ICTA Submissions & Other Deadlines

 ICTA work 

Think we were Able to sort out problem with drought.lk submission - we have been in touch - but don’t think we got acknowledgement yet as we have for the other two. We were told that the original attachments and mail  did not make it. 

DS was looking into some matters - About Us changing the advisors - he may be adding some translations for drought.lk 

CG was ill in the AM - so incorporating the new inputs paused. 

Translations proceeded - with KW, ZJ, FS and inputs from CC - not heard from MR 

VIDEO 

The recording for 

Disease has been done by TK 

Drought is in progress by ZJ today 

Cleanair - has to be revised for recording by TK 

Social Media 

Work remains  to make the three new portal lists work - lets get a few new folks involved 

While there was good progress with the three sites in the last four days. 

Shortcomings remain on the sites - so shall write that individually for the 3 sites in separate emails. 

Proposal on Dengue Prediction 

Odds are very long - only 1 grant globally 

- but it is on exact work we are doing for dengue 

- so we can try to do without too much disruption.

AN and I went through the RFP later and decided to proceed with this. Deadline is August 21 - 

but if we give a sub-contract to Ramesh - then U of Missouri may need to have documents well before. 

I have also written to Rashed for Marshall Island and Bangladesh and Shaky for Nepal and asked Dr. Kusum whether she knows of any place. 

Need Audit statements for the org - so may have to go with FECT and TCG 

RFP on Bioplastics for SL and MV 

Came across this on a news website 

- this is in the domain of AA work 

- Also Hudha and Mizna may be interested. 

- so 

SATREPS / AMED 

Link in Google calendar is not working to AMED 

https://www.amed.go.jp/en/program/index08.html. 

If we were to pursue SATREPS, now is the time - but seems too big of an effort - as it has to be led by someone in Japan. 

Worth looking at AMED to see whether they have smaller grants. 

FECT - Inc / TCG -Inc 

INS registration has to be done again. Must do next week - for above RFP

TCG registration to be done with GW 

Staffing 

- PE is effectively gone - but we have some closing shop to be done with her. 

- DS is also effectively gone 

- NP has not been in touch whole of this week

Hiring  -  

Priorities established before for positions remain. 

Digana recruiting a priority. 

To add to our priorities hires  - it shall be important to get an IT person who works on Linux 

We may have to seek someone high end if we cannot get the profile we are looking for. 

We decided on an Advt in the Sunday Observer. That was done later by the Admin team. 

My two interviews in person last week did not yield a good match. 

There are two persons who are not sure but we can see. 

There are two SLIATE IT Diploma students who are available in September. 

Administering Recruit Search 

Seems that our tracking system for work under Hiring needs improvement - or getting distracted. 

FS and TH 

 - to keep track of progress with Institutions and Next steps 

 - Other work on Engaging with Institutions - NAITA Matala / Kandy, SLIATE, NIBM/ CoT Aruppola + Hardware place in Kandy - for IT and Hardware  / Potential Reviewers 

 - Effectiiveness of our efforts - outcome mapping is needed for example in relation to Advertisements - and we need people following up. 

Instruments - AWS 

With PE leaving need someone to keep track of aspects in addition to TH 

- CC can do some of PE tasks for now. 

 - went through work on AirVisual Registrations and Access database 

We need someone to keep track of all this in addition to CC and TH  - the hardware /electronic technician 

All Staff Meeting / Lunch 

Next Week Tuesday had been proposed 

Given Proposal Deadline for 21st and carryover of work on ICTA to next week and MC case on the 18th Tuesday 

And the fact that it shall take 2 days to prepare, deliver and recover

- we decided to postpone to next week. 

Transfer 76/2 Electricity Bill 

File on that is still not complete - so thats on the table. 

Banking 

NDB has asked for a letter - we need to follow up. 

Bu letst also try with a better bank. 

Finance 

Pending payments to 5 individuals 

SLAAS 

- was able to clear some confusions - about the evaporation submissions - the AQ submissions to E1 are fine and under review 

- Not heard from the Section C, D and F regards the RS, Dengue and Economy submissions. 

- Memberships to be submitted - coming week. 

Legal 

Need to review and revise the Affidavit on Monday to discuss with Mr. SGS on Tuesday 18th - 

Ask HT whether that date of September 3 works for him. 

RZ: Need to ask Hidaya as to why there is a delay in the Federation Registration as a Trust. 

PEER project on Dengue 

Officially extended till September 2021 

Not to forget 

Data - MR went to Teldeniya alone with elections 

Freedcamp - we have to do a review of how it fared with ICTA 

NWP Visit - needed to relocate AQ instruments and to submit Ethics proposal 

Mubarack Visit Follow up - need to send the addresses and contact lists - am tempted to follow up with some website 

DSC - Write up’s remain to be  done. 

STEM - Bill to be paid to Dhiraagu - ask someone in MV to do this. Need to get feedback on document for STEM - there is a call for proposals on bioplastics for MV 

Dilmah - need to write to them acknowledging funds - also to Dilhan and follow up with PW 

Management Meeting / mgmt

We should do a management meeting at least monthly and analyze how things are going long-range. Lets do this tomorrow after we have got all the weekly plans in and responded to it. 

May need to do by zoom - TH may be in Digana 

FS on leave due to ill health. 

LZ shall have to go to Colombo on Wed or Thursday. 

PE is in Colombo tomorrow and maybe the next day. 

On Jun 5, 2020, at 3:10 PM, lareef zubair <lzfect@gmail.com> wrote:

Minutes and Files 

- had IT meeting for 2+ sessions - reviewed Re-Org/Trello Board 

      - and left DS, TH and CG to finish up. 

We need to close this out - personnel changes is key  - it should inform our work plans. 

- waiting for the IT meeting report - from today 

- IT security document - CG to review and pass to LZ 

Need to finish these - if it is me who is holding this up. 

- Admin meeting got postponed yesterday - need to finish off the Re-Org 

We need to close this out - it seems a undigested still 

Staff Matters 

 - NP plans to come on Sunday 

PE is back - not clear how she shall partition her time. 

NP is engaged in the Legal, and Time Series Analysis - he is picking up. 

MR is on the road 

KW is doing well on metadata but still to pick up more on CDT 

CC is picking up on a few topics and seems contented - wants to continue as her 3 month appointment over. 

DS feels he may be unable to focus on the FECT work given load at ICBT but wants to contribute this month to the ICTA work. Am bit disappointed that I have not recovered all the account yet. 

ZJ is picking up with library work and some personal records in addition to organizing documents - I am not having enough time to keep up with her progress. If we have a social scientist it shall help. 

Most of the staff have appointments to be updated.

We have to think through how to provide new 

 

Recruitment 

 - Clear the priorities are PA / Writer / IT (Hardware +) - lets focus 

No progress with finding the priority folks as above - we are drawing a blank with our advertisements and submissions to institutes and a couple of visits. 

 

Have to give responsibility to individuals for this. 

 

Collaboration Boards 

 - systems for monitoring and updating are not working. 

What is working - what is being updated  and NOT ? 

Re-org 

  - there is a need for clarity when you do this - since you have attended many of these we need to do better 

  - precise documentation / outputs are needed - else the discussions shall go to waste

  - follow up needed

  - Too much time has been taken on IT and Admin work 

We cannot go for too long without doing the Re-Org - for other areas - and overall. 

We should get the communication and publications re-org done. 

We can try to arrange for a date after the submission on the 15th for this. 

Remaining Urgent Tasks

- AQ grant - seeking partnership 

Dropped the ball there. 

- TCG set up in NYC 

Not yet - also pending. 

- NDB bank

Moving very slowly but positive feedback so far - but never know. 

- Gettin 1&1 accounts back 

pending 

- NWP Permissions &Visit AN + TH

Sending documents is pending. 

-  OSF - LZ needs to create on Monday

Pending - shall take it on. 

- DSC submissions pending - FS

ZJ has given draft need to fix that. 

 

- writing up papers for Mickey Glantz - AN coordinating 

Advanced last week - shall try to finish SL draft  tomorrow. 

Digana draft for MV by Tuesday. 

- AQ write up’s pending. 

NCPP social and environmental assessment review document pending. 
In addition, we should write up a paper on COVID and Air Pollution 

- LEGAL 

With NP, I have been working on a work plan for the legal side - we have to dedicate him for this for next two month - there is a lot of built up work there. 

- Trying to see how to manage the 3 different cases we have - CoA / MC, LT, & DC. With the stay order, we can pause the MC and if we prevail in CoA then MC case by the Labour Dept is dismissed. 

LT - the complainant is interminably going on abetted unfortuntely by people in charge. 

- For the DC,  RZ and I have to try to review and fix an affidavit tomorrow, Mufliya is trying to get a postponement on the DC case, if not granted have to go to cmb on Wed to finalize the affidavit and get it translated. 

Some new things Needed. 

WORK REPORTING 

- How is work reporting working out? 

STAFF REVIEW 

- Review of Monthly Progress reporting 

- Staff Progress Review for 6 months 

APPOINTMENTS 

- How to provide appointments for staff - what happens if there is 2nd wave? Structuring reports - learning from problems during the shutdown. 

PEER AMJ submission for July 15. 

- this is due next week - we shall need to work on this. 

FS and AN shall need some help with this - may have to see what others such as 

CC, KW and PE can do. 

ICTA 

- ICTA award submission for July 30 
 - Thinking of submitting disease.lk,  slelect.net and an air quality portal in the different categories. 

- INSTRUMENTATION SUSTAINABILITY 

Marikkar CEO of LTL visited Nachchaduwa Site with our instruments - he is taken up sending me pix of the Instruments. He wants us to do Jaffna and Kerawalpitiya as well on their dime - and Bangladesh is open too. 

Should we pursue this - its good to diversity from science grants - so that our staff have funding beyond the dengue grant ending in one year.  Such instrumentation is an opportunity now. We don’t have funding for AQ work - but have a lead and a big body of work on it and the competencies to interpret it. 

If we are to pursue, it has to be done in a business like fashion - doing things on time. 

Management Meeting

1.     AGENDA 

1.  Recruitment
2. Trello/ OSF/Re-org
3. Instruments
4. Effort Reporting
5. Admin Operational Tasks
6. Banking & Trust
7. DS

 

1.       RECRUITMENT

-          Emailing letters to NAITA/ICBT/ESOFT

-          In person visit – Hand delivery

-          Figure it out who is going to give

-          Add this on What’s app

-           List of referees – Provide it to TH

SOP

-          Develop procedures for admin

-          Management handbook

 

2.         ADMIN OPERATIONAL TASKS

-          How it happen

-          How we know that task is complete or not

-          How much time it take

-          Monitoring as Admin/IT/ Finance/ Management

-          Daily/Weekly/Monthly – Add the duration

 

3.       INSTRUMENTATION

-          Work plan

-          Maintaining & Monitoring the instruments

-          Fixing the instruments – Wednesday

Maldives Online payment - ?

VSO Reporting

Legal – To get signed the affidavit by Sooryarachchi

Management Meeting - 04.06.2020

On Zoom from 10.30 - 11.15 

Attendance 

RZ, CG, AN and FS 

TH on leave. 

Topics 

Staff Guidelines 

  - IT and IT security - what has been done - TH and CG - to report this pm

  - work from home - where are with this - Did TH attend to this?

  - health guidelines for Office - Did RZ complete this? I had provided feedback. 

Review of Attendance 

According to RZ 

- with a few exceptions - the weekly and monthly reports have been submitted 

- Shortcoming 

- Trello Board Task for Weekly submission for review and another one for planning and Monthly submission MUST include a date and also labels. 

 For  - Weekly Review submission it can be Sunday at 6 pm

         -the Planning Submission ishould be 10 AM by each Monday 

         - Monthly submission should be around the 2nd of the next month. 

- we need to ask for calculations of hours / days worked from the staff - if there is discrepancies then RZ can follow up. 

Review of Recruitment 

Sunday Times Advertisement - did not get much attention 

    - it lacks focus and missed most important item for PA / EA / Writer 

Letters to be sent out as per TH yesterday - needs list 

Applicants

All 3 interviews with SUSL and UoM students not giving a good match 

We have to be careful about whom we take 

According to CG - PE may come to office next week. 

Review of Trello Board for FECT Admin Operational Tasks 

RZ says now we have to email the senior staff - not sure we should consult them first. 

 LZ left with questions

 - what is the connection with the SWOT / RE-ORG work ?

 - Are these tasks or just categories ?

 - Why are we organizing by main person who is responsible. ? 

 - how is this Trello Board separate from the Admin board ? 

 - Is this an Admin Board or Management Board ? 

Work in Office versus Work Offline 

 - RZ, FS, CG - think work in office is going better than work at home 

 - AN is ok. But sees lots of distractions when she comes to office - this is sentiment of DS too 

  -  there is a pent-up need for input in a variety of fronts when in office - esp with new staff  - and this may ease a bit - however we have to 

Grant on Air Quality - URGENT 

 - We have not done anything - unlike other grants we have to get partners and support them - so we need to move ASAP to try to get in on a winning consortium - PE has said she would send contacts last week but not yet. 

——————We did not review minutes from Last Monday below ————

Banking 

 - RZ is advancing the USD accounts for the NDB and HNB banks

 - Trust registration being done. 

 - FS working on TCG US registration

NWP PD Health 

 - AN and LZ working on this 

Kurunegala  

 - got postponed 

Anurhadhapura 

 - got done in Nachchaduwa - waiting for BTO + Next tasks 

Re-Org 

 - TH and CG and RZ - to report back on completion for Admin and IT 

File for Mgmt 

 - FS ? 

OSF Storage 

 - LZ yet to do

Collaboration Boards 

 - Not sure of progress 

Management Meeting

Management Meeting 

At Akurana downstairs 

TH, RZ, FS, AN

1.00 - 2.20

Agenda: 

Minutes and Files: 

  - we need a file with the minutes of the management and other meetings - we need documentation. Followup: FS + Admin Team to report back on Available Files

( NOT IN MEETING BUT 

   - we need lower quality paper for note taking - and a collection of one-sided paper 

  - we need the dot-matrix printer to work (Pl add to IT) along with fixing the VOIP phone. )

Staff Matters 

 - Attendance 

- RZ says everything OK with attendance reporting? LZ asked why there are only a few people sending daily reports ? RZ to check and report back.  

 - Recruitment - 

  To keep proper social distancing, we can only add two more persons to Akurana and Digana offices. 

- IT interns from SUSL want webwork - so may not work out. Also bioscience candidate may not be ideal. Given policies on relative hiring - we need to define what is the extent of the relationship. 

- UoM IT grad recruitment is a question - probably shall not work.  

- Our advertisement that was slated for the HitAds - should be checked this week.

 - Reporting 

- We shall request all staff to enter on the Trello Board when they send their daily, weekly and monthly reports

- in the monthly report, we shall ask for total # of daily reports sent and the dates of sending in the weekly reports.  

Office Matters 

    -maintaining a safe office 

- there are several shortcomings identified - particularly wiping commonly handled equipment such as taps, phones, keys - RZ to figure out how to attend to this

- we shall seal of the house portion from the office by moving the bookshelf

- since staff are not reading our guidelines - these matters should be written up and pasted on the walls - RZ to revise the Health Guidelines - pl provide LZ with printout. 

    - If Misriya is not cleaning hidden places 

- then lets either get a new person to do this or stop her from doing other tasks that distracts her such as making tea or sweeping the floor. There is a risk anyway with her coming into the office and staff can make their own tea - also there should be much less dirt with shoes being left downstairs. 

Banking and Regulatory 

 - NDB bank requested VSO certificate to complete bank account that has been sent by RZ 

 - SDA account for TCG can be done once we have registered TCG overseas. This can be done from here. 

 - Trust to be formed this week - lets advance - RZ and LZ - FS provide printout of Trust document and file.

Re-Org 

 - Admin Re-Org to be checked by TH and reported on soon 

- IT Re-org - not clear where things are - TH can check 

- Communication should get started. 

Legal 

 - Dates - Jun 29 - LT, July 30 - DC and Aug 18 - MC

RZ to find out date for Writ from Faisza Mustapha 

We may have to prepare for July 30. 

Instruments 

  - visit Kurunegala to fix the instruments 

  - get permissions from 

  

NWP Permissions 

  - send document to Geethika Amarasinghe as per phone conversations. - AN needs to check

  - PD is away tomorrow 

  - Plan to visit on Wednesday - who is going apart from TH - maybe CG or AN? 

 

Grants - URGENT 

  - Need to circulate to possible applicants for the US State Dept call on AQ for 4 South Asian Countries / get contacts from PE BTO 

 

OSF File Storage

  - set up for Admin, IT, Communication etc. 

Set up OSF - LZ 

Follow up on Trust - LZ -> RZ 

Set up US TCG - LZ and FS 

Grants - FS and AN - 

Collaboration Boards 

   - Frequency of Checking of Trello Boards by Staff and the boards they are responsible for needs to be identified 

   - someone / some system needs to check off on this - see it gets done. 

   - TH to circulate in paper form the the list of Trello Boards (FS can put up in the NB) 

—————————————

After the management meeting - had two meetings and a garage visit. 

- With FS and ZJ on DSC 

They need to finish up a bunch of documents and ship these out - these are the RR translations, the Peraketiya Thero documents  (FS - to pull together maps - whats there is no good, photos) and the the various KJ translations 

- next RR article on legal is pending - and I shall outline these. - hard to make progress without printed versions. 

- with MR, AN and KW on Climate Data Collection 

- MR should spend his time on the road - we have about 20 days of his time - Out of this we should have him on the road for at least 10 days -  but this is the 2nd day he spent in office without ending up with a plan.  

- We don’t seem to have properly updated the inventory  of what is the climate data that we have for the NRMC 

 - Maybe KW can help sort this out. 

Is it necessary for MR to come tomorrow?  Specially with AN being uncertain? I think its best not that he comes till we sort out the data needs. 

 - he can look into the Irrigation Dept / CEB / MASL / NWSDB data. 

Kurunegala Visit on Wednesday 

 - think I shall stay back in Akurana to prepare for the Kurunegala visit 

 - the Ethics Form needs to be checked. 

 - Instruments / Routers need to be taken

 - I have to visit Census Dept and Provincial Environment authority as well - so need to make appointments. 

- Checked LZ car - seems brakes issue sorted - but not the door / window locks. 

- it should go to Kurunegala fine 

DS Request 

- DS requests to work 3 days a week in the office. He is willing to work extra hour at home.  

- he has organized a 3 wheeler to drop and pick him up for Rs. 300 per trip. 

- given his health condition, we shall permit - but he shall have to attend on other days. 

Re - Work Hours, Effort Reporting and Reimbursements

With our usual systems for work reporting not working online, RZ and I have been trying to sort out as best and fairly as we can. We have been pushing to get staff self-reporting their weekly work along with output.

We considered 
- self reported hours worked
- productivity / outputs 
- leave records

These estimates are being made with much more effort than usual - to add to the difficulties as folks were late in reporting, and in couple of cases the hours don’t match with the output and this often went together. She has been trying to be fair by the staff and the organization. In fact, she is still working on it tonight and I am also staying up to help her sort things out.

Being fair to the organization is needed for sustainability which ultimately is good for staff even if they leave as it reflects well for their career. Many organizations are cutting back on payments due to the loss in productivity, reductions in travel and other costs. Since the staff have been trying to cope and it is possible for folks to contribute but we shall reimburse as per usual.  After next month, we shall reconsider based on the situation.

Since reporting is being done on an hourly basis - calculations are on the  work week - for the mercantile, the work week decided by the government is 45 hours a week - we used to give a half day off during the weekend as well but with the proviso that you shall contribute as needed  - see our staff handbook.  You can discuss any concerns or curiosity with RZ and if you have suggestions you can

In terms of productivity there has been problems in terms of people not being able to concentrate on their work
- the need to take care of  those of others around them
- because of distractions in the home set up 
- not setting up the work space adequately 
- shortfalls with the home computers
- due to wifi limits
- inadequate use of collaboration software 
- the lack of files and other materials in the office
- lack of IT skills and tools to function efficiently at home
- the difficulties to coordinate among different staff member s
- lack of concentration due to multi-tasking with other activities

My sense is that productivity has dropped by 20-70% compared to when folks come to work in the offices. But its picking up over the weeks for those who were struggling the most - there is ways to go. It shall be good to know what you think.

There is way more to improve.
We also need awareness as to who is working at any given time - as staff collaboration is undermined with the odd hours. We have to think about the coordination. Its been difficult to get the use of Slack or that folks can login to an Organizational suite when working.

Work Hours, Effort Reporting and Reimbursements

RZ and I have been trying to sort out the staff payments with our usual systems not working. We have been pushing to get staff self-reporting their weekly work along with output.

We considered 
- self reported hours worked
- productivity / outputs 

These estimates are being made with a lot of effort by RZ as folks did not report, or were late in reporting, and in couple of cases the hours don’t match with the output. She has been trying to be fair by the staff and the organization. Being fair to the organization is needed for sustainability which ultimately is good for staff even if they leave.

Although there was a conversation with a few of you regards the fact that many organizations are cutting back on payments due to the loss in productivity, reductions in travel and other costs, multi-tasking by the staff in some cases, and we shall reimburse as per usual.  After June, we shall reconsider based on the situation.

Since reporting is being done on an hourly basis - calculations are on the  work week - for the mercantile sector is 45 hours a week - we used to give a half day off during the weekend but that was not a permanent leave as seen in our staff handbook. 

In terms of productivity

There has been problems in terms of people not being able to concentrate on their work
- because of distractions in the home set up 
- shortfalls with the home computers
- due to  wifi limits we are not doing well enough with collaboration software 
- the need to take care of the personal situation and those of others around them.
- the lack of files and other materials in the office
- lack of IT skills and tools to function efficiently at home
- the difficulties to coordinate among different staff member s
- lack of concentration due to multi-tasking with other activities by staff members

My sense is that productivity has dropped by 20-70% compared to when folks come to work in the offices. But its picking up over the weeks. It shall be good to know what you think.

As I wrote the other day, while the effort reporting is now improving,
half the staff members are not reporting when they start and stop work
So we are having difficulties with coordination.

We have to think about the coordination. Its been difficult to get the use of Slack or that folks can login to an Org suite when working.