[Foundation-l] board, babysitting, speaking engagements, etc.

[Michael R. Irwin]

daniwo59 at aol.com wrote:

>snip
>

>14. Upon submission of receipts, the written report, and ancillary  
>materials--and only upon their submission--the speaker will be reimbursed for  any 
>out-of-pocket expenses.
> 
>  
>
You may wish to consider advancing a substantial percentage of estimated 
reasonable costs to the speaker.  This was done as typical practice by 
the U.S.G. when I was a junior engineer there. 

I found it a useful practice to follow when I operated my own computer 
consulting firm.

Many people do not have a cash reserve of up to several thousand dollars 
sitting around conveniently.  Often they have not started serious 
savings yet for retirement, purchase of a house or car, or a child's 
college.   Very often their personal net worth is tied up in long term 
or scheduled investments.

It complicates the bookkeeping just a tiny bit and yes there is the 
chance of getting stiffed by non submittal of appropriate receipts in 
which case you write off the advance as the complete expense and decline 
to advance money to that person again without an overriding reason.

The bottom line is in a reimbursable situation like this the person is 
presumably traveling for the benefit of the organization.  It is in the 
organization's best interest that it be able to convince people to 
travel even if they do not have large personal cash reserves or credit 
lines to use for the organization's benefit until reimbursement.

regards,
lazyquasar