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The big news this month is that the Secretariat's
capacity increased by 100% in September
with the long-awaited arrival of a "Team
Assistant". The entry on duty of
Ms. Patcharin Supitchakul could not have
come a day too soon. With a solid background
in Management Information Systems and
computer technology, Khun Gung (her nickname
in Thai) has already proven herself to
be adept at mastering the IOSEA website.
The
proposed official launch of the Online
Reporting Facility had a little set-back
in September, as a few bugs were found
that still need some attention from our
consultant programmer "wiz",
David Jiles. Also, work is continuing
on a Powerpoint tutorial that will introduce
the system's incredible power to assemble
information from different sources. The
Facility is already fully operational
for Internet Explorer users - so check
it out at http://ioseaturtles.org/report.php.
Do read the help screens to get the most
out of the system.
With
help from the Advisory Committee and Dr
Ronel Nel, efforts are continuing to have
the Western Indian Ocean - IOSEA Marine
Turtle Task Force formally established
in cooperation with the Nairobi Convention
in early November. Plans are afoot to
organise a sub-regional workshop in East
Africa before the end of the year, in
collaboration with WWF.
The
final touches are being put on an awareness-raising
IOSEA DVD that the Secretariat is producing
in a joint venture with Scubazoo. The
DVD will be widely distributed to IOSEA
partners as soon as it's ready. Watch
this space.
Last
but not least, on 24 September, the Secretariat
received a visit from the IOSEA Focal
Point for Iran, Mr. Asghar Mobaraki, who
was in Thailand on crocodile-related business.
Discussions centred on collaboration with
other agencies working on turtles within
Iran, cooperation with neighbouring countries,
as well as plans to build capacity for
genetic sampling and analysis. Asghar
also took advantage of the opportunity
to try out the Online Reporting Facility
first-hand, and to update the data for
a few Iranian sites. He was clearly impressed
with the capability of the system, as
well as the ease of data entry.
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