2009/9/7 Michael Peel <email(a)mikepeel.net>et>:
In general, I've been wondering whether it would
be worthwhile for
WMUK to generally offer limited amounts of travel funds for Wikimedia-
related activities, such as attending appropriate seminars/
conferences or to carry out research somewhere et cetera. A typical
maximum could be something like £20, but with special cases allowed.
The catches would be that the recipient would have to first give good
reasons in order to get the funding, and then give a report back
afterwards. Depending on the event, the report could be to the board,
on wiki, on the mailing list, in the newsletter, in the form of a
blog post or some combination of the above.
Depending on the activity, we could then provide the money out of
either the WMF grant or out of general funds. Typically recipients
would probably have to be WMUK members, but exceptions might be
allowed in exceptional cases. It's then an additional incentive to
become a member.
I think it would be a very good thing for WMUK to fund people
attending conferences. We already have £500 allocated from the WMF
grant for precisely this, so I'm not entirely sure why this is still
in question! I would suggest you delegate allocating funds from that
budget to the Conference Director - there is no need for the board to
vote on everything. Once the WMF grant runs out a budget for this
should be provided from general funds.