Management meeting

Participants -  LZ, TH, RZ, UA

Time - 1.50 pm -  3.10 pm

Discussed the transition of UA tasks, Recruitment ( Legal, IT, writer), IT staffing, purchases & proposal submission etc... 

Follow-ups from the discussion

1. Transition of UA tasks

• Websites - assemble the documents in paper format - discuss with TH, LZ 06.06.2023 morning
• Instrumentation & G-Drive folder - TH please check
• In both of these, what we need is a way to preserve the history of purchases, repairs, etc - since we discussed these before - pl point to online, or paper files for these.

2. Recruitment

• Check the applicants received & prepare  a list to interview
• Legal - Send vacancy letters to the BCAS & Open University
• Check any other places
• Don't make the list in the comprehensive format you used to - we can never keep up now.
• Dr phone interviewed a couple of people - and can show who it is
• Check with CA as to her status 
• Dr. said don't go for degree holders, we can make an exception for those looking for internships - there are a couple of SLIIT applicants

3. Purchase

•  Rank the TH sent purchase list as the necessity
•  Prepare the list of infrastructure costs ( CCTV, Mason work, Fixing the solar panel, etc...
•  For printer cartridges - Check the cartridges refill shop in thelumbugahawatta
•  Fix the dot matrix printer - check with Weerakoon
• Infrastructure-related planning is needed - TH and I should work on that today AM. 
• Finance projections are needed as well for the coming week and the next 3 months.

4. proposal submission

     - Check the before submitted on Pinga Oya ( send from TH - Disaster Services)

5. LZ personal tasks need to finish before going

• Seylan Bank matters
• Key Lock
• Power of Attorney
• Dr need to do the paperwork for transferring funds back to US in July for TCG.
• We need to ask about proxies as well - if so we can add a proxy as well before I go.

Hires / Staff / Infrastructure / Seylan Bank

 Hires 

I went through the list of applicants and talked to some of those who I found interesting. 

Asked three of them to come for interviews tomorrow at 11 AM and 3PM for internships. Kavindi from Kudugala and Asra from Udatalawinna 

Talked to few more whom I asked to send transcripts. Ahshan from Piimatalawa and Sriyani - there are a few more contact. 

We are in a bind - trying not to contain our expenditures but there are a few things to get done - dont want to burden the more senior staff with minor tasks - so we can look for interns - there are some folks who have graduated but dont have jobs close by - so they may come. 

Staff

SJ is willing to work from Trinco - but we have to give a portfolio for her. 

Infrastructure 

Stopping the water coming into the house during Rain. 

Seylan Bank

Need to get the account set up this week. 

Mangement Update

 Some comments below on topics from last week.

New:

Staff with Problems

Seems Farween, Navindu and Shirin are not meeting our expectations - we need to reduce problems.

Accounts Hire

We had interviewed a few of the accounts applicants and there are more to come. The SLIATE folks have a chance of staying longer than the University folks. SLIATE exams end on 22nd.

Sachini D.. who interviewed here, called me and she is desperate for a place for her training for Rajarata Univ in Accounts -  Problem was that she may not stay afterwards.  willing to work without pay - RZ lets discuss.

Appointment Letters

Need to finish these off.

Kudugala Encroachment

Wijetunga whose family oversees the paddy field called to say that the family there had started to encroach again after removing some of the concrete posts that we had planted.

This is about 5th time. 

That family also stopped us from planting the survey posts about 2 years ago. 

Hilmy and I own this and the shops next to Dialog.

We have to visit and then file a complaint to the police - this week.

Varakamura Encroachment

Faliq who is the neighbour seems to be encroaching on the access road and that prevents taking the vehicle into the property. Farook is quite frustrated and wanted me to come - tried to go the last 3 days without being able to due to

groggy state. Need to do this.

103,105 Matale Road

We need to get a complaint into the Police.

Running out of time on this.

Water Channel/ Drain to our property

While we have dealt with the Akurana PS complaint.

I am not too confident that our mason did the job properly - they seem to take instructions from those who intend ill.

Pl pay attention.

Management Update

STAFF

- Farween tried to fast-track her internship - so that she can join her husband - and as a result is taking excessive liberties and not doing her course or internship well - she has sent profuse apologies - she is not available for a bit and we may treat her future accordingly. 

- Shirin is also another one to assume an obligation on our part without fulfilling her end - now for about the 6th time, she failed to show up after promising to come. 

(Once again Hairu's axiom about why he and I should not hire Muslim female employees is proving right.) 

- Navindu needs attention - in terms of outputs, behavior and whether he can fulfill the intended role for which we got him - night shift

security person

- night shift security person Anura did not turn up the last two nights - I told him to fix his cough before coming - he also needs to stop sleeping as much during his shift - in any case, he is unhappy with his pay and uniform and wants to quit end of the month. Major General Malporu provides security for maysun studio and sithy gems - those guys are smartly dressed - our guy has been a mason in the past - and does not have the threat awareness that those in the Army have - or the discipline with uniform and being on duty. 

- The person that the postman brought-  Nandasena came by on Sunday and says he shall come to stay after telling his current employer - he was offline for some days - has had a cataract operation done. We need to fix up the laundry room - boarded door to be removed - keys found and need to put a bolt on the inside door coming to the house.

Follow up on Police Visit

- install cameras as planned

- send update to PS

- maybe we can visit their Surveyor Sandhya

Follow up on Flow Level Work

- Eng. JM Samoon tried to get us access to install the flow level instrument at Rahummanniya - it was put to the board and it seems that they had put it to a committee - and that committee insists we consult with ACJU head Shiyam Moulavi as the ACJU is leading the flood efforts. We shall not go that route - don't want to be beholden and our instrument and work should not be considered a part of flood mitigation but just research - so shall try to get a locale privately and install it at the Dunuwilla junction to start within the mosque there.

BTW NA we have some follow-up to the MASL letter - contact Udayanga to see whether that approval was given by D/HAOM

TH - Imesh said he can get us an account to access his online data portal.

Personal - Dentist and follow-up.

Think my dentist was careless last night with extra stuff from my temporary filling and am not able to sleep due to an ache around his temporary fillings. He recommended consulting Dr. Duminda Yasaratne to do a sleep study. Online was a stretch and the CCC center near Wembley said he only comes Sunday - so after trying to get through remotely, went to Asiri and booked for today - need to go there at 4pm. I have number 12 - and the waiting time could be 30 minutes or 120 minutes depending on who else turns up of 1-11 - did not pay Asiri yet. Since I am a "Dr" per my referral from my dentist - I got 10% off at Asiri!

Since I am going to Peradeniya road.

FS - pl check whether I can visit Seylan between 3.30-.4.30 today.

RZ - don't think the MV Accounts are ready yet for sending to a local auditor? Lets review.

I should be able to give you a ride.

IKI proposal

German proposal - IKI - lk orgs eligible - we need to show 60 Euro budgets for the last 3 years - at least for some years. It can be consolidated with other orgs. Proposal was due in 3 weeks.

Management Update

 Recruitment

I did some interviews with the geography graduates - looking for those who can help take our publications forward - but they tend to be like advice sessions - as quality is not well held up by that department. One of them - Senarathne  - was good - so we may check her out. 

Yoosuf Razi is a relative - I don't know him that well as I don't know the young people in the family but know his mother - but given the problem we have with sudden departures and his abilities in English and Physics and fact that he can walk to the office.  After a lot of thought, I thought we have to compromise. When we took the 2nd twin two years back, we sent him to Digana - that sort of thing is not feasible anymore. taking Akurana folks is also risky - we have learned.

I have advised Yoosuf about not behaving like a relative or like a Akurana guy  - he is a bit of a geek and very gentle  - so think we can manage. Let me know your feedback - I can also ask if he works out of his place so that there are no issues.  

Departures without Notice

The manner in which Asela has given notice and the fact that I did not get any indication of his applying elsewhere or discontent here - is something that you want to reflect on?

He basically used us - and the value of his work would have come out in the next months because it was mostly training and also the work on the App. We cannot use the latter in any case.

What happened there - there is more to this but what is clear

- he thinks it is the norm after KW and ZA left

- the office did not have senior staff attendance for reasons which are mostly legit - but should be avoided.

- supervision of him may have been too distributed.

When people leave - others tend to think that they do not pay a price for leaving early -

we don't have very ethical or moral staff members sadly - and that is really ugly that so early they

have not gratitude or consideration for the damage they do.

The tune they sing is

- forced to do so due to external reasons - usually false

- they will finish the tasks and support FECT after they leave - never happens.

Do we have a full list of those who left lately - of course some did terrible things

- Shifna,

- Janan

- Mahasen

- Chayana

We need to maintain a black list.

In the case of those who leave without consultation and break their contract

- we shall not issue any letter to them

- we shall let the institution of the Internships know immediately - and we shall not certify

any work they have done

- we shall insist that they pay the penalty of one month of salary - in the case of AR - we shall not pay his last month.

In the case of AR - let him leave first before we follow up on this or let him know of the above - we need to take over his email account and archive first. Don't try to get him to stay.

Management Updates

 Did Lack of Follow-up on Web Tasks Undermine our Proposals?

There is a  likelihood that we got some of our proposals this year refused to

AusAid - 2

Asia Foundation

US org 

US Embassy - AEIF

one more to the Maldives

because despite all the work going to the deadline - we took off our focus thereafter to

get our websites consistent, especially with

Staff in the proposals did not match with those in the proposals sent from

DS, TCG 

Our cleanair.lk is broken in front - huge holes. 

There could be other reasons as well -

but this work was so easy to do - and there have been failures on

my part, IT supervisors part, proposal coordinators part.

 

Staff is not consulting with the TB and TPPI is being done just to get its ticket off rather than solving problems.

AM is not able to maintain her own cards - she is fanciful in terms of assigning people work. TH you need to take over. We have to get AM and UA back to technical work. We shall have to sacrifice the SM work which is all that they are doing.

Fixing the Problem

It is clear to see who the problem cases are just seeing who are not reporting - if they report properly, it shall give us a chance to help them with prioritization and understanding what is needed.

1. Learning Problems

There are others who have learning problems or just problems in applying their intelligence

Those who are not able to read and understand emails and our guidance material.

We have been careful of taking in those who have the language skills - but it is a question of

2.  Technical Inaptitude 

UA says he does not know how to filter the cards on the TB after trying - AM had done it properly.

This is a poor reflection on our IT staff.

There are staff members who are not trying to learn.

3. Indiscipline and Pretense

We may be having some bad eggs as well.

 

Proposals and Sustainability of FECT

As you know if we don't get proposals funded this year, despite 5-6 submissions.

Our organization is not sustainable,   at this scale. So we cannot dawdle. Else this boat shall take water.

We have to start with corrections including strict advice, careful checking.

We also have to not extend the staff members who are not doing their work and to give them time to find alternatives or give them a consultancy if they can do some part of their assignment.

 

Until we get our house in order - we may need to be careful about investing in further proposals.

Re: Few Management Updates

 There is at least one more email chain for management updates - but it seems that this is not updated since February. 

FS - do we have these updates on the blog.

https://fectmgmt.blogspot.com/

Even content on this chain is not included

Can you scavenge the emails since this was updated and you can post?

Key Issues

Reporting

Has been falling apart for too many - my request to take on weekly TB filtering was ignored in April and subsequently. 

As Supervisors, people are going to take you as an example. It is damaging if you do not follow the rules.

As for the folks who are repeate6-monthly falling short, we have to ask where the supervision is falling short as well. We can improve that but we may have to have some corrective action.

When we penalize staff, there have been negative reactions before. Thus preference is to

part with folks. We have to treat them as adults.

FS - it's time to put out the 6-month Report Format for Jan to Jun - for all but the Interns

TPPI reporting and TB maintenance 

is falling short - it does not reflect our urgent and important needs and the staff are not consulting or representing work.

There are four  clusters

Admin

IT 

Outreach

Research

All of these are falling short - in the TB's and monthly reports. 

Staff

We are quite short with recent departures

ZI, KW, SV

In terms of taking responsibility,

I don't see ZA, UA stepping up when given the opportunity. AM is good at times and not attentive at other times. Key tasks in Web such as fect.lk and fect.mv have not been touched.

ZA - TH last month you had wanted to wait for improvement - As I see it, he is good to go and set up instruments - so we can put him back on that track. I can talk to him after you let me know.

HH and PR seem to have the potential to help administer. 

We shall try out PR and HH to manage some of the TPPI.

To manage  publications,

Given two week WFH, People working for the govt such as

CG and SV may be available to complete our tasks - so we can use them for the pubs work 

Hiring

There is a lot to do - for IT - we can use some Interns - we may have a couple of NIBM interns to check out - if not the NIBM interns look strong - and some may be willing to start earlier than the end of August. 

We do need to hire the

Legal Officer -

Writer

We can include these in the work plans for HR and the respective TB.

Maldives

With SL as is, MV is an opportunity for work going forward. 

We can do a launch there - on the 15th, a new website, maybe a new magazine, DL and a publication by September.

NA has started on the MV SWOT - needs to be cleaned.

She has stated that there is a tone done there so it is an opportunity.

Pl give feedback.

Infrastructure

My requests in the email are going into thin air - e.g - nobody responded about the power switch, power supply,

ZA is not trying to catch up on ZI or taking advantage of him.

Purchases

ZA'sit's support for research for purchases has been perfunctory - its not research he gives but

a final recommendation.