Funding Request: Airfare to EduJAM for Sebastian Silva

[icarito]

Where are you going (location and event)?

This is the Uruguay Sugar Summit EduJAM in Montevideo, Uruguay.
I will also attend the Sugar coding sprint right after the event.

​http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Uruguay_Summit_2011

What do you need covered? (Please estimate the costs in USD: hotel $X, travel $Y)

I am asking for the cost of the airfare. This is $1100.00 USD.

If we cannot provide a full subsidy, will a partial subsidy be helpful? (Yes/No)

Yes

I'm funding the rest of the costs of being in Montevideo, so I can't cover much more. With 1000 I'd be able to make it. I'd be departing from Bogota on the 4th of May and returning on the 10th. There are several options for flights.

Do you need a visa or other official processing before you can travel? If so, approximately how long does that processing take?

No visa needed.

What will you accomplish by going on this trip?

Community

I have been working with the Local Lab in Colombia and Peru in a project to develop a joint Services Portfolio. I expect to meet up with CeibalJAM, people from Local Labs Chile, Argentina and other regional members of the community to consolidate this effort as well as establish a joint strategy for Local Labs. Certification programme is also a part of this portfolio.

Also with my presence, we will have 6 out of 7 members of the board in the same place which I think is of strategic importance to Sugar Labs.

Software

I am also an activities developer and will work with other members of the community in this area during the sprint sessions. We have several activities contributed by Ceibal JAM and I'd like to work on some HIG recommendations for improving usability.

[mchua]

Funds have been verified to be available for this.

Mel Chua, Walter Bender, Aleksey Lim, and Bernie Innocenti have all sent +1s approving the spend.

I believe this means the motion passes - now we need to figure out how to spend the money...

[walter]

The how is pretty straight-forward:

​http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Labs/Governance/Transactions#Request_for_payment

I did have one outstanding question (below) which was not AFAIK answered, but I agree that we have sufficient votes for approval.

has he asked his employer -- who has a vested interest in Sugar -- for funding?

[mchua]

We sort of got an answer - from an email from Sebastian:

"On one hand my trip would not be possible without AC (this is where "my pocket" comes from). On the other hand AC is the official sponsor of the EduJAM event, and already is funding several developers (including Rafael and others - i'm not 100% sure who)."

I'd like to propose the following:

• Approve spending up to $1100 for this (the entire ticket)
• Have Sebastian ask AC for specific funding for his ticket (as in, can they perhaps reimburse him half of it, and SL does the other half?)
• Have SL cover the difference of what AC doesn't - this may be 100% of the ticket cost, but hopefully it will be less.

[icarito]

I've followed the straight-forward procedure in Walter's link but the email bounced so I emailed again to other contacts at the SFC, cc SLOBs.

As pointed out by mel, I thought I already had answered Walter's concern. AC already offered to finance the rest of my costs in Uruguay (note the request for SL was only the airfare). I will however bring it up again and let the board know.

[mchua]

We are blocking on a transfer of the funds at this point (SLOBs has approved, and it will be the full $1100 for the ticket as Sebastian has made clear that Activity Central is co-sponsoring the other portions of his trip).

Who can make this happen?

[walter]

Not exactly blocking: from the wiki,

"Please note that finances are routinely processed around the ides (15th) of each month."

We don't have a formal mechanism for expediting payments.