[Board] Motion: Support visit to meet with the emerging Vietnam Chapter with funding

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Hi Arnulf, a few more questions came to mind regarding this type of
motion and related future motions in general.  Geoff's email also
mentioned a few things that I think should be addressed.

Is the hope to operate this as a one time support or something ongoing
for others in the future?

Will the board be putting together a policy that will guide these
decisions for future use?  And will the policy apply to others who are
not on the board or are only directors entitled to use it?

There has historically never been a budget item for this expense, and no
director or president has ever requested funding before.  If added to
the budget, to what amount are you prepared to spend annually on this?

Do other directors have travel costs in mind?  What other future events
are on the radar?

Conflicts of personal interest are always important concerning
nonprofits and its directors, as noted during the 501c3 application:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Conflict_Of_Interest_Policy
Someone will eventually ask about how you ensure that corporate benefits
are not gained by directors when they are supported to travel on OSGeo
business - pointing to the existing policy should help.  When directors
fund their own travel it is never an issue, but as soon as we send
representatives who also have their own companies, I have no doubt it
will pop up (either by the community, or from the IRS).  Previously it's
been a simple "we don't do it" response.

Personally, I'm not concerned about the costs of this motion, but see a
potential pandora's box without an adequate policy being developed.

Regardless, I also hope that we all continue to seek to find sponsors to
support these kinds of local/director activities when they arise.  In my
opinion, Ravi and Arnulf talking about a locally funded event is very
encouraging to see and much more engaging for all involved.

Those are all the further thoughts I could think of, hope they cover off
any potential issues.

Tyler

Arnulf Christl (aka Seven) wrote:
> On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 11:07 -0500, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>> Jeff McKenna wrote:
>>> By the way, I can't seem to remember anyone else making a similar 
>>> request like this.  Can someone point to me the process for deciding how 
>>> we spend OSGeo budget on travel?  What is the process for these 
>>> decisions?  How do we decide how the budget is spent on travel for OSGeo 
>>>  members (Directors, EDs, officers)  I must be missing these email 
>>> threads with those travel requests...I just see messages about notice of 
>>> travel, but never do we vote on what events are important to spend 
>>> budget on.  I guess I am missing something here?