I’ve been here for three weeks. It’s maybe a good time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished so far and what I am still on tap to do.
Volunteer Management:
I’ve got rooms booked for Ellen’s visit, as well as a plan in place for her to visit a clinic for abused and tortured women in a far-western district. Ganga is arranging the flight and accommodations in Dang.
I have spoken to Susan about her visit. Ganga’s husband is working in the field of good governance and the rule of law. I’ve proposed to introduce Susan to him to see if there is anything she can provide in the way of service. Ramesh also said they will be able to provide some introductions for Susan after her arrival.
RCRD:
- I’ve met with the local company proposing to do the mobile-to-database project a couple of times.
- I’ve written a preliminary discovery document.
- Using the quote from Rooster Logic and the price sheet I have from TaroWork, I’ve created a comparison spreadsheet detailing the costs and feature comparison between the two options.
I was disappointed when I arrived to learn that the database project I’ve been dreaming about for years and have felt that it was finally feasible had already, as it were, departed the station without me. The surveys of disability service provision and the registration of disabled people have begun. Rooster Logic had already done a demo and was prepared to offer a quote for the first phase of the project. They did that in our first meeting.
I think there are two factors that are important to Surya: One, that the company is local, that the surveys and database will be already in both Nepali and English. And two, that Rooster Logic will essentially manage the database, including locking the data once it is entered, and producing reports/charts/dashboards on demand.
Surya is asking me to help him write the proposal to the government for the project. Figuring my time and involvement at the same level I have always contributed, TaroWorks’ cost is basically half what Rooster Logic is asking. Add to the Salesforce cost the price of getting the database translated, and I believe we still come in far below the cost quoted by Rooster Logic, even for the first phase.
We don’t have numbers of estimated records for Phase II, which would be an ongoing service provision tracking database.
CBR:
I met for the first time with Ramesh yesterday on the topic of the CBR website. These are his concerns and requests:
- He is intimidated in front of the prospect of updating the web site. He feels that each time he forgets the password and the updating instructions.
- He feels inadequate to write updates in English.
- He would like to have accomplishments and reports on the web site, but is not sure how to go about it.
Would they like me to be more involved in the web site updating? What do they need from me on this? A better training manual?
I’m already thinking that since the number of photos is not exorbitant, they can skip the Flickr option and simply upload photos directly to the website.