MeetingMinutesJan14

Sai Temple General Committee Meeting

Date: 14/01/2018 (recurs every 2^nd Sunday of the month)

Scheduled meeting time: 4:00 PM

List of Attendees:

Minutes of the meeting:

1. The meeting began at 4:05 PM and continued until 5:30 PM.
2. The meeting was attended by several new and existing members.
3. Chairs, from each committee, shared updates about their committee’s progress at this meeting.
4. The following several propositions were made during this meeting
   1. Having religious functions under a separate committee, namely “Religious Committee”. The chair of this committee will coordinate with the priest to manage the religious functions. Raj will recommend a member for the chair position.
   2. Having Vice Chair positions for each of the committees, as and if necessary.
   3. The Sai temple website and the mobile app was called for an overall public feedback for future improvements. This includes verifying the web links and comment sections if they are working or not. Suggestions were made to make the web pages as well as the mobile app dynamic (i.e., to stay relevant content to display the current and future events rather than the past events). Web pages were also suggested to include ad requests.
   4. Creating a webpage, listing all the committee Chairperson names and contact info with roles and responsibilities. Bharatiya Temple’s webpage was referred as an example.
   5. Booklets containing a brief info about the temple were also suggested in this meeting. Pictures and contact info about the chairs and the priests were proposed to be included. A recommendation was made to develop a temple calendar.
   6. A suggestion box to be included in the Temple lobby. Additionally, a board with the committee member names and contact info was proposed to be placed at the lobby.
   7. An organized system to track the temple pooja services, monetary transactions etc. using Salesforce software application was proposed. This also included an organized way of email communication rather than using personal emails to communicate. Propositions were made to have email Ids through the Salesforce application for the Chairs. Vijay to coordinate with Madhavi and Gopi to work on the Salesforce
   8. The Fundraising function of the Temple Management was proposed to work closely with Cultural Committee as well as Accounting Committee.
   9. Parking/ traffic function was proposed to come under Temple Management committee rather than Cultural Committee.
   10. There was a call to introduce more events at the temple to engage with the devotee base. During the summer, bhajan groups were proposed to be invited along with cultural programs.
   11. The Cultural Hall at the temple was announced to be ready by March.
   12. For Building Safety, there was a call for a person/member with expertise on the subject.
   13. Bathroom to have electrical safety features as well as a trash can.
   14. Student volunteers to receive a certificate for their services to the temple. Education Committee to oversee and be involved in such certificate issuance.
   15. Propositions were made to come up with a plan for kitchen and food services.
   16. Emails to be sent to the devotee to solicit donations. Emails to clarify the tax-deductible status of the donations made to the temple, based on 2018 new tax plan.
   17. Books were proposed to be donated/ suggested by Bhusan Mittal for the Bal Vihar. Bal Vihar to include Math programs was suggested.
   18. A Sign-in registration was proposed for the Temple Visitors for safety purposes.