Management Update

 With VA departure has come up all of a sudden - I have been immersed in the legal docs

Not sure we can arrange a bit of a send off for them. I had thought of asking you all to organize something tomorrow - maybe in one place

- find out (without any pressure) whether she is able to come again - we can combine with

a send off for NH.

Tomorrow is half a day in the Banks as per the Govt calendar

http://documents.gov.lk/files/cdr/2021/2021_E.pdf

If there were anybody traveling for xmas, good to know in advance - else there are things to finish by tomorrow.

Also pay attention to

http://documents.gov.lk/files/cdr/2022/2022_E.pdf

with the deadline on 15th and 22nd for the two proposal applications to Asia Foundation and Aus Embassy - have to pay attention to the Thai Pongal. 

Given all this - we may just have to keep our shoulders to the wheel.

ps - interviewed Jeewani X? Gunawardene was introduced by Deshani K for the legal position and so far things are good and we may have her come in on Friday / tomorrow.

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. 

Strategic Plan Implications for the Communications Work and the Influencers

 FUTURE TRAJECTOR OF FECT IN NEXT YEARS

1. FECT is seeking in the next years
           -  to focus on our work on the Dengue Project going on till April 30, 2022
           - to consolidate past work for SL and MV - through publications, communication, knowledge management
           - we need to get additional stream of funding than the PEER Dengue Project
           - we need to be at the top of the Data Assimilation and Analysis Work on Env and Climate in SL
           - we need scientific computing skills to be added
           - we have to be ready if big opportunities come to us.
           - we are looking at improving our core research
           - we have to get our basic systems in order - in IT, Admin, Research and the Themes             


OPPORTUNITIES
2. Opportunities that FECT has for funding are
         - for funding in Maldives through project opportunities that may come up through FECT-MV and in particular Hudha and Aslam. 
         - bilateral funding in SL ( while the UK Embassy funding was not helpful, it does not mean that funding though bilateral is closed)
         - funding in the US through new programs - foundations as well some USAID and other programs
         - funding for the components of the CCA proposal

3. Opportunities for FECT to advance non-traditional funding:
        - Through providing Instrumentation Services and Installations
        - Through providing weather and air quality and weather services via Mobile Apps (- with a sponsored model or advertisement based models) 
        - Through some e-commerce options (which we should keep for much later) 

4. Becoming a Publisher and Educational Service Provider
        -  Through becoming a TVEC diploma awarding institute ( - this shall at least get us some discounts and softwares and enable us to register as an educational org.)       
        - Through becoming a Publisher on non-profit books in our field - esp high quality books on Climate Change
        - Through publishing high volume books through other publishers - maybe even externally.


WEAKNESSES

5. Work Planning and  Monitoring Internally
          - in some areas, it is weak enough to Undermine the Organizations Functioning
          - Over the last months, IT, Admin, Research, Communications have recovered.
          - The weak areas are Publishing,
          - The neglected areas are our past projects
          - The Crisis Areas are Financial, FECT-Inc, Legal 

6. Financial Management is Manual
          - Financial work is done by hand - and partly because of that - accounting is slow
          - Backlog in accounts extend to a year
          - ongoing accounts are not visible to the Board
          - and there is a lack of ability to keep track of the financial flow - so there is no financial control and lots of financial risks 
          - as this work cannot be entirely manual during COVID. 
         - Financial Projections are not being presented to guide on whether we can afford to recruit or take on training courses

7. Attempts to have Internal Audits Done is taking so long that it is killing the momentum.
          - much of our processes are not documented
          - work allocation is not clear
          - there is no monitoring of work
          - there is no reallocation of work that is not getting done.

8. Knowledge Retention, Knowledge Management, Risk  of Losing the Knowledge Workers and Poor Transmission of Knowledge
We are an Information and Expertise based organization - and we need improvements - there are ISO standards for this

          - Our systems to organize knowledge has made some progress in terms of TB, OSF, Blogs - but there is lot of weakness
          - We need to improve on our TB, OSF, Blogs and Build our Internal Filing System

9. Digital Information is not organized at all
          - Our Digital Files are very poorly organized - we have talked about this without any progress
          - we have such a crude system of keeping our files organized
           - it just works where each person is storing the files - and then when the person leaves, there is a dump
          - There is some system to take back-ups - but this is with an overloaded persons such as TH in charge.
          (Think that ZI’s next big project is to take this on - maybe in late July) 

THREATS

Threat scenarios have receded except some risks such as banking and covid afflictions.

Principal Threats
     - If COVID does not recede until we can meet in person within a year -
     - Legal Threats have receded but in the worst case, we have to plan to counter it
     - Rule of Law is becoming weak in Sri Lanka - so we should be careful about ambitious plans (so ruled out starting a University) 
     - Financial Management Threats
               - because of banking breakdowns
               - Currency Instability that can come
               - Poor Financial Control

RISK MANAGEMENT

7. HR / Staffing

        - we have to balance the staff levels in keeping with our work needs and also the need to stretch out funds for a long enough period.
        - we should not lose core competencies in Admin, IT and Research
        - we have to manage turnover  - was recent high turnover due to internal issues or external (- I think it was external, what do you think)
        - we should be careful about recruiting in bunches - need to have good diversity.

          - At present, we have
                      - 4 persons who have been around for more than 4 years,
                      - 3 for a 1 year, 
                      - 3 who have been here for 6 months, and
                      - 3-5 who are here for 1-3 months. 
             This is a reasonable distribution - but any departures of those who are here longer-term can take a lot of head-knowledge out.


8. Reducing the Load on Principal Scientist, Lead Researcher and IT Admin

        - Reconfiguration is needed
                - as General Manager Role Played by Principal Scientist is damaging the productivity of the PS and the institutions output and outreach. 
        - Recruiting Personal Aide / Writers / Accounts persons - has been FAILURES over the last few years

Management meeting on 17.05.2021

 Meeting Minutes 

1.15pm - 2.00pm

Participants - LZ, RZ, AN, TH, FS & ZJ

Discussed on staff working on

FS -  Preparing service letters to DS, DV, SS  as they requested

         Working on the staff job description - As commented by Dr - Discussing with RZ

         Fwd: ACTION REQUIRED: System Account Pending Expiration in U.S. Government’s System for Award Management (SAM) - worked with ZJ

          Checking the applicants sent to fectcv & hrtropicalclimate.

         helping to fill the gaps of interns leave - Dr suggested let the intern to fill their leaves own

TH -  Responding to the emails

         Updating the Trello Board (OCW/ Instrumentation - Working & not working ) 

         Went through the IT/Digana / Akurana/ Admin boards - Dr suggested keep track on other  boards as well

         Follow up on FS forwarded CV - Internship for IT

RZ-  Doing the finance tasks

        Updating Audit reports

        Updating the finance TB

        Redoing the hours work in Admin/HR/ Legal

        Prepared the weekly reporting

AN - Review the KW/CK/SG weekly reports

        Data Acquisition - Sri Lanka & Dengue

        Dengue OSF - Checke Akurana Entomology

                                Sri Lanka Entomology

        Pending & next steps

ZJ - Exporting & uploading the PPTS to the g drive

Digana Office

NH - Keep monitoring the relations

         Decided to go to Akurana or WFH 

         Take a medical leave

         Provide a laptop as she want to work  - AN pl check

Disinfect the Digana office - Check with Dr. Kusum

Recruitment

   IT intern - TH need to follow

   Accountant  - Applied  from Matale, Willing to come to Akurana

  Geology - AN interview her & give your feedback

Call for the interviews as the lockdown released

Prepare a google map to provide applicants able to find the place easily. 

Shortcoming to sort out

  - Recognize what is not working, Not getting done, make a work planning

  - Trello Board - What board is need, If not updating the boards what is the alternative

  - Suggesting follow up small meetings - Prepare agenda

      TH ( with the team) - IT & BHC

      FS ( TH, RZ) - Admin, HR & Legal

      FECT Tasks - ZJ with Dr

      AN  ( with the team) - Research

Re-Management Update

 Last week, DD left, and there was a hope to finish off the BHC project but it seems that we are struggling here. 

For DD, there is some follow up that ZJ can take on. 

BHC 

I was hoping that there would be some contributions on the BHC from home - but nothing so far. 

I can send   

Climate story board shortly

Disaster Story board as well. 

But there is a struggle on the work on the 

Disaster Brochure - am struggling to get SG to connect whats in the head and whats in the 

Climate Change Brochure - not started 

I was hoping we could get all the infographics done - but those allocated to each infographic did not respond during The Weeknd so far. 

So with that being the circumstances  and the level of commitment  - we shall have to continue the work in the office - until the government tells otherwise. 

WORK MONITORING 

These are also neglected for a while so we need these to come on as well. 

ADMIN

• - HR
• - LEGAL  
• - IT 
• - INSTRUMENTS 
• - COMMUNICATION 
• - FECT TASKS  
• - DATA 

And the 

PROJECTS

• DENGUE 
• NCPP / EFL 
• BHC 
• CCA 

So we shall have to work on these in the office this week and bring them up to speed. 

Please be ready with the updated progress on these topics and projects 

LZ TO DEPART TO NYC 

I shall depart in 3 weeks - and sooner if there is any sign of being unable to travel. 

HIRES 

As discussion Administration requires better Administration. 

I am quite desperate as to why things are not happening - and so we shall have to break the Staffing guidelines that we use if we cannot get this done. 

We should hire 4 people to help take on the work that I am doing 

- FECT Manager

- a personal aide

- Writer - Science 

- Legal / Social Writer 

There is a need for Admin and Accounts Assistants too. 

PAST MEETING MINUTES 

- I don’t see the last meeting minutes uploaded on the blog for mgmt - or anything before that - seems symptomatic of the lack of follow up. 

The focus on each persons output exclusively rather than on themes and projects - is not helping. 

Management Discussed on 26/04/2021

 Time - 10.30am to 11.50am

Participants - LZ, TH, RZ, AN,ZJ 

Due to the pandemic and having the need to work from home Dr.LZ asked on how to manage and monitor works of staff. The immediate tasks that were  identified are as follows

1. Fix work from home guidelines - RZ, TH, ZJ  to do 

2. Provide a format for reporting daily tasks - RZ, TH, ZJ to do 

3. Monitor work hours of staff in Trello board while working at home and office - FS to check

4. Audit the OCW of staffs by allocating a card for each person in the OCW trello board - RZ to do 

5. Do a proper analysis of local risk of COVID-19 at present - KW and CK to do 

And the other topics that were discussed are 

Internal Audit 

- RZ, TH, to come up with main topics for the Internal audit for the institution and to spend not more than 2 days on it 

FECT Management documentation 

- RZ was able to access the blog, TH, AN and FS to check if they can access and permissions 

HR 

- Departures and transition - TH to check with others if everything is documented by those who left recently. 

Recruitment 

- After discussions it was identified we need to recruit a researcher, writer, programmer(to handle tropicalclimate.org), hardware and a statistician 

- Greeting card could be shared to the FOSID group with a text saying "Vacancies available"

Manager 

- RZ and TH to prepare a profile for a manager so that we can advertise by the end of Friday

- Dr.LZ's comment - Someone who could write in English, well experienced and retired    

Strategic Review 

- Each Theme can be reviewed sequentially so that we can finish off soon - staffs who aren't working on BHC deadlines this week can spend some time on it 

TVEC registration

- Documents to be organized for TVEC registration - DD, ZJ to follow up  

Internships 

- As the internships of SP,DD,SG are coming to an end they can continue if they would like to stay - Let Dr.LZ know personally on this if there is anything up 

Management update

 Farook and Helper due Sunday

Thinking of getting him going with small ramps for my Mother 

NCPP 

Tomorrow - Sunday - At least AN and KW will be coming to AKurana so that we can properly finish up the NCPP report. EFL says we can give end of Monday - so I think if we start on Sunday, we can really have a chance of finishing this. 

Others can consider coming on Sunday for lieu leave.

BHC 

We have requested a revised submission end date to April 30 - I have given some specific items that need to be completed. 

Access to CU websites. 

We seem to have access to 

SLIATE Departures on April 5

We have to deal with the issue that the end of the internship for the SLIATE folks is coming up on April 5 - two weeks away. 

Shahana and Achintha told me yesterday that they shall not continue. 

Achintha has a sponsor - his cousin who is a lecturer - for the ICBT top up degree starting in May sometime - Think the twins went out around mid - May. 

Shahana is looking to do the BIT course - she is not sure when the BIT starts - she is not sure where in Polgolla she can do - although she can do in Colombo as Duleeka did. 

I am not sure what the thinking of Azra and Ushan is ? Shall talk to them. 

Transition Planning. 

Thus for SS and AJ  let plans to complete their work - rather than let them start on new work - and properly document and transition. 

Now I have given UA instructions to work only on disease.lk - except to support posting docs. 

Who is going to handle 

Drought.lk, and tropicalclimate.org ?

Dont think that disaster.lk was started by Shahana. 

———

Back to FOSID 

There will be FOSID folks available in April after the New Year.