Attendance - FS
(till 4.40), TH from 4.30, RZ, LZ, AN
Time - 4.00 pm -
6.00 pm
AGENDA
AGENDA
• Review from last Admin Meeting
minutes
• KMV - Rushmi Wickramagamage is going to
help - what can we assign
• Proposal Arrangement for Ranmalee
Bandara - next steps - see AQI Trello Board
• Any special issues for Ramazan
STANDING ISSUES
- Status of OCW
- Attendance Review
- Weekly Reporting
- Staff payment arrangements for April
- Office Status - Digana and Akurana
- Envisioning Reopening
STAFFING
•
decisions that need to be made
•
departures and recruitment
Ø Admin re-organization - TH - Feedback
on Questions about Review of Admin functions for Brainstorming
Ø Financial re-organization -
RZ - Feedback on Questions about Review of Admin functions for
Brainstorming
Ø Online Re-Org Meetings - Do we need to
do this? If so who shall lead this?
STAFFING - INTERPRETING POLICY ON RECRUITING EMPLOYED PERSONS AND PG
STUDENTS
•
Different Options for Assigning Work on the Weekly Climate Reports were
considered. RZ wanted to be careful about disturbing what Ain’t broke. The
trouble is that the opportunity is not leading to growth or science nor is
there a career future there. Maybe there are unemployed persons who may benefit
from the 10K we pay per month. We have to consider capable folks we are not able
to keep due to the budget and other reasons in the tough times to come.
•
Anyway, prospective candidates shall be tried out for producing the
climate report. Good to have a backup
•
We need a person whose work we can rely on and who is willing to go the
extra distance.
•
LZ wanted to know the policy on engaging otherwise employed staff or
post-graduate students for such assignments?
•
So as to pick the candidates.
•
We seem to permit the first. Hiring Employed staff (RL) does not seem an
issue that is contradicts our Staff HB. Although one could argue. Perhaps it is
because it is a limited weekly assignment for a task that we cannot find an
internal person.
•
Perhaps it a person with specialized skills who saves us funds overall.
Or a person who brings in funds (like our PI’s), Think we need
to accommodate such exception for such engagement case by case. What
about the post-graduate student - not sure why the case of a post-graduate
student is different if they have specialized skills or aptitudes. We are
not engaging PG students who do part-time Masters in FECT except for limited
engagements.
REGARDING THE OFFICE OPENING
•
Digana Office to Reopen for all staff: PT has visited the office twice -
he reports not problems. As long as the curfew is lifted, we decided to
facilitate the staff to work following the safety procedures provided by the
Ministry of Health in the Office. That office can accommodate a maximum of 5
including the office inside. Staff may have to each lunch two at a time and
have some facilities for wiping down surfaces, door knobs, bathrooms. There is
a risk in bringing external folks to clean the place. Mgmt. felt that our staff
shall help in this. Existing staff at Digana - CG, TH, DV - to be given
priority - We could have rotating attendance by 2 other staff members we may
need to help with their transport within limits.
•
The Akurana office opening is not in the horizon yet. And when done has to be gradual.
The Akurana office opening is not in the horizon yet. And when done has to be gradual.
• Due presence of elderly person
downstairs, we shall have to take additional safeguards when it is opened - it
has to be partitioned to areas where staff habituate. We shall need the
office staff numbers to be brought down from 8-9 to around 5 for the benefit of
all.
• We may give the opportunity for work
from home to staff members who are more effective and those who are most
exposed from travel.
•
(An email to be sent to the staff on this).
RE-ORGANIZATION & RECRUITMENT
•
Admin re-organization - TH presented a preliminary list of Admin
Activities - he was requested to provide a list of immediate tasks, and to
circulate the list of tasks to be done. After that he should work on how
to transform the work towards OCW - and how to do this step by step.
Recruitment for Admin support from NAITA, SLIATE and other VTI to be
prioritized. Current Assessment by TH - A person for hardware support who can
do other tasks online is needed.
•
Financial re-organization - LZ suggested RZ review the organizational
structure - e.g. Accounts, Auditing, Purchasing - to Add Attendance to this
from Admin, to break up Accounting into a few functions - such as book-keeping,
petty cash, payroll - suggest what are the immediate tasks, what are the
opportunities and challenges to move functions to online work.
• Even with a need to reduce staff, we
should not hesitate to hire staff such as NAITA trainees who can benefit from
exposure to help Finance and Admin work - and that is the way that we can
manage better with higher-end staff.
• RZ had started to work on Financial
Projections for next 2-3 years based on current grants and staff and other
expenses and needs. She needs to develop a few scenarios to enable current
funds to last for 2-3 years. Core staffs have to be sustained longer. LZ
requested her to do this quickly without trying to make this excessively
accurate - if the accuracy is 30% or of the order of lakhs, that is as precise
as it needs to be because there are big changes that can come up.
• Online Re-Org Meetings - All agreed
to proceed with zoom meetings - initial they can be done by THEME - and we can
have an ALL-STAFF meeting. The Mgt Team members -RZ, TH and AN- to take
charge check on the next step by next week. TH (?) suggested the team meetings
can be done before the meeting.
• Any special issues for Ramazan:
Nothing came up
• LZ referred to the Email asking
whether ? Is there a CRISIS and DO WE NEED TO MANAGE FOR IT?”
• He said there was no response to the
emails - there was no response at the management meeting - maybe because the
meeting went for long
