week two
FIRST MEETING
The team looked at the importance of creating a system that would provide a paper record of the meeting, and it was decided that that task should rest with the Group accountant to ensure accurate entering of data. The focus has shifted on facilitating the micro savings venture for the SHG at the same time providing the group accountant traceable, scalable, and easy to understand system to translate it into a records page for the financial institutions.
We had a discussion about different aspects of the project and also created two prototypes to test the workability.
To create a situation similar to the users in the field:
The idea is to make the students use the prototypes with the kind money that they can visually identify and make a decision based on the visual makeup of their name.
We have made the following prototypes so far:
A collection box with each member getting their individual slot to deposit money in during the meetings.
A visual system to mark the slot, hence the person who did not pay, and needs to pay a penalty.
The team is still trying to figure out the details on how to work that detail in the system.
We still need to address the issue of loans within the group and how to visually represent the repayment schedule along with the interest.
The idea of a box seems workable, but we still need to really think about it in terms of storing it, portability, security and is it possible to simplify it further.
And remember, we haven't evaluated these ideas against the cultural background...
Can't wait for it to be Thursday.......
The team looked at the importance of creating a system that would provide a paper record of the meeting, and it was decided that that task should rest with the Group accountant to ensure accurate entering of data. The focus has shifted on facilitating the micro savings venture for the SHG at the same time providing the group accountant traceable, scalable, and easy to understand system to translate it into a records page for the financial institutions.
We had a discussion about different aspects of the project and also created two prototypes to test the workability.
To create a situation similar to the users in the field:
- we have representative currency notes with numbers in Hindi, so the students can visually identify them
- A sample ledger page with the students name written in Hindi.
The idea is to make the students use the prototypes with the kind money that they can visually identify and make a decision based on the visual makeup of their name.
We have made the following prototypes so far:
A collection box with each member getting their individual slot to deposit money in during the meetings.
A visual system to mark the slot, hence the person who did not pay, and needs to pay a penalty.
The team is still trying to figure out the details on how to work that detail in the system.
We still need to address the issue of loans within the group and how to visually represent the repayment schedule along with the interest.
The idea of a box seems workable, but we still need to really think about it in terms of storing it, portability, security and is it possible to simplify it further.
And remember, we haven't evaluated these ideas against the cultural background...
Can't wait for it to be Thursday.......
Second meeting
We had a very productive meeting today, and were joined by Sara Choudhry who has worked with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
The team looked at the positive and negative aspects of different artifacts that are being used at present by SHG. Each one of these objects have some things that work really well and other aspects that do not work so well. Especially when we account for the different levels of literacy of the group accountant Vs the partcipants in the group.
The team looked at the positive and negative aspects of different artifacts that are being used at present by SHG. Each one of these objects have some things that work really well and other aspects that do not work so well. Especially when we account for the different levels of literacy of the group accountant Vs the partcipants in the group.
Account LedgerIt is an essential part of the process as the bank needs it in a standard format to establish the creditworthiness of the SHG.
It is very important to have it filled out accurately by a qualified person. This aspect makes it necessary for the involvement of the group accountant. |
Money boxThis is the one of the proposed solutions for making it easy for the SHG to reduce their costs and potentially making some money in the very first year. It must be noted that the project is aiming at the first year of operation alone. We are trying to explore the options for visual accounting and keeping track of transactions, hence reducing the number of visits by the group accountant.
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next steps
The group feels it is important to retain the physical aspects of the money box but at the same time make it blend in the lives of the members. It is felt that we are moving in the right direction, and further exploration is needed. Another idea that was presented today used a template to turn the process of filling in the details into a step by step process. It also has immense potential and needs to be explored further. It could also be explored in a horizontal manner, where all the transaction details of one member are entered at one time.
