The scheduled bi-weekly meeting was participated by Mohammad Tawrit, Erik-Jan Bos, Erik Kikkenborg, Roshan Ragel, Karma Jamyang, Rajan Parajuli, Saima Hossain Faria https://belisac.bdren.net.bd/news/
Among the participants of BeLISAC program, BdREN, DrukREN, NREN, NORDUnet joined the meeting. On behalf of BdREN, Mohammad Tawrit and Saima Hossain Faria joined the meeting. From DrukREN, Karma Jamyang; from NRENR, Rajan Parajuli; from LEARN, Roshan Ragel and Wathsala Dayananda; from NORDUnet: Erik Kikkenborg and Erik-Jan Bos.
The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the Signing of the Multiparty Agreement, Recruitment of Female Engineers, Payment for Female Engineers, Procurement of Servers, Extending the Video-Conferencing facility to CamREN and LERNET, Distribution of Laptops for Female Engineers, etc.
Signing of Multiparty Agreement: The status of the participant countries of the Multiparty Agreement was discussed. BdREN, LEARN had already concurred.DrukREN was waiting for Ministry clearance. LERNET and CamREN didn't have any response. On 12 May 2022, it was decided that Erik would talk to Valter about the clearance for signing. By 30 May 2022, NORDUnet responded that ERIC and Valter would decide how to move forward and respond later.
Recruitment of Female Engineers: Regarding the recruitment of female engineers, BdREN and DrukREN have successfully hired and the female engineers were onboard. However, LEARN has recruited a female engineer but is yet to onboard her. The current status suggests that there is progress towards the goal of increasing the representation of female engineers in the organization.
Procurement of Servers: Mohammad Tawrit received draft RFQs from TEIN*CC for servers and has sent them to NREN, LEARN, and DrukREN for updates in line with specifications. BdREN and LEARN have updated and sent back their RFQs, while NREN and DrukREN are pending. The target date needs to be set for the meeting. At least three vendors should be on the list. Rajan needs to send the input to Tawrit in the agreed format promptly.
Extending the Video-Conferencing facility to CamREN and LERNET: In a previous meeting, it was decided that Mohammad Tawrit would update Erik Kikkenborg about the email addresses of Zoom account owners to assign 500 accounts to CamREN and LERNET for online meetings/classes, with hardware support from BdREN and LEARN. However, the email addresses were not furnished as there was no response from LERNET and CamREN representatives. Mails were sent to both NRENs, but there was no response. In the current meeting, there were no representatives from CamREN or LERNET present, and the item was skipped. An update is needed from LERNET and CamREN about their plan to proceed.
Distribution of Laptops for Female Engineers:In preparation for the shipment of laptops to female engineers, Erik-Jan Bos prepared a sheet to collect the postal addresses of each beneficiary. Rajan proposed to ship the laptop for the NREN Female Engineer to an address in Europe of a Nepali person who can carry it to Nepal as hand luggage. The meeting agreed that this would be easier and quicker. Rajan needs to supply the European address of the Nepali person to Erik-Jan, who is responsible for the immediate shipment of the laptops to the female engineers appointed in BdREN, DrukREN, and LEARN at their respective postal addresses.
Creating a WhatsApp Group for BeLISAC project:In order to facilitate real-time communication, Mohammad Tawrit suggested setting up a WhatsApp group for the BeLISAC project's partners. Everyone who took part in the discussion thought it was a good idea and was asked to provide their mobile numbers if they wanted to join the group. Erik-Jan was told to receive every participant's mobile numbers as quickly as feasible. Erik-Jan was given the responsibility of creating the BeLISAC WhatsApp group and adding the participant's mobile numbers to it.
Saying adieu to Erik-Jan Bos: Mohammad Tawrit informed the group that this would likely be the last meeting for Erik-Jan, as he had previously announced that he would be leaving NORDUnet on May 31, 2022 to pursue a new venture. The group expressed their gratitude for Erik-Jan's contributions to the project and wished him success in his future endeavors. In his turn, Erik-Jan thanked everyone and wished them well, both personally and within the BeLISAC project.
All over, the meeting was successful. The necessary issues were discussed and reached a solution. The next meeting was scheduled to be held on 30 June 2022.