RE-MANAGEMENT UPDATE

To the extent I write these things below, you may get to know what is in my mind. But

we need more systematic participation in the management of FECT, especially by the more experienced staff. 

Except for isolated recent failures, there has been timely reporting the monthly but not at the

weekly level. This is an improvement. We need to at least monitor the weekly supervision as supervisors. As for the monthly reporting, we need certifications by the supervisors for payments. Without the 6 monthly reports, the next appointment revisions shall be held back.

The individual staff reporting time for some is quite high - we can encourage folks to try to simplify and only include the work that is taking at least an hour - unless these are pivotal.

As for the daily reporting, we can restrict it to the Interns for their initial 6 months and anyone else who wants to do it.

One of the problems, I am seeing is that there is a focus on monitoring the individuals but not the TPPI. We also need to have monitoring of our progress with the WIGs. If we are not monitoring, then we are not managing the problems.

Hence, I am proposing monthly reviews by each TPPI team and a report as to what needs to get done and priorities, targets and resource needs. This shall help with folks working on a topic thinking systematically overall.

e.g.

AQ program

Web work

Weather Card

Proposal Follow up

- there are questions I have raised in individual emails and discussions which need input from others in the TPPI

I have thoughts on

Proposal Work - what should we go for

Finance - priorities 

Publishing

which are not getting play.

We shall develop a reporting format which should take no more than 2 hours to do. FS pl start on this.

Month - XXX

- Team - Members and Coordinator

- Update of TPPI Strategic Plan Internal Audit, TB/FC 

- Tasks from Last Month

- Challenges and Opportunities Arising

- Task for current month Priorities and Staff allocation

- Tasks to be carried over for next months

- Resource Needs

- Representation on TB or FC

Management Update

 RECENT WORK 

The Greeting Card is finally passable - we have to learn our lessons on why it took so many hours on the part of 3 or 4  persons. 

The FECT annual report summary put together by SG is to be worked on by me later.  So that we can send it out today. 

The CFP Foundation pre-proposal was submitted. I admit I did not realize it was only a preproposal till later. The parts of the proposal that was culled should be assembled next week so that we can use them for a fuller proposal. 

There were no outputs from JG last days on the Writ - we have to get our staff to deliver outputs rather than just chatter - this was her first week. 

We may have dropped the ball on the DAMRO purchase order for chairs. The sale will be over - worth checking today and placing the order. 

MANAGING COMING FUEL, ELECTRICITY AND BANKING CRISES 

Prices shall rise like on all else. The petroleum refinery does not have oil next few days and NCPP may not have enough coal till the SW Monsoon is over.  We need to store petrol including for the generator. 

Electricity may not be available regularly. 

For the office,  We need to assemble solar-based backup power system. 

There is already the Jackery Solar Panel and Jackery Battery that I brought last time - think that shall last a couple of  - ZI check that it works for off-grid. 

Figure out whether I should send a Jackery and Solar Panel or we can make our own for both offices. 

Banks are at risk - I keep telling them to have two or three months in hand. 

I figured out that the number we had given to Seylan Bank for the wire transfer back to US was for the Savings account - and we should give the Current Account.  Shall write to them. 

Keep 2-3 months of funds in hand - banks may run out of money. 

One of my batchmates Renuka Rodrigo wanted to send some funds across to Kandy in USD - so we are paying him @230 - think we should keep funds in 

USD. This is just to hedge against a bigger drop in currency value. 

You can always buy things without keeping LKR. 

NEXT YEAR RESOLUTIONS 

Staff at FECT may be undermining my own outputs as I am spending my time on completely useless work such as being a personal assistant to them. They have, come to expect it.  As a result, I cannot do what shall be useful. 

They are the failings and neglect of Weekly, Monthly and 6-month reporting by a few - of course, a few people when trying to navigate in a boat can sink it all. 

As much as I keep asking everyone to use a dictionary - the Greeting Card - took so much time because of Malapropism - use of words because they sound grand and a failure to do simple checks.  I think I could have done the card myself given all the feedback I had to give. 

The strategic planning is not completed in parts and does not inform the work plans - what happens is people are doing work like serving at an all you can eat buffet. We need to have meetings every month at least and better every week. 

Please provide your input. 

We have already taken some actions.  

I shall have to consult with Management experts without getting further disappointed and see what further actions to take. 

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.