What this app does

This is the internal monthly newsletter platform for I was a Sari and partner organisations. Each month, departments submit a short update about their work. The app stitches those updates together into a printable newsletter for the leadership and external audiences.

The four organisations

• 2nd Innings Handicrafts Pvt Ltd (2IH) — the main production unit. Eleven departments each submit independently: Design, HR, Logistics, Marketing & E-commerce, Production, Sales, 2nd Innings International (2II), Finance, Procurement, Head Office, Others.
• Karmana Trust — partner unit. One submission per month, no departments.
• Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT) — partner unit. One submission per month.
• Udgam — partner unit. One submission per month.

Monthly cycle

1. Each department or organisation submits its monthly update through the form.
2. Editors review the submissions list and edit any entry if needed.
3. An AI summary is generated per organisation. For 2IH, eight per-department summaries are produced first, then merged into a combined two-page newsletter.
4. Editors can rewrite the AI text inline, then download the final PDF newsletter.

Filing a monthly update

This is the entry point for any department or partner unit. The form captures one structured update per organisation per month.

Steps

1. Pick organisation tab at the top of the form (2nd Innings Handicrafts, Karmana, ACT, or Udgam).
2. Enter your name, email, and the month the update covers. Email is required to identify your entry later.
3. 2IH only: select your department from the chips (Design, HR, Logistics, Marketing & E-commerce, Production, Sales, 2II, Finance). Other organisations skip this step.
4. Fill the eight questions: most important update of the month, photos, people changes, operational improvements, new tools or training, sustainability milestones, social or community updates, and any extra remarks. Each text field accepts up to 5,000 characters.
5. Upload photos. 2IH: one photo per department (eight departments give eight photos for the newsletter). Other organisations: up to four photos. Each image must be under 5 MB.
6. Click Save. A green confirmation appears when the entry is recorded.

Editing and resubmitting

• You can submit again for the same organisation, department, and month. The latest submission is the one used for the newsletter; older entries are preserved in the submissions list for reference.
• To edit your own submission, open it from View Submissions and click Edit. You may be asked for the admin password (set by the project owner).

Generating, editing, and downloading the newsletter

This is where the AI takes the raw submissions and turns them into a polished newsletter, and where editors get the final say before the PDF goes out.

Choose what to show

• Use the Month selector to pick the reporting month.
• Use the Organisation filter to view all four organisations or just one.
• For 2IH you can also filter by department to inspect a single department’s submissions.

Generate AI summary

1. Each organisation card has a Regenerate AI button. Click it to produce or refresh the AI summary.
2. An optional instruction box appears. You can leave it blank for a default rewrite, or add directives such as “emphasise export wins” or “avoid the word impactful.”
3. For 2IH, the system writes eight per-department summaries first, then merges them into a two-page combined newsletter. For other organisations, one single-page newsletter is produced directly.
4. The yellow Summary out of date badge appears whenever a department has submitted after the last AI run; click Regenerate to refresh.

Edit the AI text inline

• Click Edit next to Regenerate. A modal opens with one textarea per field (key highlight, people, operations, tools, sustainability, social and community, quick note).
• Character counters keep each field within the page’s safe length (about 650 for 2IH, 300 for the other organisations).
• Save changes — they immediately update both the on-screen newsletter and the PDF output.

Download PDF

Click Download PDF at the top of the page. Page count depends on which organisations are included: 2IH always prints two pages, every other organisation prints one. Photos are pulled from the actual submissions.

Working within the free Gemini quota

The AI summaries are produced by Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash on the free tier. Limits reset every day at 12:30 PM IST (midnight US Pacific).

Daily limits

• 250 API requests per day.
• 1,000,000 tokens per day in total.

What each action costs

• One 2IH full regeneration uses about 9 requests (one per department plus the combined merge) and roughly 27,000 tokens.
• A regeneration for any other organisation uses about 1 request and 2,500 tokens.
• Editing text by hand uses zero Gemini quota.

The usage panel

The floating panel in the top right of the Monthly Summary page shows today’s requests, tokens, how many of each are left, and a plain-language estimate of how many newsletters you can still generate.

Common problems