NOTICE: As of 7/11/2008 - this content is currently outdated and is being updated to reflect the status of v1.1.

• 1 Overview
• 2 General Features of Meetings
• 3 Out of Scope for Version 1.0

Overview

Meetings are an important function for many MFI. MFIs that work under the group lending model (ie, not a teller model) conduct meetings regularly for their centers and groups. These meetings are held to fulfill one or more of the following objectives:

* Note:  1.1 will have changes to the meeting requirements to provide more flexibility.  See the Product Roadmap for more information 

• Provide an interaction platform for the LOs and the clients (both current and potential).
• Solve queries and doubts of the clients.
• Disburse loans, collect repayments for loans disbursed, and collect deposits for savings accounts.
• Provide training or serve as platform to set training schedules with relevant groups, clients, etc.

General Features of Meetings

• Clients can only have a single meeting schedule at any given point of time. However, the data model should support multiple meetings per client, group, or center.
• Client inherits the meeting schedule from the group and the group in turn inherits the meeting schedule from the center (if center hierarchy exists). Meeting time is mandatory for any client/group/center to be active. If meeting time is changed at a higher level (i.e., at center), it percolates to the lower levels (i.e., groups and individuals).
• If not part of a group, clients can have individual meeting schedules.
• If a client does not have a meeting time, the clients do not figure in the collection sheet. Currently, however, all clients, regardless of whether/not they belong to a group, must have a meeting assigned to them. We want to change this.
• Loan repayment time has to be divisible by the meeting time. If the loan repayment frequency is different from the frequency of meetings, then client or group cannot apply for that loan.
• Impact of holiday: If MFI declares a holiday and a meeting is scheduled for that day, the meeting can be pushed to either “Next working day” or “Next meeting” as configured by the HO.
• When a meeting schedule is specified for a client, group, or center, following information is captured by the scheduler:
• Frequency of meeting: weekly and monthly; Every X weeks/months (default is one day) has to be specified.
• Frequency of meeting: Monthly (Day X of every Y month(s) or the first/second/third/fourth/last day/weekday/Monday/Sunday of every Y month(s)).
• Meeting location
• Changing a meeting: Meetings can only be defined or changed at the highest level, i.e., center (if it exists), group if the client is a group member, and at the individual level only if the client does not belong to a group.
• If “Definition of a week” is modified and more days are included in the working week, existing meeting schedules and repayment schedules are not affected or recalculated.
• Once created, meetings for clients, groups, and centers can change (irrespective of the state of loan accounts) in the following way only:
• Weeks: only the day of the week can change; number of weeks cannot be changed
• Months: day number and the day of the week can be changed; number of months cannot be changed. For example, first Monday of every one month can be changed to third Tuesday of every one month. Day 2 of every five months can be changed to day 7 of every five months (Only the bolded entries can be modified)
• If meeting schedule is changed, repayment dates of existing loan accounts are updated but repayment amounts will not be updated.
• General rule to handle non-working days in the week: Non-working days should not be considered when meetings or repayments are scheduled. Therefore, the scheduler should not allow users to schedule meetings on non-working days.
• Meetings cannot be scheduled on a holiday. However, these days needs to be counted, for calculation purposes.
• General rule to handle holidays: In case repayment or meeting falls on a holiday, it should be shifted to “Next working day” or “Next meeting/repayment day” as per HO configuration (could be “same day” as well). This rule applies to all the holidays declared by the HO and other offices.

Out of Scope for Version 1.0

• Validate for clashes in a LO’s meetings. In version 1.0, there is no intelligence to check if a loan officer has booked multiple meetings on the same day and time.
• Cancellation of a meeting. But the data model should support this.
• Deleting or ending meeting. (Meeting deletion or Termination)