Meeting 8th September

General Body meeting

Present: 30 women from 5 enterprises, Nadukuppam farm and forest

Also: Nikki, Parvati, Lourdes, Joss, Sneh, Arul and VanithaLocation: Nadukuppam Forest Training center

On 8th September 2016, as part of the offfical beginning from the Keystone Grant, we conducted a daylong workshop with 38 women from the 5 enterprises as well as the women working in the forest in Nadukuppam. This meeting was facilitated by Snehalatha, Lourdes and ParvathyNagaraj.

Lourdes opened the meeting with a series of body awareness and mindfulness exercises. This was followed by an exercise where each of the participants, including the facilitators stood in the middle of the circle announcing their names,their place, their work and one thing they liked personally. Such exercises also continued across the day, in between the discussions about the Federation.

Tension releasing exercises

The meeting started in seriousness where the women were introduced to the ideas of a Federation and the hub. Some of the women were already aware, having been in workshops conducted previously in the last few weeks. Others expressed confusion and fears.

Group discussion

To enable the women to be able to speak freely and voice their thoughts, the group split into 3 smaller groups, Amirtha/Meera, the forest and nursery, and the two Spirulina enterprises.

Here they were asked to answer three questions:

1. What benefits are there informing the hub?2. What could they each contribute to the hub?3. Do they see the potential for other products/enterprises that could be

started?

Discussing for half an hour, the groups broke up for lunch.

Working together in smaller groups

After lunch, the answers were discussed.

Common themes emerged for each of the questions:

Question 1:- Unity- Sharing of troubles and helping each other- Strength in the collective- Healthy completion without division through jealousy- Applying for loans together in times of need

Question 2:- We can help the other groups in the hub – through advice, man power ,

skills sharing and money when needed- To help in marketing

Question 3:

- Herbal gardens- Veg and flower farms- Seed selling- Herbal teas- Rope tying- Herbal food hotel- Organic farming- Palm Jaggery- Tapioca flour- Spirulina snacks- Idli hotel- Morninga powder- Milk value added products- Cattle keeping

The meeting ended with another exercise facilitiated by Lourdes and a discussion of training needs for the women.

Trust exercise

Some of the needs expressed were- exposure trips, auroville visits- starting up new enterprises- spirulina value additions- advanced skills in their enterprises- communication and leadership skills- organic agriculture- management- advocacy- team building (TOP PRIORITY)- literacy for a few members-

Also observed in the meeting a lot of unspoken tension and fears, concerns about finances and sharing of the common space.

The meeting concluded with the date fixed for the next executive/management committee meeting for the 24th of September. Saturdays were decided to the best days to host the trainings.