Update: Meeting VI

Hello,

The next meeting will be on Sunday, November 1, at Bobst Library, LL2-20 from 5-7pm

See you all there!

Event: Games Night

Hello all,

An update on the events we are going to be hosting - instead of a student dinner event on November 5th, we are going to be having a Games Night at a common room in the Lafayette Dorms. A tournament will be held alongside drinks and snacks for everyone's enjoyment. There will be a bunch of nintendo games - from Super Smash Bros. to Mario Kart, DDR to Guitar Hero, and more!

We hope that you will join us at this event on that Friday night. It'll be a great way to relax after exams and settle into the weekend!

Entering the tournament will cost $5, with half of all proceeds going to SRM and the other half going to the winner of the tournament.

Event Details:
Games Night
November 6th, Friday
5:30pm-12 midnight
Common room in Lafayette Dorms

Update: Meeting V Minutes

Hello all,

Another productive meeting today! The theme of the meeting was "deadlines". It's cutting close to the wire and we need to get a lot of things done - including raising more money for the cause.

So here's a summary of what went down at the meeting today:

• The prospectus will be completed by Wednesday and ready to be sent out on Friday. Testimonials from team members are all that is missing.
• In addition to weekly minutes and this blog as updates, we will start sending out newsletters to all those in our newsletter listserv. It will provide more comprehensive information about what we've done without needing all of those on the listserv to slog through our technical minutes. The newsletter will be ready by Wednesday.
• The film budget will be separate from the mission's fundraising budget. Hopefully we can raise $20,000 to cover pre-, during, and post-production costs.
• We are in need of an event coordinator that can help be our liason with school clubs as well as help us organize our events, and a marketing person to be our additional contact between the team and corporate sponsors.
• We will be having two upcoming, very important events in the future. One is a student dinner that is done in conjunction with the Tzu Chi organization. It will be a dinner event for all NYU students to come and support our cause and eat good food! In December, we are also planning another event - a corporate dinner event - to promote our cause with potential donors for more donations and corporate sponsorship. Please stay tuned for more details on these events.
• A link for donations will be set up by the end of this week. Our goal is to make all donations tax-deductible, so we are currently searching for the best way to do this.

We plan to continue with the Buy-a-Brick idea and continue fleshing out our weeklong activities while there in Sichuan. More progress has been made - slow and steady, we'll win this race!

Thanks!

Action Items for Tomorrow

Here are some action items that need to be completed by this Sunday:

• we still need a list of donors and corporate sponsors that we can send our packet to.
• come up with action plan ideas in case something goes wrong in Sichuan
• large dinner event for potential donors
• we need a marketing/producing person to be in close communication with Amy in terms of funds coming in from donors and corporations you contact and send packets to
• we also need an event planning person to produce the next events we will be hosting, i.e. the dinner event

Another reminder: Tonight at 9pm, there will be a video conference with Liu Laoshi at Bobst, please attend if you can make it!

SRM at Columbia

Here are some pictures from our event on October 23rd. The sale was a success! We made 12 dollars in sales of hot chocolate and red bands. Kevin and Li also managed to take one each for the team by winning the Fear Factor eating contest - Kevin won an iPod Touch! That iPod Touch will be raffled off or sold on eBay - so keep a lookout for it!

Update: Meeting V

The next meeting will be held on Sunday, October 25 at Bobst Library LL2-08 from 5-7pm.

In addition, Saturday, October 24, at 9pm there will be a conversation with Liu Laoshi via Skype with Kevin. If you can make it and would like to speak to Liu Laoshi or have any questions for him, please go! If you can't, but still have questions - just forward them to Kevin! That meeting will be at Bobst Library LL2-22.

Thanks!

Columbia Night Market Event

Hello!!

Tonight at 6pm, NYU SRM will be at Columbia's Night Market event. We will be having our own booth promoting our cause and selling hot chocolate. Different varieties of hot chocolate will be available, with regular hot chocolate, hot chocolate with marshmallows, minty hot chocolate, and more! And we will also be selling "dirt" - chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos and gummy worms - appetizing, isn't it!?

Please come and visit us if you have the chance and support our cause! Grab some warm drinks to celebrate the fall season (and what feels like the start of winter), and enjoy the night market!

Thanks!

Bake Sale!

Our very first fundraising event - a bake sale held at the Stern building today - was a great success! We raised over a $100 on our homemade baked goods. Thanks so much for all those who helped and who came and supported our cause!

It was a great way for us to also start handing out our new pamphlets. Word was spread not just to old friends from Shanghai, but to students new to the cause. Our leftover baked goods were bought by a professor for his class as well, and he helped us hand out our pamphlets and spread word of our cause.

Our next event will be this Friday, at Columbia University, 6:30 PM. We are participating in Columbia's Night Market event selling hot chocolate, our red bands, and handing out more pamphlets. Please come and join us if you can!

Thanks!

Update: Meeting IV Minutes

Hello all,

Here's an update on what happened on the 4th meeting of SRM:

• The bake sale has been finalized - please come and support us!
• The pamphlet and trailer are nearly done. We will be having pamphlets ready for everyday distribution at our events and for all school organizations and students. A more comprehensive package will be sent out to corporate sponsors and non-profit organizations that includes a prospectus, trailer, pamphlet, and a letter from the leader.
  
• We may have an involvement in the Asian Heritage Month at Columbia University. We will have to send a proposal to them, and we may have a booth there too. 
• As for our affiliation with RM, we will have to send a proposal to them. While they may not be involved in the actual project or send someone to go with us, we may perhaps be able to use their account for our donations. That is, if our proposal is approved.
• The cheapest airline tickets will be available for January 11th to 18th. Visas will be sorted out in mid-November. 
• Liu Laoshi had a recent conversation with Kevin about the situation in Sichuan. Because of his volunteer efforts, he was kicked out by cops from Dengjiaxiang. Currently based in Anchang, he tells us that we can continue our relief effort in Dengjiaxiang, especially since we are going to be there for a short time and are not going to be there too long to influence the people there. 
• The next conversation with Liu Laoshi will be on Saturday at 9pm at Bobst. 
• Another idea for fundraising is Buy Bricks program - people can purchase and decorate a brick, and those bricks would be installed in the building of the new preschool.
• The preschool - where our donations will be going towards - has been given a permit by the government to be built. The principal just needs the funds to build it. 
• There will be a meeting with the NYU Reynolds program in hopes of getting the prize money towards the relief mission. There is an executive summary meeting on Tuesday, but we will try to have a one-on-one meeting with them. If we can submit a comprehensive proposal, there is a chance to win!
• We have narrowed down what our activities in China will be. We will be split into the flat-ground team and the high-ground team - where some will stay in the villages and help out and some can do the more dangerous site visits. We are going to continue site visits and distribute supplies, work with the children, and continue supporting the construction of the school. The team is divided as thus because of the dangers of the weather and conditions of the area. 

Email nyusrm@gmail.com for the more comprehensive version of the minutes. 

Thanks!

SRM First Event!

Hello all!

This Wednesday, October 21, will be the first SRM event! We will be hosting a bake sale at Stern lobby from 10:00-2:00pm, selling cookies, brownies, cakes, etc. Come join us and have some great snacks and find out more about SRM!

Thanks!

Update: Meeting IV

Hello all,

Next meeting will be held on Sunday from 5-7pm, at Bobst Library LL2-07.

See you there!

Update: Meeting III

Hello all,

Here are the updates from the third meeting of SRM.

After RM discussed the possibility of taking SRM as a subsidiary, they have officially decided not to. HOWEVER, there is still a chance for affiliation and their helping us with the bank account for donations.

A new member has also been added to the team: Annie Gao. We welcome her to the team!!! 

The budget has been announced; we will need to raise at least $16,850 to cover our expenses, as well as for our supplies and donations for the school. Every member will have to pay $500 to help with the airfare costs, unless a deal can be made with an airline for a group discount. The plan is to fly out on the 11th and return on the 18th, with a maximum of 5 days in Sichuan (accounting for the train ride).

There is a possible affiliation with another organization - Tzu Chi organization. Tzu Chi wants to spread their message of providing relief work and building schools in impoverished areas in NYU, and so there is a possibility for a mutually beneficial relationship to grow from this.

Our first event is also coming up! Next Wednesday, from 10AM - 2PM there will be a bake sale held at the Stern building. Proceeds going to the relief fund.

On the film front: a translator has been found! Li Xu has offered to help us translate sections of our documentary. We welcome her to the team and thank her for helping us!

The trailer and the pamphlet (meant to help us spread the word and provide information to other organizations) are still in progress. They will be both (hopefully!) completed by the next meeting.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates and come next Wednesday to support our bake sale!

Meeting III

Hello!!

The next meeting for SRM will be on Sunday, October 12, at LL2-22, from 5-7pm.

Hope to see you all there!

Update: Meeting II

Hello!

Today was our second meeting, and we are continuing to make headway!

Here are some highlights of the meeting:

• The donated money has become an issue in the sense that we need to figure out a way to make it tax deductible. The situation we have reached is: we would become a subsidiary of Rainbow Missions. In that way, we would be able to use their bank account for the donations we get, and it would be tax deductible. By the end of the week, it will be confirmed if we are part of RM.
• Pamphlets are currently being made and so we should hopefully have something by the end of the week that we can give out to people interested in helping us. 
• Trip Logistics:
• Currently the plan is to be in Sichuan from January 1-7, 2010. Those dates are still pending. From early December to December 31st, RM will be sending their own volunteers to Sichuan, so we are trying to not overlap with their dates. 
• The goal of the mission is still to raise money for the school in Sichuan. Politics have currently halted the construction of the building, and there is a call for more money. Building the entire school ourselves would cost us a total of 100,000 RMB. 
• Fund Raisers:
• We need to start planning fund raising events, because other organizations can help us with the fund raising by getting the word out, or giving us a space to work with and whatever little they can give us from their budgets. However, we need to come up with the events ourselves.
• Currently, there is a possibility that our first event will take place next Wednesday! Amy has offered a bake sale to be done in conjunction with another organization, but it has yet to be confirmed. Watch out for further updates on that end!

Please check our minutes for today's meeting for any further details! If you are not yet on our listserv, just email "listserv" to nyusrm@gmail.com and we will add you!

Until then!

SRM Pamphlet

As you all know, the best way to convince people to come on board (especially clubs and organizations) is to have a pamphlet/leaflet/brochure that can inform others of what we are, what we did, and what we plan to do. It's a great way to make ourselves be more professional.

But the pamphlet cannot make itself. Therefore, if anyone is interested in helping out and contributing and making this pamphlet, please let us know! We need designers and writers now so that we can make this and give it out as quickly as possible.

Email nyusrm@gmail.com if interested in helping.

More will probably be discussed at the meeting tonight.

Reminder

*IMPORTANT UPDATE!*

The meeting time has been pushed back, and it will now be from 6-8 PM. It will be at Bobst Library LL2-08 on Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

Success!

*I take every small event as a success so...*

Tonight was the Mid-Autumn Festival. We had a mini-booth set up while students played casino games all night and performers went on stage. Even our very own Lucy Liu performed "Knock You Down" by Keri Hilson. *snaps for Lucy!*

We showed our Sichuan video - the 15 minute trailer we showed at Shanghai Night - on a computer and put it on a loop. We also managed to add 8 more people to our listserv, all of whom were interested in helping us in one way or another.

Kevin managed to talk to all of the presidents of the Asian clubs there, so we managed to get the word out even more! Exciting stuff people.

In addition, our cause will most likely be the one that CSS will have a benefit concert for. We are going to have to sell something - so ideas are welcome! Right now, we are thinking of selling the red bands. We'll sell them at $3 each (for example) and part of the proceeds will go to the fund. This is going to be one of our events where we are going to need a big strong presence.

Oh, and we had a donation tin can set up. William Wang (from our Shanghai group) kindly donated 52 cents to our cause. *scream a silent cheer!* (We all have to start from somewhere, right?)

That's all for now, folks!

Mid Autumn Festival

This Saturday is going to be the Mid Autumn Festival. NYU's Asian Clubs - CSS, CMS, ACU, HKSA, TASS, and VCU - are hosting an event tonight at the Kimmel Center, 4th floor E&L Auditorium, from 7-10 PM

NYU SRM will be having a booth set up at the event tonight! Come join us to support our cause!