Prospective board members: travel sponsoring.

[Luc Verhaegen]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 09:51:35AM -0400, Rob Clark wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 18, 2019 at 7:55 AM Luc Verhaegen <libv at skynet.be> wrote:
> >
> > True, but then the question there becomes, was anyone sponsored after
> > the fact, after the rules have changed?
> 
> I'm not sure why that becomes "the question"..
>
> I'm not sure how you conclude that.. all I see on board@ is logistical
> related stuff (ie. submitting receipts and that sort of thing), no
> decision making.
>
> It looks like in the end (and the treasurer can correct me if I'm
> wrong, I don't have access to the ledger), we approved travel for 6
> speakers and jake (lwn). 

The only person that i have seen mentioned by name is jake. The rest is 
just a number and a total amount. There is no public record of anything 
else.

> And we did not approve any additional travel
> sponsorship for XDC2018 after extending the travel policy[1].

Thank you for answering this question. This is not clear to any 
outsider, or member, looking in.

> This is all in the IRC logs and meeting minutes.

No, this is not. Some very superficial things are. But nothing more.

In this case, i am pretty sure that this is not deliberate, but it still 
is the reality that this has not been fully public.

> [1] Although we might in future years if we have a similar situation
> of having more qualified talk submissions than slots.  And, IMHO, this
> is a good thing.. if someone has been doing some interesting work, but
> we don't have enough slots for them to present, they are still likely
> to contribute to the hallway track.

Sure, but again, both members and sponsors deserve full transparency.

Also, i just stumbled over this while looking for travel support for 
speakers: why was last years treasurer report due after the elections? 
I have seen talk of a treasurer report in the summaries now, but none 
seems available for the upcoming elections.

This is all about transparency.

I am a particular stickler for this, due to this being the only antidote 
to abuse of power and privilege.

But... Both members and sponsors need to know how the board does its 
primary function: spend sponsor money. Otherwise there is no point in 
holding elections for members. And how will sponsors know that their 
money is well-spent, why would they donate at all?

Luc Verhaegen.