<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Caryl,<br><br></div>If this becomes a stable proposal in coming weeks, can you repost to <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org">wiki.sugarlabs.org</a> with a link off of <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance">http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance</a> for wider consideration? If so, here are questions I'd hope eventually get answered:<br><br></div>- Expenses less than $200: who do I contact and what is the expected turn-around time for (a) response and (b) receipt of funds? (c) Public data trail expectations?<br><br></div>- Expenses above $200: can we refresh procedure clarity similar to the above, and also how does one find out what happened in the last few quarters (or last few weeks/months if we pay someone to organize and publish documentation trails) so that legit applicants can learn what is working and/or apply to assist Sugar Labs with a investment of such funds?<br><br>- What refreshed SL guidelines exist for measuring ROI, to help applicants and save us all from gratuitous applications?<br><br>- What level of granularity should be public (archived documentation trail) in both above cases, how promptly? This would depend on paying someone, as megabytes of financial info are not going to be karmically redacted of very personal/private addresses and phone numbers every month with the wave of a Magic Wand, and summarizing can take even more work (endless PDF's of every toll booth receipt may exist, but certainly this is not conducive to strategic/community decision-making). What level of granularity is appropriate I don't know; this can be worked out if community consensus emerges. SFConservancy.org provides extensive details (sometimes after a couple months, when there is a data-entry backlog) but they do not provide such data in publishable or even broadly understandable form -- to those who do not have financial/accounting expertise. Unless SL chooses to cancel its relationship with SFC, and send the 10% of all funds to another financial/legal umbrella non-profit who provide similar services more to our liking. Others may disagree, but as far as I can tell this is neither likely nor advisable!<br><br></div><div>- Are we so sure detailed/monthly reporting is the best thing for Sugar Labs, when SL Board meetings have not been monthly over many recent years? (It's entirely possible monthly is an option, I'm just asking if SL is willing to pay compliance costs, or conversely are we just fantasizing/bikeshedding about Transparency arriving from God, asking others to do our dirty work for us for free...a well-known pattern leading to well-known results.)<br></div><div><br>In any case, training with <a href="http://ledger-cli.org">http://ledger-cli.org</a> and <a href="http://k.sfconservancy.org/npo-ledger-cli">http://k.sfconservancy.org/npo-ledger-cli</a> is required first, if not a professional accountant as well, one who understands subversion (svn, ssh, etc) to check out the files on whatever pace the Sugar Labs community calls for <i>(presumably monthly, quarterly or annually)</i>. There are very real limits to what is genuinely possible here, until we know what degree of financial transparency and promptness the community actually deserves. I'm willing to be trained on the above software (within limits) if there is truly a purpose at the end of the tunnel, not pie-in-the-sky fantasies.<br><br>But thank you for having raised the central question: why has this (prompt financial access/process/awareness) been quite continually neglected over ~8 years of Sugar Labs' existence, and why have all volunteers run away screaming from this role (I got a taste of this when I ran into OLPC CFO Robert Fadel in the hallway at MIT ~6 months ago!) Still, you have not however provided the central answer however, by conveniently pulling yourself out of the running from such a role, so let's be incredibly cautious not to pat ourselves on the back with a poetically dysfunctional unfunded FOIA-style mandate.<br><br></div>And we haven't even got to income/fundraising, where this all begins! So we get what we pay for investing blood+tears -- as intelligent accountants/treasurers everywhere know very well<i> (you may be one of them Caryl, demonstrating such financial maturity, my apologies I can't remember your career full history, and thank you for your time wherever this goes ;-)</i><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 1:38 PM, Caryl Bigenho <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cbigenho@hotmail.com" target="_blank">cbigenho@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><div dir="ltr">Hi Fellow SL members…. In case you would also like to comment on the proposed motions to define the office of SL Treasurer here is a link (below) that should give you access.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div></font></span><div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">Caryl<br></font></span><div><div class="hm HOEnZb"><hr>From: <a href="mailto:cbigenho@hotmail.com" target="_blank">cbigenho@hotmail.com</a><br>To: <a href="mailto:d.crossland@gmail.com" target="_blank">d.crossland@gmail.com</a>; <a href="mailto:holt@laptop.org" target="_blank">holt@laptop.org</a>; <a href="mailto:tony@olenepal.org" target="_blank">tony@olenepal.org</a>; <a href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com" target="_blank">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>; <a href="mailto:sverma@sfsu.edu" target="_blank">sverma@sfsu.edu</a>; <a href="mailto:lionel@olpc-france.org" target="_blank">lionel@olpc-france.org</a>; <a href="mailto:logobot@gmail.com" target="_blank">logobot@gmail.com</a>; <a href="mailto:callaurrea@gmail.com" target="_blank">callaurrea@gmail.com</a><br>Subject: Commenting on Treasurer Motions Enabled!<br>Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2016 11:36:11 -0600</div><div><div class="h5"><br><br>
<div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(68,68,68);line-height:22.719999313354492px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="3">Hi Dave… (and SLOBs0</font></span><div style="line-height:22.719999313354492px;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="line-height:22.719999313354492px;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="3">Commenting for the Treasurer Motions is now turned on. The link is: <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/16jIFuZ9bX-Bv675BpA1KmcEcRcX4PRCOUEX0ICRUkOc/edit?usp=sharing" style="color:rgb(0,104,207)" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/16jIFuZ9bX-Bv675BpA1KmcEcRcX4PRCOUEX0ICRUkOc/edit?usp=sharing</a></font></div><div style="line-height:22.719999313354492px;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="line-height:22.719999313354492px;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="3">Thanks for bringing this to my attention! If anything else needs changing… let me know!</font></div><div style="line-height:22.719999313354492px;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="line-height:22.719999313354492px;color:rgb(68,68,68)"><font style="line-height:normal" face="Arial, sans-serif" color="black" size="3">Caryl<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ <a href="http://unleashkids.org" target="_blank">http://unleashkids.org</a> !</div></div>
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