Hi, Ali.
Yes, this is all perfectly fine.
Do note, please, that we need a _little_ bit more reporting than "travel
and food". You don't need to create a whole separate report for every such
small expenditure, but you _do_ need to record the information, and collect
receipts (where those are available -- I understand street food etc. does
not always offer receipts), in some ongoing document -- a wiki page sounds
appropriate... :) -- to be rolled into a future report for the entirety of
the money.
I am pointing this out now, while the information is fresh and (hopefully)
available, to avoid difficulty later.
Cheers,
Asaf
On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:00 PM, Tonmoy Khan <tonmoy.du(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Asaf,
Thanks for your email about the startup grant. I just want to inform you
that, we have discussed about the startup grant in our board already.
However, at this moment we are working for the local registration of the
chapter with concerned authority in Bangladesh and we have appointed a
legal consultant for that matter. Since the registration is still underway,
our board have decided to submit proposal for the startup grant after the
local registration is complete. So, positively our startup grant proposal
would follow the good news (that we have completed local registration!).
We have also come up to a decision about the left over money that is
currently with Tanvir & Nasir. Tanvir & Nasir informed our board after the
WikiConference India that a part of their travel grant has not been used.
So, we decided that we would use the money for activities of Wikimedia
Bangladesh. However, the fund is kept with Tanvir & Nasir since we are yet
to open a bank account for Wikimedia Bangladesh (which would be done after
local registration). And as Tanvir informed you, we have spent 5,500 BDT in
travel & food for four of our Wikimedia Bangladesh volunteers who went from
Dhaka.
Certainly we are planning lot more events like first Bengali Wikipedia
Unconferece, Chittagong and we would need support from all for those
upcoming activities & events.
Best Regards,
Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy)
Treasurer
Wikimedia Bangladesh
On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 4:57 AM, Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>wrote;wrote:
Dear colleagues in Bangladesh,
(I apologize for not being able to write this in Bangla. I encourage you
to translate this into Bangla if necessary!)
I work for the Wikimedia Foundation, and one of my roles is to run the
Wikimedia Grants program. Like other new chapters, Wikimedia Bangladesh is
encouraged to apply for a "start-up" grant to help fund some activities for
the first year or two of its existence. Instructions for submitting a
grant are available here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index [1]
However, some Wikimedia money is already in Bangladesh and is *available
for your use* -- it was granted to Messrs. Nasir Khan and Tanvir Rahman to
support their attendance at the WikiConference India event late last year.
For technical reasons, there is an amount of money left over from those
two travel grants, and instead of asking Nasir and Tanvir to wire the money
back to the Foundation (wasting some of our donor funds on commissions and
banking fees), we have decided to award the remaining funds to Wikimedia
Bangladesh, as an _advance_ on its first start-up grant (which Wikimedia
Bangladesh is yet to request).
The money itself is with Nasir and Tanvir, and as soon as Wikimedia
Bangladesh has its own bank account, they will deposit the remaining funds
there. The total amount was *67221.5* BDT, of which 17698.5 are with
Nasir and 49,523 are with Tanvir.
The funds are available for any mission-aligned[2] use Wikimedia
Bangladesh would like to put it to, and it is up to Wikimedia Bangladesh's
board (executive committee) and members to plan and approve the specific
uses.
We do require a *public* report about how that money ends up getting
used. We recommend starting a page on the Meta-wiki as a sub-page of
Wikimedia Bangladesh's page[3], and tracking the use of the money there.
Eventually, when WMBD submits a start-up grant request, we can roll this
report into that start-up grant's eventual report. So far, Tanvir tells me
he has spent 5,500 BDT toward the Chittagong Unconference, so please record
that (including _what_, exactly, those 5500 BDT paid for) expense on this
public page.
I look forward to seeing more activity (the Chittagong Unconference
sounds like a success!) from Wikimedia Bangladesh, and would love to help
in any way I can.
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, about the
Wikimedia Grants program or otherwise.
Cheers,
Asaf Bartov, WMF Grants Team
[1] Incidentally, you are welcome to help make that page more accessible
to fellow Bangla speakers by clicking the "Translate this page" link near
the top of that page, and translating the instructions into Bangla.
[2]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mission
[3]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Bangladesh
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-BD mailing list
Wikimedia-BD(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-bd
--
Ali Haidar Khan (tOnmOy)
Treasurer
Wikimedia Bangladesh
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>