Information on MOHAN Foundation

MOHAN is an acronym for Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network and was launched in Chennai on 4th November 1996. MOHAN Foundation was started by a group of like-minded and concerned medical and non-medical professionals committed to increasing the reach of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.

MOHAN Foundation comprises four core groups that carry out the different activities of the foundation. These groups are:

1. Public Education for Organ Donation
2. Indian Transplant Newsletter (ITN)
3. Patient Support group (PSG)
4. Indian Network for Organ Sharing (INOS)

In India, approximately 1500 transplants have been done from cadaver organ donations in the last 10 years and of these almost 400 have been done in Tamil Nadu. MOHAN Foundation from the year 2000 to 2007 has facilitated donation of 387 solid organs and 338 eyes.

For more information about this Foundation, visit this link

Introduction to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

1.0 BASIC FEATURES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an effort to universalise elementary education by community-ownership of the school system. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country. The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode.

1.1 WHAT IS SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

• A programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.

• A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.

• An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.

• An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.

• An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.

• A partnership between the Central, State and the local government.

• An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education

1.2 AIMS OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. There is also another goal to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the management of schools.

Useful and relevant education signifies a quest for an education system that is not alienating and that draws on community solidarity. Its aim is to allow children to learn about and master their natural environment in a manner that allows the fullest harnessing of their human potential both spiritually and materially. This quest must also be a process of value based learning that allows children an opportunity to work for each other's well being rather than to permit mere selfish pursuits.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan realizes the importance of Early Childhood Care and Education and looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum. All efforts to support pre-school learning in ICDS centres or special pre-school centres in non ICDS areas will be made to supplement the efforts being made by the Department of Women and Child Development.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

• All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ' Back-to-School' camp by 2003;

• All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007

• All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010

• Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life

• Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010

• Universal retention by 2010

1.4 WHY A FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTATION (AND NOT A GUIDELINE)

• To allow states to formulate context specific guidelines within the overall framework
• To encourage districts in States and UTs to reflect local specificity
• To promote local need based planning based on broad National Policy norms
• To make planning a realistic exercise by adopting broad national norms.
  

The objectives are expressed nationally though it is expected that various districts and States are likely to achieve universalisation in their own respective contexts and in their own time frame. 2010 is the outer limit for such achievements. The emphasis is on mainstreaming out-of-school children through diverse strategies, as far as possible, and on providing eight years of schooling for all children in 6-14 age group. The thrust is on bridging of gender and social gaps and a total retention of all children in schools. Within this framework it is expected that the education system will be made relevant so that children and parents find the schooling system useful and absorbing, according to their natural and social environment.

1.5 SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN AS A FRAMEWORK AND AS A PROGRAMME

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has two aspects – I) It provides a wide convergent framework for implementation of Elementary Education schemes; II) It is also a programme with budget provision for strengthening vital areas to achieve universalisation of elementary education. While all investments in the elementary education sector from the State and the Central Plans will reflect as part of the SSA framework, they will all merge into the SSA programme within the next few years. As a programme, it reflects the additional resource provision for UEE.

1.6 BROAD STRATEGIES CENTRAL TO SSA PROGRAMME

• Institutional Reforms - As part of the SSA, the central and the State governments will undertake reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system. The states will have to make an objective assessment of their prevalent education system including educational administration, achievement levels in schools, financial issues, decentralisation and community ownership, review of State Education Act, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers, monitoring and evaluation, status of education of girls, SC/ST and disadvantaged groups, policy regarding private schools and ECCE. Many States have already carried out several changes to improve the delivery system for elementary education.

• Sustainable Financing - The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is based on the premise that financing of elementary education interventions has to be sustainable. This calls for a long -term perspective on financial partnership between the Central and the State governments.

• Community Ownership - The programme calls for community ownership of school-based interventions through effective decentralisation. This will be augmented by involvement of women's groups, VEC members and members of Panchayati Raj institutions.

• Institutional Capacity Building -The SSA conceives a major capacity building role for national, state and district level institutions like NIEPA / NCERT / NCTE / SCERT / SIEMAT / DIET.

• Improvement in quality requires a sustainable support system of resource persons and institutions.

• Improving Mainstream Educational Administration - It calls for improvement of mainstream educational administration by institutional development, infusion of new approaches and by adoption of cost effective and efficient methods.

• Community Based Monitoring with Full Transparency - The Programme will have a community based monitoring system. The Educational Management Information System (EMIS) will correlate school level data with community-based information from micro planning and surveys. Besides this, every school will be encouraged to share all information with the community, including grants received. A notice board would be put up in every school for this purpose.

• Habitation as a Unit of Planning - The SSA works on a community based approach to planning with habitation as a unit of planning. Habitation plans will be the basis for formulating district plans.

• Accountability to Community - SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents and PRIs, as well as accountability and transparency to the community.

• Priority to Education of Girls - Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and minorities, will be one of the principal concerns in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

• Focus on Special Groups - There will be a focus on the inclusion and participation of children from SC/ST, minority groups, urban deprived children disadvantaged groups and the children with special needs, in the educational process.

• Pre-Project Phase - SSA will commence throughout the country with a well-planned pre-project phase that provides for a large number of interventions for capacity development to improve the delivery and monitoring system. These include provision for household surveys, community-based microplanning and school mapping, training of community leaders, school level activities, support for setting up information system, office equipment, diagnostic studies, etc.,

• Thrust on Quality - SSA lays a special thrust on making education at the elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the curriculum, child-centered activities and effective teaching learning strategies.

• Role of teachers - SSA recognizes the critical and central role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs. Setting up of Block Resource Centres/Cluster Resource Centres, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher development through participation in curriculum-related material development, focus on classroom process and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to develop the human resource among teachers.

• District Elementary Education Plans - As per the SSA framework, each district will prepare a District Elementary Education Plan reflecting all the investments being made and required in the elementary education sector, with a holistic and convergent approach. There will be a Perspective Plan that will give a framework of activities over a longer time frame to achieve UEE. There will also be an Annual Work Plan and Budget that will list the prioritized activities to be carried out in that year. The Perspective Plan will also be a dynamic document subject to constant improvement in the course of Programme Implementation.

1.7 PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN SSA

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan takes note of the fact that provision of elementary education is largely made by the government and government aided schools. There are also private unaided schools in many parts of the country that provide elementary education. Poorer households are not able to afford the fees charged in private schools in many parts of the country. There are also private schools that charge relatively modest fees and where poorer children are also attending. Some of these schools are marked by poor infrastructure and low paid teachers. While encouraging all efforts at equity and 'access to all' in well-endowed private unaided schools, efforts to explore areas of public-private partnership will also be made. Government, Local Body, and government aided schools would be covered under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, as is the practice under the Mid Day Meal scheme and DPEP. In case private sector wishes to improve the functioning of a government, local body or a private aided school, efforts to develop a partnership would be made within the broad parameters of State policy in this regard. Depending on the State policies, DIETs and other Government teacher-training institutes could be used to provide resource support to private unaided institutions, if the additional costs are to be met by these private bodies.

1.8 FINANCIAL NORMS UNDER SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

• The assistance under the programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will be on a 85:15 sharing arrangement during the IX Plan, 75:25 sharing arrangement during the X Plan, and 50:50 sharing thereafter between the Central government and State governments. Commitments regarding sharing of costs would be taken from State governments in writing.

• The State governments will have to maintain their level of investment in elementary education as in 1999-2000. The contribution as State share for SSA will be over and above this investment.

• The Government of India would release funds to the State Governments/Union Territories only and instalments (except first) would only be released after the previous instalments of Central government and State share has been transferred to the State Implementation Society.

• The support for teacher salary appointed under the SSA programme could be shared between the Central Government and the State government in a ratio of 85:15 during the IX Plan, 75:25 during the X Plan and 50:50 thereafter.

• All legal agreements regarding externally assisted projects will continue to apply unless specific modifications have been agreed to, in consultation with foreign funding agencies.

• Existing schemes of elementary education of the Department (except National Bal Bhawan and NCTE) will converge after the IX Plan. The National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Mid-Day-Meal) would remain a distinct intervention with foodgrains and specified transportation costs being met by the Centre and the cost of cooked meals being met by the State government.

• District Education Plans would inter–alia, clearly show the funds/resource available for various components under schemes like PMGY, JGSY, PMRY, Sunishchit Rozgar Yojana, Area fund of MPs/MLAs, State Plan, foreign funding (if any) and resources generated in the NGO sector.

• All funds to be used for upgradation, maintenance, repair of schools and Teaching Learning Equipment and local management to be transferred to VECs/ School Management Committees/ Gram Panchayat/ or any other village/ school level arrangement for decentralisation adopted by that particular State/UT. The village/ school-based body may make a resolution regarding the best way of procurement.

• Other incentive schemes like distribution of scholarships and uniforms will continue to be funded under the State Plan. They will not be funded under the SSA programme.

For more information about this Programme, visit this link

Introduction to JNNURM

JNNURM was launched by the Govt. of India in December 2005 to encourage creation of financially sustainable inclusive cities. The objective of the Mission is to give focused attention to planned development of identified cities including peri-urban areas, outgrowths and urban corridors to foster dispersed urbanization, ensure adequate funds to meet the deficiencies in urban infrastructural services, provide basic services to the urban poor including security of tenure at affordable prices, improved housing, water supply and sanitation, ensure delivery of other existing universal services of the Government for education, health and social security and establishment of linkages between asset-creation and asset-management. The Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Program (IHSDP) under JNNURM are dealt by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

1.Need for Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)

As per 2001 population census 285.35 million people reside in urban areas. It constitutes 27.8% of the total population of the country. In post-independence era while population of India has grown three times, the urban population has grown five times. The rising urban population has also given rise to increase in the number of urban poor. As per 2001 estimates, the slum population is estimated to be 61.8 million. The ever increasing number of slum dwellers causes tremendous pressure on urban basic services and infrastructure. In order to cope with massive problems that have emerged as a result of rapid urban growth, it has become imperative to draw up a coherent urbanization policy/strategy to implement projects in select cities on mission mode.

2. Mission Statement

Reforms driven, fast track, planned development of identified cities with focus on efficiency in urban infrastructure/services delivery mechanism, community participation and accountability of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)/Parastatals towards citizens.

3. Mission Strategy

i. Planned urban perspective frameworks for a period of 20-25 years (with 5 yearly updates) indicating policies, programmes and strategies of meeting fund requirements would be prepared by every identified city.This perspective plan would be followed by preparation of Development Plans integrating land use with services,Urban transport and environment management for every five year plan period.

ii. Cities/Urban Agglomerations/Parastatals will be required to prepare Detailed Project Reports for undertaking projects under identified areas.

iii. Private Sector Participation in development, management and financing of Urban Infrastructure would be clearly delineated.

iv. Funds for the identified cities would be released to the designated State Nodal Agency, which in turn would leverage, to the extent feasible, additional resources from the financial institutions/private sector/capital market.

v. Funds from Central and State Government will flow directly to the nodal agency designated by the State, as grant. The nodal agency will disburse central assistance to ULBs or para-statal agencies as the case may be, as soft loan or grant-cum-loan or grant.

vi. A revolving fund will be created to meet the operation and maintenance costs of the assets created under the Mission.

4. Mission Objectives

a) Focussed attention to integrated development of infrastructural services in the cities covered under the Mission.
b) Secure effective linkages between asset creation and asset management so that the infrastructural services created in the cities are not only maintained efficiently but also become self-sustaining over time.
c) Ensure adequate investment of funds to fulfill deficiencies in the urban infrastructural services.
d) Planned development of identified cities including peri-urban areas, out growths, urban corridors, so that urbanization takes place in a dispersed manner.
e) Scale up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on universal access to urban poor.
f) To take up urban renewal programme, i.e., re-development of inner (old) cities area to reduce congestion.

5. Duration of the Mission

The duration of the Mission would be seven years beginning from 2005-06. During this period, the Mission will seek to ensure sustainable development of select cities. An evaluation of the experience of implementation of the Mission would be undertaken before the commencement of Eleventh Five Year Plan and if necessary, the programme calibrated suitably.

6. Scope of Mission Programme

The main thrust of the sub-Mission on Urban Infrastructure and Governance will be on major infrastructure projects relating to water supply including sanitation, sewerage, solid waste management, road network, urban transport and redevelopment of inner (old) city areas with a view to upgrading infrastructure therein, shifting industrial/commercial establishments to conforming areas, etc.

7. Mission Components

7.1 Admissible Components - Projects pertaining to the following will be admissible under the Sub-Mission on Urban Infrastructure and Governance.

i. Urban Renewal i.e redevelopment of inner (old) city areas [this would include items like widening of narrow streets, shifting of industrial/commercial establishments from non-conforming to `conforming’ areas to reduce congestion, replacement of old and worn-out water pipes by new/higher capacity ones, renewal of sewerage/drainage/solid waste disposal systems, etc].
ii. Water Supply (including desalination plants) and sanitation
iii. Sewerage and Solid Waste Management
iv. Construction and improvement of drains/storm water drains
v. Urban Transport, including roads, highways/expressways/ MRTS/metro projects.
vi. Parking lots/spaces on Public Private Partnership basis
vii. Development of heritage areas
viii.Prevention & rehabilitation of soil erosion/landslides only in case of Special Category States where such problems are common and
ix. Preservation of water bodies.

NOTE: Land cost will not be financed except for acquisition of private land for schemes/ projects in the North Eastern States and hilly States viz Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jammu & Kashmir.

7.2 Inadmissible Components - Projects pertaining to the following will not be admissible under the Sub-Mission.
i. Power
ii. Telecom
iii. Health
iv. Education
v. Wage employment programme & staff component

Information Source: JNNURM Mysore city website

For more information about this mission, visit this link

SAVE LIVES - Clean your Hands

Poster: How to wash hands?
Promoted by: World Health Organization

Nandigram: The Land Bleeds - Documentary

Movie: Nandigram: The Land Bleeds
Duration: 18 min 01 sec
Director: Mohuya Chaudhuri
Genre: Documentary
Produced In: 2008
Video

Synopsis:

This special report investigated the violence that broke out in a small cluster of villages in West Bengal over the acquisition of land for setting up a special economic zone. It explored the relationship that villagers in this region shared with their land and also looked at the current economic policies of the government which was not inclusive.

To visit more documentaries, visit this link

Tamilnadu Kidney Research (TANKER) Foundation

The TANKER (an acronym for Tamilnadu Kidney Research)Foundation is a registered, non - profit charitable trust, founded on 30th June 1993. TANKER aims to provide health care and financial assistance to those who have kidney problems and do not have the wherewithal to seek medical attention.

TANKER cares for those, the underprivileged, who suffer kidney problems of any kind, reversible or terminal, regardless of caste, creed, sex or religion.

The Foundation helps poor patients from all over India by offering them one-time contributions ranging from Rs.1,500/- to Rs.20,000/- towards dialysis, transplantation, investigation and post-transplantation medication costs. Upto March 2009 financial help for dialysis, transplantation, medication and investigation costs has been given to the tune of Rs. 49.20 lakhs helping 762 patients.

To know more about this Foundation, visit this link

Blood Bank support in India

Blood bank initiative is being carried out by various groups as a public service without any profit motive. Below given are some of the organizations which carry out these kind of services:

1. Bharat Blood Bank
2. Indian blood donors
3. Blood givers
4. Jeevan
5. Blood Donations
6. AABB
7. Red Cross
8. Blood Bank Online
9. India Blood Bank
10. Rotary Blood Bank
11. Pooja Blood Bank
12. Blood Bank Delhi
13. Blood Bank
14. Lion's Blood Bank

NGO partnership initiative by the Government of India

The Planning Commission of India invites all Voluntary Organizations (VOs)/ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to Sign Up on this system,which has been developed in consultation with the below mentioned Ministries/Departments/Government Bodies to facilitate VOs / NGOs during their interaction with the Government in connection with requests for Government Grants under various schemes of the below mentioned Ministries/ Departments/ Government Bodies, in the first phase.

All VOs / NGOs, are requested to Sign Up (one time) with the Portal to help create a data base of existing VOs / NGOs and to access information on various schemes of the participating Ministries/ Departments/ Government Bodies open for grants. Later the registered NGOs/VOs also be able to apply online for government grants to the participating Ministries/Departments/Government Bodies and track the status of the applications through this system.

To register your NGOs/VOs with this government initiative, visit this link

Health for all? - Documentary

Movie: Health for All?
Duration: 1 min 15 sec
Director: Parvez Imam
Genre: Documentary
Produced In: 2004

Video

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, the World Health Organization created a slogan - 'Health for all by 2000 AD'. India was one of the signatories to this historic slogan at the Alma Ata conference in 1978. More than 25 years later, one wonders if it ever meant anything. Poverty still remains the most important cause for ill health.

To visit more documentaries, visit this link

Don't leave me now - Documentary

Movie: Don't Leave Me Now
Duration: 15 min 52 sec
Director: Girish Menon
Genre: Documentary
Produced In: 2009

Video

Synposis:

The Slum Sanitation Program or SSP is the initiative of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. The program aims at building sustainable toilet blocks in the slums of Mumbai and training slum dwellers to operate and maintain them. Phase I of the SSP was initiated with financial aid from the World Bank. SSP toilets are built on the demands of slum dwellers. The toilets are clean and well maintained and this responsibility lies with Community Based Organisations or CBO. The CBO consists of enterprising slum dwellers who live at close proximity to a toilet block. Every CBO hires a resident caretaker who lives at the uppermost level of the toilet block along with his or her family. "..don't leave me now." is a film that takes a look at the concept, implementation and success of the Slum Sanitation Program.

To visit more documentaries, visit this link

Being a Valuable Team Member

Introduction

"Take responsibility." Although the team leader is held accountable for establishing and monitoring team performance measurements, all team members are responsible for their team's success. If your prior experience was as a member of a work group, your contribution was to get your work done. Your contribution as a team member goes far beyond the work itself. The notes in this reading provide you with advice about how you can interact with the people on your team more productively and offer you tips on how you, as an individual team member, can facilitate constructive team dynamics.

Team Meetings

Your team meeting is your meeting and therefore it is your responsibility to do whatever is called for to make it effective. Team meetings are not something that happen to you; they are something that you make happen. Your team leader, as a participating member, has a piece of the action but he is not solely responsible. And if your team has established a role called "meeting facilitator", that person might take the lead in reserving the meeting room, distributing the advance agenda, or similar tasks, but he is not totally responsible. Every single team member is responsible.

This is a drastic change in role definition for most team members and for team leaders as well. As a team member you can no longer afford to sit back and be an attendee, spectator, or complainer. You must be a full participant/observer, actively contributing to the content of the meeting and at the same time observing team dynamics and intervening when team members are behaving in dysfunctional ways. It's not an easy job but it most definitely is part of your responsibility as a team member.

If you view meetings as an event that someone else plans and leads and that you attend, this will not be an easy adjustment to make. And if your team leader is accustomed to being in charge of the meeting, the adjustment will be even more difficult. The first step in making the transition to this new role of participant/observer requires a major shift in mind-set by all. To behave responsibly, you must feel responsible. And your team leader must also be willing to share the responsibility.

Talk about how your meetings are structured, who decides what the agenda will be, what behaviors are inhibiting the team from accomplishing its intended tasks, and how the team feels at the end of the meeting and why. Then make some decisions collectively about what you can do to improve it.

Don't expect to feel comfortable right away with this added responsibility. It's like becoming a parent for the first time. There's so much to pay attention to. You can't sit back and expect others to make it happen. It's a hard job and it takes an incredible amount of energy.

Every Player Contributes to the Process

Your team meeting has two major focal points that require your attention: content and process.

Content

Content is what your team is working on; process is how your team members are working together. If I asked you to tell me how your last meeting went and you said, "We discussed the consolidation project, put together a plan for year-end closing, and decided to set up a meeting with Quality Team to discuss error rates," you would have reported on the content of your meeting. Content sounds like those items you would summarize in your meeting minutes.

Process

If your response was, "Discussion became very heated and members stopped listening to one another; the energy level was very low, and a lot of time was wasted talking about unrelated topics," you would have described your team's process. In other words, process is a description of how members behaved during the meeting. Another work used interchangeably with process is dynamics.

There may be times during a team meeting when you feel you can't participate because you're not conversant with the topic being discussed. Just because you can't contribute to the content doesn't mean you can't contribute at all. You are in a perfect position to observe and facilitate the team's process -- and that's where teams need the most help. Teams generally do fine with content; they usually have the right items on the agenda and enough contributing experts. Ineffective meetings are usually the result of dysfunctional teams dynamics or process. The entire team is responsible for the success of your meeting so all members should play an active role in facilitating healthy dynamics. When you are not engrossed in the meeting content, you have an advantage of perspective; you can concentrate solely on process.

How do you know whether a team's process is functional or dysfunctional? If the team strikes a balance between satisfying both its task and relationship needs, it has a healthy, functional process going. Members behave in ways that facilitate getting the job done and at the same time make members feel valued, respected, included, and energized. Members leave the meeting saying, "We were very productive and I sure do like being a member of this team." When there is an imbalance between task and relationship need satisfaction, or not enough attention paid to either, the team's process is dysfunctional. If you hear members saying, "We got a lot of things accomplished, but I can't stand the way members treat each other," it's a sure sign that the team hasn't paid enough attention to its relationship needs. And if you hear, "We are so cohesive; just like a family. But we sure didn't get much done," the team has slipped on the task side. And if ever you should hear, "Another waste of two hours--nothing accomplished. Why can't people at least be civil to each other?" you know there is much work to be done on both the task and relationship sides of the equation.

Learning how to observe your team's process and intervene appropriately takes time and practice. If you randomly try to watch everything, you'll see nothing. The key is to train your eyes and ears so that you can focus your observations. A good way to start focusing is to become acquainted with a few specific team facilitation roles, also known as intervention behaviors. Then look for the appropriate situations during your meeting to apply them. In other words, first learn what the helping behaviors are, and why and how they help. Then you will more easily see places where you can be helpful, as explained in Summarizer, Orienter, Harmonizer, and Other Helpful Roles.

Summarizer – Orienteer – Harmonizer - and Other Helpful Roles

"Don't forget to take SOFI HAGE to your meeting. Put her to work I guarantee she will make a significant contribution to your team's progress and success." “SOFI HAGE” The name comes from the first letter of each of the task and relationship roles.

Team Facilitation Roles

Task	Relationship
Summarizer Orienter Gatekeeper Encourager	Harmonizer Analyzer Fact Seeker Initiator

It's important that all team members understand and employ each of the four task and relationship roles listed in the exhibit.

Summarizer

The Summarizer urges the group to acknowledge consensus and reach a decision. When team members are wound up like the Energizer Bunny, the Summarizer breaks in with, "It seems like we're all in agreement with the parts of the program that need to be changes; can we move off that topic and discuss specific changes to be proposed?" By asking for verbal agreement with the summary, the Summarizer helps the team get past one decision and onto the next decision point.

Orienter

The Orienter prevents the team from wandering too far from the topic at hand; he or she brings them back and focuses them again when they do stray. This redirecting should not be done abruptly as in, "Hey, we're way off here; let's get back on track," or "David, you just took us off topic again," because you don't want to introduce a negative effect into the relationship side of the equation. A useful and neutral way to intervene is with the question, "Are we off topic right now?"

Fact Seeker

The Fact Seeker tests reality to make sure the decision the team is about to make is doable. This team member always wants more information and is quick to point out the difference between a fact and an opinion. The Fact Seeker is also very helpful in pointing out when a team does not have all the information it needs to make a good decision. The Fact Seeker will suggest that the team get more data before proceeding. He or she is also good at checking the decision-making boundaries of the team, asking "Do we have the authority to make this decision?"

Initiator

The Initiator gets the team started on the right foot by always beginning discussions with the question, "How should we approach this task?" Getting agreement on a game plan before starting to work on the task itself is crucial to team effectiveness and is the distinguishing characteristic of the Initiator.

When you plan the Summarizer, Orienteer, Fact Seeker and Initiator roles, you contribute to your team's productivity by moving the task along to completion. Play the following relationship roles to ensure that team members feel valued and respected and you will make a major contribution to your team's cohesiveness.

Harmonizer

The Harmonizer realizes that conflicts is inevitable and that if left unresolved, it is the biggest barrier to a team's achieving health and success. The Harmonizer called the team's attention to a conflict (especially if team members haven't wanted to acknowledge it), by saying something like, "Let's be honest: we've got some strong conflicting feelings about this issue. What steps can we take to resolve our differences?" The Harmonizer is also able to focus discussion on meeting specific needs as a way of mediating conflict. More help on mediation is given in some of the sections which follow: When You Reach an Impasse, Talk About Needs and `Hey, No Problem'.

Analyzer

The Analyzer watches for changes in the vital signs of the team and brings these changes to the attention of the team. The Analyzer is the team member most likely to ask, "How is everyone feeling about how we're working together?" or "It seems we've lost our energy; what is happening?"

Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper is concerned primarily with team communication and participation. This member makes sure all team members are actively listening to each other and understanding each other's messages. The Gatekeeper paraphrases messages to make sure that everyone is on the same wavelength and that every idea is understood by the group before being discredited or discarded. The Gatekeeper invites quieter members to participate and makes sure that more active members don't dominate.

Encourager

The Encourager builds and sustains team energy by showing support for people's efforts, ideas, and achievements. If the Gatekeeper focuses on making sure the content of team members' ideas is clearly understood by all, the Encourager emphasizes members' participation by giving verbal approval: "Good point--that's a great idea." This is another role that prevents Whack-a-mos and in general helps people to feel valued.

It is extremely important that every member be ready and able to intervene as a facilitator. If you were an eight-member team and each person had a delegated responsibility to wear one of the SOFI HAGE hats and intervene appropriately, you would see a significant increase in your effectiveness. But you can do better than that by having each member wear all the hats and thus provide maximum facilitation coverage.

Learning the eight different roles may seem at first like an overwhelming challenge to you and your teammates, but you'll probably be surprised to find that some team members are natural at orienting or encouraging, or that some easily assume the role of summarizers and gatekeepers. To have all eight roles covered may just be a matter of learning a few more facilitation behaviors. I know you can do it and as a team you'll be glad you did.

Recognize Your MVP

When a sports team wins a championship, they follow a time-honored tradition of recognizing their most valuable player. This is the player who, for that game or series of games, gave a stellar performance. It's a nice touch. The team is also generous in lavishing public praise on their MVP during the post-game interview. In my own experience, no praise pleased me so much as when a fellow teammate would say, "We couldn't have done it without you." Apply this practice to your work teams--it's an important investment in team building.

From time to time, you will have a member (perhaps it will be you!) who puts in extra hours or who applies his or her particular talent to a project to make it a winner.

In a team-based environment, it's management's responsibility to reward team performance. It's the team's responsibility to recognize and acknowledge its stars. Be generous with your praise; it's a powerful motivator and it costs nothing to give.