2nd Minutes of the meeting ...

There was a general discussion on the type of things that are happening. Raj shared the Traffic and Transport model of Bangalore city with formal agreement with the Govt and what he is doing in Adyar for the pedestrian. He shared that one needs to involve more and more people.
Architect Rajiv shared his thoughts that through the children many things can be changed. He shared his passion for working with children and do things addressed to common people.
1) Roles and Structure
It was generally decided that the organizational structure of the forum should be a main body of president, vice president, secretary and treasurer as normally is the case with such organizations. But the Green Chennai forum will be functioning as per the focus groups or units which will be doing things that are required and those units will be independently working on the each individual projects.

2) Types of the projects
The discussion on the project went on to some lengthy discussion and it was generally agreed that the group should start with some small programs. Each one, who would like to do something or what they are passionate about, should come forward and present it to the group and ask for any volunteers within the group. This way one can go ahead with some project immediately which is required for the group to bond together. Every one was asked to say what they would like to do and the group was asked to come forward with volunteers for the task.

a. Eco Walk: Rajiv came up with the idea that he would like most to take this concept of green to the children and he emphasizes that kids are the most important change agents. If we can reach out to the children we can take this to the people. He volunteered to take the children out for an Eco Walk to bring them close to the nature and make them understand the value of the nature. It was decided that we can actually have the next meeting in some natural surroundings where the children can also join and the meeting can happen after the tour.
b. Green Chennai Index: It was generally agreed by all the people that this Green Chennai concept is a vast area and encompasses almost everything under the sun. Hence Biju put forth the idea that why not first let’s define what is Green Chennai? He volunteered to take up the task of indexing the things that will define the concept with an advice that it will take lot of time and effort to do so. Kavita and Anand joined the focus group to take up this work.
c. Green Citizen Index: It was decided to also index what is green citizen on the lines of LEED certification. This will become the basis of providing points and also certifying each individual action of the members as being green. Rajiv, Sunil and Shashi joined this focus group of Indexing Green Citizen.
d. Vegetable Waste management: Kavita informed of the work that they are doing in Mylapore on the Vermi-composting and segregation of vegetable waste. She shared her challenge in terms of getting some piece of land to do the composting. Mr. Jha came forward to help her getting the piece of land and this project was taken up as one of the project of the forum. Shashi also volunteered to help in the same.
e. Green Chennai Website: The website was decided to be put up but as things are not yet ready on the organizational front, this will be taken up in the next meeting with the date and venue for the inauguration.
f. Tree Plantation – Sunil shared his passion for the tree plantation and Mr. Jha informed that there is one Govt Officer Mr. Sudeep Jain, who has done a great job there. It was decided to take this up in the forum and team is looking for the volunteers on the same.
g. Arrange Lectures – Swahilya informed that as a professional speaker and journalist she would like to arrange for lectures and presentations. She will be preparing the same and bring out a schedule for the lectures in the next meeting.
h. Water front Revitalization – Kishore shared that he would really like to take up the water front of the two rivers that criss cross the city and Kavita informed that she also wanted to put the same for her class in the Annan University. Kishore will be supported by Biju and look forward to the support of the team members


3) There was various other discussions happened on the side lines and the following points are to be noted.
a. Get more people involved. Hariharan, Rajiv, Sunil and others voiced their concern about increasing the membership. It was decided to actively look forward to more members
b. Rajiv voiced the opinion that we should be targeting people’s pride to change the way they think about being green. The Green Citizen Index was decided to be one such measure.
c. The structure of the group should be on the paper for various regulatory needs but it should not be typically binding one as this group will be loosely held by the activities rather than the structure.
d. There is a need to form a corpus of funds to keep the group from going strength to strength. Members decided to actively bring their thoughts on the same
e. The accountability of the projects should rest with the person who has taken the project in his ownership. It was agreed that once that is in place, the activities can be easily co-ordinated.
f. It was decided that the members should be atleast adopting some eco-friendly practice and try to project it to others around them.
g. Reach out to the people aready doing green works and the people involved in the same to join hands with them or learn from them.
h. Plantation of trees should be taken up as one of the task. Sunil shared his passion for the same and we hope to have this going forward in the next meeting.
4) Action Points II
a. Mr. Rajiv to plan for the eco walk as the venue for the next meeting on Saturday, 2nd August
b. Preparation of Modular Constitution and Structure of the group to be done by Mr. Jha and to brought up for the approval in the next meeting
c. Various Projects

5) The second meeting:
a. Date:
2nd August, 2008
b. Venue:
Tentatively fixed at theosophical society
Time: 4 PM – 6 PM
This is going to be interesting meeting as its organized along with an eco walk by Rajiv. Every member is required to bring his/her kids for the same.