[Wikimedia-l] AffComs $40,000 Hong Kong junket

[Tomasz W. Kozlowski]

Gregory Varnum wrote:

> I am not sure what you mean by none of the members being willing to comment.  
 > Our chair has responded several times on Meta and many others have 
responded
 > to Odder via email about this.

Let me just straighten this, Greg. Nobody has ever contacted me via 
e-mail about this except for the insults aimed at me after my first blog 
post on the matter — and you as an AffCom member should be especially 
aware of this, as the whole of AffCom was CC'd to every message that I 
received.

> The hotel is in-line with WMF guidelines and as has been noted, we look to 
 > the staff to book those reservations and make appropriate cost-saving 
decisions.

Which is opposite to what the Committee has been doing so far; for 
instance, during the last Committee meeting, the then-ChapCom members 
have been using the same accommodation as the rest of the conference 
participants — and that was a true a cost-saving decision.

If we all agree that the WMF is spending too much money on travel (as 
Bence says, currently around US$1.7 million), then I see no reason why 
you're going to do the same exact thing instead of allocating the money 
elsewhere (or just returning it to the WMF).

	-- Tomasz