In the Meeting

Minutes of the 2nd Global Risk Management Committee (GRMC) Meeting

15:00-16:00 PM, Thursday, 24 March 2011, Board Room

Attendees: Dr. Yin-Fu Chang (Chair), Dr. Warwick Easdown (relocated to India), Dr. Andreas Ebert, Dr. Jackie Hughes (official travel), Mr. Vincent Lu (personal leave), Dr. I. R. Nagaraj, Dr. Kolade Olatifede, and Mr. Peter Wang Rapporteur: Kitty Hong

I. Risk manage reports for 2010

The Chair started by thanking the committee members for providing the risk management reports for 2010, which he has compiled and will submit to DGO as a document for the upcoming Board meeting. Dr. Chang said in summary that several incidents occurred in Headquarters and regional office in year 2010, but the Center’s risk management was not bad because the Center didn’t sustain much loss in physical assets, and nobody got injured during those incidents. However, he pointed out that HQ staff’s sense of risk management is still not so strong as shown in their response to the emergency drill held in 15 March 2011. Dr. Chang reported that a letter has been sent to request all HQ staff to take the drills seriously.

2. Risk management related to Genebank

Dr. Chang reported that after the fire that broke out during the construction of Genebank extension last year, several safety issues were taken into consideration and reconstruction plans have been modified accordingly.

Concerning safety of germplasm, Dr. Nagaraj asked if the generator has been upgraded. Dr. Ebert replied that he was told that it might be a wrong investment. Mr. Peter Wang further explained that the new cold room has a socket that an outside generator can be plugged in to, and that we can rent an operator from the neighborhood in case of power cut. The outside generator can keep the cold room temperatures very low for one or two days.

For the Genebank extension, Dr. Ebert has also added personnel safety measures, which have been installed recently, to ensure the safety of staff working in the new cold rooms.

Dr. Chang asked Dr. Ebert what kind of measures he had taken to address the issue raised by DG regarding the backup of GRSU’s database. Dr. Ebert said that there’s a standard backup system in place run by the IT unit, which is backing up our computer information. In addition, he also backs up information in external hard drive once a week, and this hard drive is stored outside of GRSU building in his residence on high ground. And he thinks Dr. Hughes is looking into off-site on-line data storage, which will be an additional safety measure concerning the information of our Genebank materials. Dr. Chang remarked that currently the computer has no smoke detector and no fire extinguishers. He suggested that CO2 fire extinguishers be installed in computer room.

3. Maintenance of emergency equipment

Dr. Nagaraj suggested that the Center’s emergency equipment such as backup generator, fire extinguisher, etc. should be tested and run on a regular basis. He said that the equipment which is not running requires more maintenance; the equipment which is running may require less maintenance. According to Mr. Wang, currently the Center’s generator is maintained every six months. Dr. Chang suggested that the frequency be increased. Dr. Nagaraj further suggested that a maintenance schedule of equipment be kept to see when the last maintenance was done. Dr. Chang thought it was a good idea. Dr. Chang also informed the committee members that the Center’s backup generator can provide power supply for almost three months. It is also suggested that fire extinguishers be installed in all high risk areas, such as operator’s room, where there are many circuits.

4. Information on disasters and plans on relocation for non-Chinese speaking staff

Dr. Kola is concerned that there is no way for non-Chinese speaking staff to get information about disasters such as tsunami or nuclear meltdown, and how the staff can be relocated should the disasters happen. Dr. Chang said the Center’s location is near the mountain area, and is relatively safe from tsunami attack, and the nuclear meltdown crisis that occurred in Japan recently posed no immediate danger to Taiwan in terms of contamination by air. Should there be a need for international staff to relocate, it would be a good idea for the international staff to keep close contact with their respective country’s embassy on Taiwan for assistance.

5. First aid room and training course

Dr. Chang said that according to local regulations, an institute with more than 300 employees should be equipped with a nurse. Since the Center can not afford to hire a full- time nurse, a staff will be professionally trained and the room downstairs beside the Communications’ storage room will be converted to first aid room to provide primary care in case of emergency. Dr. Nagaraj said that a training course on first aid is being organized and will be announced shortly.