Minutes of the Twelfth RBT get-together -
APRIL 6th 2003, LIQUID
LOUNGE
Next Meeting : MAY 4th 2003 at Sin at Breach
Candy - courtesy of Vikrant Chougule and Chateau Indage - 4:30pm
Hello everyone,
These are the minutes of the twelfth get-together of the organization.!
AGENDA
**STOP PRESS**
-Organisational Update - Income Tax Exemption, Minutes delivery, Magic Bus
-Team Updates
-New Projects Proposals - Employment for the Disabled, Road Transport
Infrastructure & Safety
-Miscellaneous
1) **STOP PRESS**
Articles in the last week on Revive Bombay:
All of these were inspired by Accessibility & You event, organised by
Revive Bombay's AID team. The event was held at the Oberoi and Chief
Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's committment to the cause of Accessibility
was inspiring.
Public buildings may be made disabled-friendly
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2003 01:21:58 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=43705
693
BMC Ward A to be disabled friendly.
MID-DAY : April 22, 2003
http://web.mid-day.com/news/city/2003/april/50638.htm
Easier access to buildings for disabled
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2003 11:48:56 PM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=44198
841
REVIVE BOMBAY - By Gerson da Cunha
BOMBAY TIMES : Friday, April 25th, 2003
CM promises to make public buildings disabled-friendly
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2003 01:53:56 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=44507
903
2) ORGANISATIONAL UPDATE
As you all are aware, at the last meeting, we had opened our bank account.
We also said that by today we would get our Income Tax exemption. So, we are
now an Income Tax exempt Charity Trust and can start officially taking
donations. The first donation came from Mr. Kishen Khanna, of AIG , the next
one came from Harsh Seksaria who came to the Coyote Ugly night. He donated
Rs. 5100. Ketan Kadam contributed Rs. 20,000 from Fire & Ice. The
collections from the 'Pet a Tree' projects Coyote Ugly Nite were about
Rs. 60,000 before we subtract our costs etc.
We hope that you are getting your minutes now without sniffing through
Junk Mail folders.
We have also tied up with an organization called Magic Bus. I am sure most
of us must have heard of it. Matthew Spacie started Magic Bus as an NGO to
help underprivileged children. They have done a great number of things to
help children and it mirrors what our member Dr. Sohan Shah was trying to
do a few months ago with his Adopt-a-child project. We were going about it
differently. We were actually trying to do in the Adopt-a-child project was
to take children and be like a Big brother to them, and guide them through
their childhood. Unfortunately, we scrapped the project due to the
modalities in getting children from the street (This issue was mentioned in
the past minutes).
However, Magic Bus gets around this by outsourcing and getting children
from existing organizations like Akanksha. Therefore, as we are always
looking at working with other organisations and bringing our synergies
together, Sohan and Matthew will be working on how we can support them and
them to support us in what ever way possible.
2) TEAM UPDATES
(To get involved with any of these projects, kindly contact the team
leaders on their email address mentioned below)
Pet-a-tree
Heritage Statues
NGO AGM
Bollywood Walk of Fame
Ambulance Services
Make-a-wish
Accessibility for Individual with Disabilities (A.I.D)
Café Revive
1) Pet-a-tree:
Team leader : Rishi Tejuja - rishitejuja@utisel.com
We have raised a good amount of money from the Coyote Ugly Nite and are
currently working on getting the permission required to plant trees on Mahim
Causeway from the BMC. We have spoken to Mr. Pai who is in-charge of
gardening in that area and have received a verbal confirmation. We are
looking for a written confirmation and should be getting it soon. We are
trying to get the trees donated as well. The plantation will have the name
of Revive Bombay prominently on it. We are also considering NOT planting
saplings. The two reasons for this are i) The time it take to grow to full
length Palm trees are 2-3 years. ii) Saplings are many times removed and
resold. However, a fully grown tree is hard to remove. We also need more
ideas for places to plant more trees. Any suggestions - please email Rishi
so that we can get working on that immediately.
2) Heritage Statues:
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
As mentioned in the previous minutes, the Municipal Commissioner has
accepted our proposal to appropriate these statues and asked his department
to prepare a report on who owns these statues. They are still in the
process. While this will take some time, we are moving in the right
direction and following up regularly with the Sr. Heritage Conservation
engineer.
3) Bollywood Walk of Fame:
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
We have taken our proposal to Chhagan Bhujbal, the Deputy Chief Minister &
Minister for Tourism. He has passed it to Sameer Bhujbal who is evaluating
it. Unfortunately because the Legislative Assembly is going on right
now they have been unable to get back to us on this. We hope to get an answer by
the next meeting. We are probably going to be sticking to the name Bollywood Walk of Fame.
Many film industry people found the name Bollywood demeaning. However, the
Indian Film Industry Walk of Frame is not happening, so in the
meantime we're sticking to the name and hopefully in time, the film industry will
realise that Bollywood is their trademark.
4) NGO AGM:
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
We have tied up with AGNI (Action for Good Governance & Networking in
India), the well-known city NGO. We have also tied up with Indianngos.com
for this initiative. While AGNI brings a clean and respectable image,
Indianngos.com brings their database of NGOs for this AGM. We are looking
for 2-3 more key partners for this initiative.
5) Ambulance EMS:
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
The Ambulance project has been now scraped until we find how we will be
able to find regular funding for a project of this size. We have written to
the Minister for Health, Digvijay Khandvilkar suggesting this idea.
*It might be interesting to note that the Bombay Times & Times of India
have recently published articles that some city hospitals have started an
Emergency Medical Service with GPS-assisted Ambulances etc with a central
control centre. Sound familiar?
6) Make-a-wish:
Team leader : Shraddha Thacker - shraddhathacker12@yahoo.com
The team ran into a bit of problem. The team's theme was actually created
to help the Make-a-Wish foundation by raising funds for them. The team also
succeeded in getting Rs. 4500/- on their own for the foundation, which was
an excellent start. However, Make-a-Wish have written a letter stating that
we should not use their name, and that they would not like to work with us.
The team got pretty rattled by that. However they are working on tweaking
their team to continue working for the less privileged. They have met with
the Dean of Nair Hospital and are looking at how they can help the children
in these hospitals.
7) Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities (A.I.D):
Team leader : Manish Maker - manish.maker@makers.co.in
There is a gentlemen called Mr. Javed Abidi that we have been talking
about in our updates. He is the pioneer of this organization, NCPEDP. He is
himself in a wheel chair and has fought for legislation for the disabled, in
Delhi. He has been responsible for moving the Supreme Court to get
handi-lifts in all airports through out the country. He is coming to Mumbai
and is doing an event with AID that is being co-ordinated by Lalita. That
event will be on the 19th of this month i.e., from 10 to 1 at the
Oberoi. Glaxo and the Oberoi have graciously agreed to sponsoring this event. An
agenda is being chalked out for that and its going to be orientation in the
issue of accessibility, lot of awareness creation. NCPEDP are going to be
talking about the Delhi experience, and AID are going to talk about the
Mumbai experience. One of our members, Dr. Zirak Marker who is a Psychiatrist, is going to talk a little about psychiatric disorders and the
psychological aspect of disabilities and the impor mental stress also in assimilation, not only removal of architectural
barriers. We are going to be presenting what Revive Bombay's AID project has
done so far, we will be taking about what we have done in terms of
legislature etc. We will having press coverage. This is a big project for
us. We have divided ourselves into publicity, cost or fund raising, event
management, and if any one of you can help out in any aspect for this event
please approach us.
The team has 4 more hits in the last 6 weeks. Phoenix Mills has put 4
ramps in 4 of their new building. We have approached Phoenix Mills and got a
strong commitment from them earlier, and in each of their new office
building they are putting up ramps. It is going to be an architectural
problem, because as you know that the gradient of a ramp has to be very very
slight because, we are not only trying to aim for a wheel chair which can be
pushed up, but also in the power wheel chair they should be able rise up on
its own. The gradient is very long and pops out into the road. There is a
bit of cutting of the lobby required and those adjustments have been made
and we had 4 there. The Oberoi we have 3 ramps which Karan spoke to you last
time. They have a strong commitment towards us and they have already put in
3 ramps there .
The other update and the big one which we are excited about is the
legislation and one of our members, Puran Doshi has been working very hard
on that. A proposal was made as you all know in the BMC by Puran Doshi for
getting an amendment into legislation that all Public Utility Buildings,
theatres, and restaurants etc have accessibility, street side
accessibilities, schools, toilets, sleeping for students etc and that was
unanimously passed. It went to the Municipal Commissioner. Puran Doshi has
been following up with him. Manish Maker, Puran Doshi and Hemanth Rao met
the commissioner together. That got cleared and that's has gone to the Urban
Development Department and is lying with the Chief Minister. Puran has been
following up, and we have been following up with the Chief Minister's
Secretariat. We have also met the UD department, Officer on Special Duty,
The Secretary (UD) and we are getting a complete update on what exactly is
the status on Monday and we are very hopeful and mos to get through.
7) Café Revive:
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
We have just started this team off. We are trying to create Revive Bombay
café's around the city whereby we tie-up with an existing location and a
restauranteur who has the expertise in managing a café. The essential idea
here is that we create the brand and that a certain part of the profits from
the Café come to the organisation to be spent on making the area that the
café is located in - a better place. This will ensure fund flow for doing
positive things around the city, and will make people want to come - knowing
that the area that they live in/work in will be improved. We need people in
this team to start planning out, scouting locations etc.
We have already got a tentative okay on one excellent location. Ketan
Kadam of Fire & Ice has seen the location and is willing to start off the
first Café Revive! We will now be working on getting all the permissions
required.
3) NEW PROPOSALS :
Employment for the Disabled
Team leader : Hemanth Meka Rao - hemanth@hemanth.net
We are looking at the opportunity of working with corporates and firms and
finding employment for disabled people.
Road Transport Infrastructure & Safety
Team leader : Hem Tejuja
We are looking at integrating several road issues - from potholes, to
safety and infrastructure in this team. The first goal is to fix the pot-holes on Marine Drive!
4) MISCELLANEOUS
From time to time, we evaluate the progress of our organisation. How have
we grown, how do we sustain that growth and how to improve what we are doing
wrong.
We had an excellent discussion where all members together decided the
following:
1) We bring back the Management Committee. It will be called the
Co-ordinating Committee which will oversee the functioning of the
organisation, follow up with the teams on their progress etc. An
organisation like this should not be a one-person show. While the management
committee that was formed last year did not have the impact it should have,
the time now is ripe for a overseeing body like this in the
organisation. The members of this committee are currently Chaitanya Pande & Karan
Ahluwalia. We are looking for more members for this committee. Membership
will be based on actual input and work done within the organisation before
acceptance.
2) MEETING DATES : The organisation currently meets every 6 weeks at
4:30pm. This was changed as the members felt that the 6 week time frame
makes people complacent about their team work. Henceforth, all RBT meetings
will be once EVERY MONTH, on the FIRST SUNDAY of the MONTH, 4:30pm.
3) MEETING TIMES : The meetings are called at 4:30pm so that members get
to interract with others, with new members and familiarize everyone with
each other. This is very important to keep good vibes within the
organisation where people are comfortable working with others they don't
know, and not one where people come, listen and go. The meetings themselves
have and will continue to start at 5pm precisely.
4) MEMBER ATTENDANCE & INVOLVEMENT : Something of much debate in the past
has been Member Attendance. While we have grown to 250 members, many are not
even aware of their commitment to Revive Bombay, or to the city. We are not
here as a 'minutes' organisation for people to be aware of whats going on
around them. We want members, who in some form or the other - contribute to
the organisation. While some exceptions can be made, especially to those
currently not resident in Mumbai, the organisation unanimously approved a
Minimum attendance requirement.
Therefore, from May onwards, a member must maintain a 30% attendance at
the RBT Meetings. That means in 12 meetings in the year, 4 meetings is a
minimum requirement. We are not trying to "be mean". We want our
organisation to be one of Do'ers, not talkers.. And the group felt that to
know what the organisation is doing and to propose and be part of projects,
a minimum attendance should be a requirement. After all, we do not have
member fees or any other other impositions. Just show up :)
ACCESSIBILITY & YOU EVENT :
The email informing the members of the AID event on April 19th went out
quite late. We apologise for the delay as many members had expressed their
interest in an event like this, however were informed too late.
While the seminar was packed, it would have been nice to see more members
at the event. However, it was heartening to see the room crowded with many
disabled people who came to show their support for this cause. If a disabled
person can make it to an event of such importance, do you have the ability
to?
Where did all these teams progress from? From ONE person's passion to make
a change. Do you have the passion to make a change? Everyone in this
organisation started off not knowing where to go, or who to talk to.. But
today each team is on a strong footing, achieving the goals they could only
dream of first.
NOTE: If you are receiving RBT Minutes in error, or would like to stop receiving these emails, kindly reply with the words "Remove" in the subject heading.
THANK YOU!
We ended the meeting with a BIG Thank You to Chirag Doshi, and the Liquid
Lounge team for making this meeting possible.
NEXT MEETING :
The Next Revive Bombay meeting will be on MAY 4th 2003 at Sin at Breach
Candy - courtesy of Vikrant Chougule and Chateau Indage. As always, 4:30pm.
Get involved now - and make a difference to your surroundings.
Looking forward to seeing you at the next RBT get-together!
RBT.
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