COI: Explicitly mentioning Travel Reimbursements (was Re: Conflict of Interest policy, 1 March 2012 draft)

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

>> === General Policies for PLC Persons
>>
>> * *No Compensation for PLC Persons.* No PLC Person shall receive
>> any salary or other substantial benefit from Conservancy as compensation
>> for his or her duties as a PLC Person.

Chris Leonard wrote at 21:42 (EST) on Thursday:
> I believe it is important to be very specific about reimbursement for
> travel as this is probably one of the moret common forms of financial
> transactions in many projects.  It would be unfortunate if PLC members
> were made ineligible (or unduly burdened) in requesting travel funding
> on an equal footing with other project members.

This is a really good point.  It definitely was not our intention to
cause someone to become conflicted automatically by being on a PLC and
therefore unable to receive reimbursements.  (Or, for Conservancy
employees, for that matter -- I definitely need to have my travel
reimbursed. :)

We made these changes to address this:

  * *No Personal Profit or Gain.* No Conservancy Person (or family
  member) shall derive any personal profit or gain, directly or
  indirectly, by reason of his or her participation with
  Conservancy. Personal profit or gain does not include compensation
  approved by the Board for paid employees, or reimbursement of
  legitimate Conservancy expenses.

And:

  * *No Compensation for PLC Persons.* No PLC Person shall receive any
  salary or other substantial benefit from Conservancy as compensation
  for his or her duties as a PLC Person.  Compensation does not include
  reimbursement of legitimate Project expenses.


That should address the concern.

Note also that we're going to be doing a travel reimbursement policy
next, once we get the COI policy sorted.  Of course, we don't want to
the COI to inadvertently set the travel policy of "no reimbursements",
so thanks for pointing out that confusion. :)
-- 
Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director, Software Freedom Conservancy