Re: Minutes of the Board meeting of March 25th, 2014

[Marina Zhurakhinskaya <marinaz redhat com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sindhu S" <sindhus live in>
> To: "Emmanuele Bassi" <ebassi gmail com>
> Cc: "foundation-announce" <foundation-announce gnome org>, "GNOME Foundation" <foundation-list gnome org>
> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 11:22:43 AM
> Subject: Re: Minutes of the Board meeting of March 25th, 2014
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 8:44 PM, Emmanuele Bassi < ebassi gmail com > wrote:
>
>
> wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/20140325
>
> = Minutes for Tuesday, March 25th, 2014, 16:00 UTC =
>
> * Diego could not get a visa for the West Coast Hackfest
> * Should we reimburse his visa fees
> * '''VOTE''': Reimburse USD 160 of visa costs for Diego: -1 Andreas,
> Kat; +1 Sri, Tobi, Marina, Emmanuele; Joanie abstains
> * We should discuss to amend our policy for reimbursements for visa
> costs in the future
>
> I am appalled at this decision. When I was denied visa in 2013, I was flat
> out told
> that visa fees cannot be reimbursed and I spent 73 USD on visa fees and I
> spent 306 USD
> going to & fro travel to the Embassy but I was told not a single cent can be
> reimbursed.
> I was a newcomer to GNOME then aspiring to attend the Brno Docs Hackfest in
> January.
> I was an OPW intern even then participating in remotely.
>
> What is the situation with Diego that the vote in his/her favor?
>
> At this point of travel expenses being given only *to help* and not *to cover
> everything*
> why are we reimbursing visa fees? I understand the loss of money having been
> on that side
> but I don't understand the inconsistency of rules.

Hi Sindhu,

As you can see, this reimbursement was done by a separate vote as an exception to the current rule. This was 
done because Diego e-mailed the board with a special request and the majority of directors felt that it was 
reasonable to reimburse for visa expenses, when we will not be reimbursing for a larger amount we earlier 
approved that would be needed for the person to make the trip. We know visa rejections can be very 
disappointing, and such reimbursement shows the support of the GNOME community towards the person. I'm sorry 
an exception or a policy review were not considered when you were denied a visa. As you can see, the board 
also decided we should discuss amending the policy about reimbursement for rejected visas in the future.

Thanks,
Marina

> Thanks.
>
> -Sindhu
>
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