Management Updates

 Disbursements

With me being delayed, it won't be until Monday that I can sort this out - maybe it shall be Tuesday before I am fit to go to Digana BoC. 

Considering that it is one week late, and some staff may have issues, 

Mrs SMZ says that she may be able to loan some money to pay for half of the payroll. 

So RZ shall have to see whether she can get the funds out of PB based on her instructions. 

If any of you have urgent financial needs before next week - let RZ or me know - we shall see what can be done. 

If not,  if the funds are obtained, RZ can start with disbursing for the Interns as more of them can be covered. 

Purchases and Lugging things and deciding what to leave behind 

I have a mountain of things now that are not going to fit into the two bags I have. My bags shall be at the max allowed weight limit. 

The extra bag is $200 - it is better to make another trip - and get 2 bags. 

I shall also look into shipping options - there is a collector here but the ship sails in November and cargo arrives in Watapuluwa in early Dec. 

So we may have to choose - what to leave behind. 

If I had more space I can bring things such as milk powder - am told there is no milk powder in the office. 

you can see the purchase lists. 

Today, I had the delivery of a portable power supply - big version of the item from Jakery we have  - this is heavy - but it plugs to a solar panel which I also go  - but may be what we end up needing. 

I bought a Celeron PC on a whim - since it was $200 - and good for typing. 

SLAAS 

Finally two of our abstracts was rejected - but one of these had been submitted maybe by SG to Section E2  - same was accepted by Section A. The Material balance one was not accepted also by Section E2. 

The same of similar has been accepted by the AGU for the covid - but for AGU we mashed up the 3 XP abstracts. This is a highlight as I have submitted about a dozen abstracts and none were rejected till now. 

So I wrote to them querying their procedures. This is the kind of waste of time, I cannot resist - but I want to write a paper on why we can get things accepted internationally but not nationally.  Shall forward to the authors. 

Appointment Letters 

have been drafted but the ones I sampled had errors - it was no proof read properly. 

We also need to update our instruction documents - staff handbook - IT and security guidelines to reflect the updates - so that staff can refer to it. 

Applicants 

I was hoping that we have the applicants lined up so that I can onboard them in person - so please do more than just rest on the Sunday Observer - because we know that it is not effective except occasionally. 

We need a strategy for each position - so those whom have been allocated in charge among - need to send a plan to execute in the next days. 

As it is I don't see that in the weekly work plans, worse there are no work plans for some. 

Since the price was under Rs. 4K this time, we went ahead - they spelled fiction as faction - which is of course a completely different meaning and reflects badly on us - specially if we are trying to recruit a writer 

- too many people think that spell correct is all they need. 

We don't need to fill all the roles but at least some. 

As things are there are such big gaps that we cannot write any proposals because of weakness in planning, writing, budgeting, administration and also lack of time for me. 

Colombo Visit 

I have written about this - there needs to be a focus on what are the next steps - to accomplish - and who shall be responsible - for this - please sort this out. 

Nisthar (Misriya's brother) van is a large capacity van and it is better to see the availability for that as we can space our staff on the trip over. 

COP26 

These are usually jamborees that I have never attended - there were 25 before - but since I can make a stop in Glasgow on my way back. 

I am considering going for this because there may be proposal opportunities there along the lines of work we are doing. 

If not going there, I shall go to MV.  In this light, and even if I don't go, we may have to organize the rest of the month for this.