[Foundation-l] board candidacies

Fri Aug 11 21:03:32 UTC 2006

On Fri, August 11, 2006 21:43, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> There is a clear distinction between paying a salary to a board member,
> and reimbursing him for out-of-pocket expenses.  The specific quote from
> Jimbo is "I have no interest in being paid."  I would not extrapolate
> from that comment an inference that no-one should be paid.  On the other
> hand paying the airfare for key people to travel halfway around the
> world is perfectly acceptable.

There is a test in the UK that the Inland Revenue (Taxation) use, which
basically tests an expenses payment as (I paraphrase) "was this cost
incurred wholly and directly as a result of an activity required by virtue
of the employment". This principle can be easily and clearly applied to
consideration of personal expenses in our situation; any costs in excess
of what the individual would have spent if they had not been carrying out
an activity on behalf od the Foundation is clearly covered.

Conversely, I would *totally* disagree with
> If someone wants to generously pay a board member to give a keynote
> speech that board member is entitled to keep it.  This is not a matter
> for our by-laws.
If someone is given a speech *because* they are from the WMF and
*representing* the WMF at that presentation, then any fees received are
the 'income' of the WMF. Obviously, the costs involved with attending the
location to give that speech (which might include travel, hotel, etc)
would be payable by the WMF. One can't have it both ways (ie get a fee
*and* claim expenses)

Alison Wheeler