Thanks for the email Harry - I&#39;m sorry to hear that people are worried about our expenses policy. Any concerns should go to Jon. <div><br></div><div>I think that in this case, we weren&#39;t as clear as we could be when sending out the initial email. I think that the policy is applied thoroughly and fairly, and it&#39;s being used for this event.<div>

<br></div><div>We&#39;ve been invited to speak at the conference for 20 minutes, on one day - we&#39;re thus happy to cover expenses for that day. However, as we&#39;re not actually required for the other days, I don&#39;t think that accommodation overnight for anyone - staff or volunteer - would be in line with our charitable objects.</div>

<div><br></div><div>We can fund people to speak at the conference, by all means: that would be well within our objects (we&#39;d be teaching people about Wikimedia). People are welcome to stay for all three days on their own time, of course, but I don&#39;t think that attending the entire conference is really something that Wikimedia UK could fund using donor funds.<div>

<br clear="all"><span>Richard Symonds</span><div>Wikimedia UK</div><div>0207 065 0992</div><div><p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<font size="1">Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).</font></p>

<p style="margin:0.4em 0px 0.5em;line-height:19.200000762939453px;font-family:sans-serif;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><b><font size="1">Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.</font></b></p>

</div><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 25 September 2012 16:57, HJ Mitchell <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:hjmitchell@ymail.com" target="_blank">hjmitchell@ymail.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">

<div><div style="font-size:12pt;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><div><span>I&#39;m sure this isn&#39;t your fault, Hasina, but this is something that&#39;s getting on my nerves, and those of other volunteers. We have an expenses policy (</span><a href="http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance_Policy_2012#Reimbursement_of_Expenses" style="font-size:12pt" target="_blank">http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance_Policy_2012#Reimbursement_of_Expenses</a>), which specifies when the chapter will cover expenses and what expenses they will cover. For people to start applying their own, contradictory policies is only going to confuse matters and is likely to lead to the kind of confusion that the office was (at least in part) established to prevent.</div>

<div><br></div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:16px;background-color:transparent;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">If the policy is inadequate, it
 should be modified, but until it is, it should be applied to every case.</div><div> </div><div>Harry Mitchell<br></div><div><a rel="nofollow" href="http://enwp.org/User:HJ" target="_blank">http://enwp.org/User:HJ</a><br>

</div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:13px;background-color:transparent;font-family:arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif">Phone: 024 7698 0977</div><div style="font-style:normal;font-size:13px;background-color:transparent;font-family:arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif">

Skype: harry_j_mitchell</div><div><br></div>  <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"> <div style="font-family:&#39;times new roman&#39;,&#39;new york&#39;,times,serif;font-size:12pt"> <div dir="ltr">

 <font face="Arial"> <hr size="1">  <b><span style="font-weight:bold">From:</span></b> Hasina Khatun &lt;<a href="mailto:hasina.khatun@wikimedia.org.uk" target="_blank">hasina.khatun@wikimedia.org.uk</a>&gt;<br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">To:</span></b> UK Wikimedia mailing list &lt;<a href="mailto:wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org" target="_blank">wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a>&gt; <br>

 <b><span style="font-weight:bold">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 14:12<br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject:</span></b> [Wikimediauk-l] CityCamp Coventry<br> </font> </div><div><div class="h5"> <br>

<div><div>Dear Wikimedians,</div><div> </div><div><font color="#000000">Wikimedia UK has been invited recently invited to an event in Coventry on 19 October - CiyCamp Coventry (</font><a rel="nofollow" style="font:13px/normal;text-align:left;color:rgb(141,0,0);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;background-color:rgb(242,238,230)" title="www.citycampcov.org.uk" href="http://www.citycampcov.org.uk/" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">www.citycampcov.org.uk</font></a><font color="#000000">). <span style="font-family:Arial;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent">CityCamp  aims to encourage and enable local government, businesses, community organisations and academia to share knowledge, web technologies and experience to help shape the future of Coventry. </span><br>




 </font></div><div><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font color="#000000">This event will be held on Friday 19 October 2012 at 13:00 till Sunday 21 October 2012 at 16:30 at the City Council Offices. We have managed to get a slot to speak on the<span style="font-family:Arial;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent"> Friday afternoon at 3pm, for 20 minutes. If anyone is free and would like to discuss Wikimedia UK&#39;s work at this event, please let us know as it would be great to engage with as many people as possible about sharing knowledge. </span></font></font></div>




<div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><font color="#000000"></font></font> </div><div><font color="#000000">We could be able to cover your travel, but not the accommodation, so this might be an ideal opportunity for a person based locally. Please let me know if your are free to attend the whole weekend or just to go and speak. I will be looking forward to hearing back from you.</font></div>




<div> </div><div>Hasina</div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div>