Early B-day Present, and Notes on Administration

Rohitash watching a herd of sheep go by. Nomads were coming through town. From last summer.


Chili plants, a specialty of Rajasthan's, often at a very high cost in terms of water. They are beautiful though.

Work from a previous organization (SVS), with similar youth technology and leadership groups.

Gopal Singh running a women's micro-credit group in previous work with the organization SVS. This is the experience that is going to make LSS an effective organization in the field.


So, I received an early birthday present this last week when I was presented with a donation numbering in the several hundred dollar range from a close friend of mine. It is the organization's first large donation, and I am very grateful to have received it. I think that it will go towards buying a computer to be used in our youth technology and leadership groups. I want to thank the donor again for the kindness.

Speaking of donors, I have gotten word from multiple people that they would like to donate once the system for such donations are in place. This is most gratifying. I anticipate that we will be able to take donations to an official organizational account starting in late December or January, once we are registered with the state of CO as an organization. However, if you are interested in donating now, I have cleared out an old savings account I have (I had to get new one in CA in order to get residency) and am leaving it open for donations. This is where I will deposit the money from the donation mentioned above. Absolutely nothing personal will done with this money. Donor id numbers will be issued and bi-annual reports will be issued laying out where money from all sources has gone. Annual external audits will also be performed. The funds for this year's work are already secured, so no rush, but I just thought I'd mentioned this in case anyone was interested in donating for future work. Note that we are running the organization in CO, as opposed to CA, because in my experience thus far CO is an easy state in which to operate.

A note on my philosophy in running this organization. Though the workers have insisted on calling me the head of LSS, I can't say the title has ever really suited me. The main reason is that the workers have most of the experience and thus the judgment needed to assess whether certain activities are of value in the village setting. We have agreed upon a core focus of women's microcredit, youth technology and leadership development, and environemental management. This is summed up in the charter I have attached (which still needs some revision in English; the one in Hindi has already been submitted to the Indian government for our registration there).

Given this shared vision, I am largely leaving the implementation up to the workers, who, as I have said, are the real experts in this area. However, I do provide guidance and suggest things that might help how things are running, e.g. suggesting they attend various types of computer training so they become more fluent with using computer applications and the internet. I see my main role as providing some ideas on things that might be carried out, and in maintaining the fiscal transparency of the organization by keeping track of monies spent. I will of course travel to India, most likely annually, and we will meet to discuss organization philosophy, focus, etc. Hence, I am the head of the organization two clear ways: 1) the financial buck stops with me and 2) I have set up an organization with two very like-minded field workers with a given philsophy in mind so that I can say with confidence what our work is and how we are achieving it. I leave many of the details to the workers, as I believe should be done in these circumstances, as it is foolish for foreigners to try to dictate the exact details of implementation. Indeed, villagers often bristle at having city folk from the same state in India importing their "foreign" ideas about how exactly things should be run. There is a careful balance in respecting local custom and methods of operation, and bringing useful change. This balance must always be kept in mind, and LSS's governing philosophy is based on maintaining this balance.

Well, that's basically all for now folks. I also wanted to add that any donations are also, unfortunately, subject to about 1-2% in bank transfer fees, as is standard for international transfers. It's an annoying reality of working between countries. Hence, the percent of donations that reach the field workers will be about 80-82%, given the 17.5% administration fee of our partner organization NSS (see previous post). I feel the need to be upfront and forthright about this fact.

Hope everyone is well. So excited about LSS's work. The NGO workers continue to make contacts with the aforementioned villages, and have made lots of headway in convincing the villagers of the benefit of starting self-help groups and youth technology and leadership groups. We anticipate having groups set up in the coming weeks. I will post the names of the villages where we are working once we have official books set up. Great stuff!

Here is where you can see our charter:
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1_egvofMQZ-VxmOz8CKBOdRRwJEPHGnXDGDes91ha2LI&hl=en&authkey=CJLC9qsO