[Sugar-devel] [SLOBS] Action needed on two issues

[Adam Holt]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 8:23 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Motion: offer Devin U. an honorarium ($500) to compensate him since he
> needed to take a week off from work to run two Turtle/Music Blocks
> workshops at the Constructionism Conference. The funds would be allocated
> from the Trip Advisor grant which are in support of promoting and advancing
> Turtle Blocks around the world.
>

Abstain.  Devin Ulibarri has been put in an almost impossible situation as
a result of this accident.  My own belief (as explained yesterday) is that
Sugar Labs should not be paying anybody $500 for 5 days, to any person at
this time (for any reason, forgoing a high-salary or a low-salary or
zero-salary) as volunteer solidarity should be a far higher priority.

As per Benjamin Mako Hill's paper conclusions (he is not the only one who
has observed this consistent pattern) "while paying developers [music
developers, ice cream developers, intl-devel, project curriculum
developers, any kind of developers] is easy, it can carry unintended
negative consequences" :
https://mako.cc/writing/funding_volunteers/funding_volunteers.html

In any case, the motion has now passed, and SFConservancy should send Devin
the funds without delay, and as Caryl reminds us, we're learning a lesson
here that a procedurally-minded Financial Manager avoid such accidental
situations in future, so each+all focus on what we are good at.

Motion: Walter, as PI of the Trip Advisor grant, will inform the SL
> oversight board of his plans for workshops that fall under the guise
> promotion of Turtle Blocks but otherwise has discretion in organizing and
> funding these events, within the budget constraints of grant and the travel
> guidelines of the SFC.
>

+1 as we continue to move forward towards timely public financials
(whatever level of granularity the community meaningfully agrees upon).
Dave Crossland and Cary Bigenho are working hard drafting this and I would
very much encourage others with financial savvy to get involved --
SFConservancy has asked that we use the term "Financial Manager" to avoid
confusion with their own "Treasurer" fyi:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16jIFuZ9bX-Bv675BpA1KmcEcRcX4PRCOUEX0ICRUkOc

Can Sugar Labs benefit from TripAdvisor's asking us for a "Board-Approved
Annual Budget" ?  TripAdvisor asks for a breakdown of expenses -- how do we
run with annual-style foresight/hindsight understanding of our own
patterns?  With a couple tiny financial pie-charts or similar?  We're
getting there I hope, but I myself still do not yet fully understand the
4-year financial history I've posted to http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance
regrettably.

Has the biennial (2-year) assessment report requested/required by
TripAdvisor by August 2015 been submitted?

Walter, do you need assistance on the final TripAdvisor report expected
August 2016 from Chris Leonard and/or others?

The #1 stated goal of the TripAdvisor grant being "Broaden the reach of our
indigenous language support" according to its detailed 2013 document, so
Chris Leonard and others of us can and will assist here as required.
Likewise Tony claims he does not believe in reporting and yet very
curiously he provides some of the best ground-truthed community/education
reporting of anyone worldwide (put this guy on a stand-up comedy stage
please, and have SJ Klein use his transcriptionist prowess on XO-1 to
live-blog Tony's best lines ;)  In short, if we hang together beyond the
lofty rhetoric of Magical Transparency (obvious risks of 2003's "Cascade of
Attention-Deficit Teenagers" @ https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html and 1971's
"Tyranny of Structurelessness" @ http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm)
Sugar Labs will emerge much far stronger as we strengthen our
reporting-as-blogging/collaboration culture.  Very much like Walter Bender
favors Sugar Activities that compel you by default to report on what you
just learned, whether folks truly reflect purposefully every time or not,
and so avoiding clicking away lives.  And instead work towards growing our
lives with a culture of intentionality -> bookkeeping -> consequences -- if
we kids want to be unleashed to play in the big leagues -- *And Why Not?*

As such, can the above 1 budget and 2 reports be shared with the community
this year?

Back to the original motion for a small second: the completed TripAdvisor
Grant Application Form and final Terms and Conditions do not use the
phrases "PI", "Principal Investigator" or "Turtle Blocks" but this is a
completely insignificant matter in my opinion as a non-lawyer -- and a good
thing Walter has chosen to avoid technocratic legalese (IMHO).  I'm merely
stating for the clerical record (as SL's liaison to SFConservancy on
financial/admin/legal matters) that other expressions such as "The
governing board (“Board”) of Charity", "Turtle Art" etc are used within the
2 defining PDF documents themselves.  Which SFConservancy's General Counsel
has thankfully now clarified for SL's Board, Ombuds, Caryl Bigenho, Dave
Crossland, Sean Daly and Chris Leonard -- towards protecting us all moving
forward on a strong foundation.  On a largely separate matter
(fiduciary/fundraising landscape procedures) that I do apologize
constitutes legal advice that cannot be forwarded to a public mailing list.

*Thanks for Everyone for your Time, all we've got !!*

Adam Holt
Sugar Labs Oversight Board Liaison to SFConservancy.org

--
Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
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