To reduce the administrative burden on Google employees, this year the Summer of Code program will make one payment to the organization that includes the $500/student mentoring payments *in addition to the travel reimbursements for the mentor summit*. In the past, Google would directly pay the travelers, but this year they only want to deal with 1 invoice per organization. This means that the foundation will need to reimburse the two people traveling to the mentor summit for their plane tickets. It would be extremely helpful if the foundation were willing to reimburse the travelers immediately upon purchase of the ticket and before being paid by Google, since many developers cannot float that large of a purchase on their credit cards. So this is what I propose, beginning now and continuing into future years. Thoughts? Things that need to be dealt with for this to happen smoothly? Agreement?
This seems fine to me in general. I do have a couple of concerns. 1. We never got paid for last year that I am aware of. 2. We would need to be _certain_ to get paid this year. 3. The trustees are not really involved with GSoC in any capacity that I am aware of, and thus would need to communicate with the mentors about the various deadlines. This is another item for the Sept 13th meeting agenda. @dberkholz: what kind of $$ are we talking about here, just plane tickets for 2 devs? Also, who is in charge of managing this within Gentoo? To deal with this smoothly I think the following criterion require satisfaction: 1. We need deadline dates for submission of the invoice to Google. 2. We need accountability in the form of copies of receipts from the devs/students that need $$. 3. We need to talk about any details or fine print that may cause problems, email is good for this so we have record. 4. Agreement on payment deadlines for students. That is a decent initial list, & we look forward to the discourse.
(In reply to comment #1) > This seems fine to me in general. > > I do have a couple of concerns. > > 1. We never got paid for last year that I am aware of. We did not, due to it being too late by the time we could readily accept checks. In fact I'll have to check records but the last two years we've not received the funds due to the method in which they could distribute and issues with banking. > > 2. We would need to be _certain_ to get paid this year. Absolutely and we have stuff in place to allow for that. > 1. We need deadline dates for submission of the invoice to Google. And limits if there are some set by Google..I'm sure there are some, so if the mentor can't make it under that amount, its unlikely we'll fund said trip. > 4. Agreement on payment deadlines for students. We are not paying the students Matthew, Google is still doing that directly.
(In reply to comment #1) > 3. The trustees are not really involved with GSoC in any capacity that I am > aware of, and thus would need to communicate with the mentors about the > various deadlines. I'm the admin (starting this year) so I'm happy to be the primary point of contact. I will also be the one who takes care of getting paid. > @dberkholz: what kind of $$ are we talking about here, just plane tickets for > 2 devs? Plane tickets for 2 mentors/admins. GSoC mentors for Gentoo are typically but not necessarily devs; the requirement is that they are closely involved with their projects. It will be less than $2000, because that is Google's limit. Right now it's looking like around $1600, with one international traveler and one within the US. Google suggests doing it that way. > Also, who is in charge of managing this within Gentoo? Me! I should have make that clear when filing the bug. > To deal with this smoothly I think the following criterion require > satisfaction: > > 1. We need deadline dates for submission of the invoice to Google. We haven't been supplied with that information by Google yet. Based on last year, it is likely to happen very soon but not before we need to buy plane tickets. Last year invoicing was happening right now, but travel was not involved so that will delay things a little. > 2. We need accountability in the form of copies of receipts from the > devs/students that need $$. Absolutely agree on receipts for the 2 mentors' travel. As Josh noted, students are not involved here. (In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > 2. We would need to be _certain_ to get paid this year. > > 1. We need deadline dates for submission of the invoice to Google. > > And limits if there are some set by Google..I'm sure there are some, so if the > mentor can't make it under that amount, its unlikely we'll fund said trip. Right, as mentioned above.
Thanks for the info. I think the figures are reasonable, and we shouldn't have any trouble with funding that. Though I will leave the details up to Josh, as he is the Treasurer. Keep us posted Donnie! Thanks.
No issues from me with this, we can handle that amount for the two people. Who are the two people going? Have my approval, and I take it from Matthew's reply that he approves as well. That covers the basis I need to be able to reimburse the amounts submitted in a quick timeframe.
(In reply to comment #5) > No issues from me with this, we can handle that amount for the two people. Who > are the two people going? It's typically an admin and a mentor. This year it will be Anant (who mentored the Web-based image builder) and me. > Have my approval, and I take it from Matthew's reply that he approves as well. > That covers the basis I need to be able to reimburse the amounts submitted in > a quick timeframe. Great! How would you like to proceed from here? Shall we just send receipts and reimbursement information directly to trustees@g.o and take it from there?
(In reply to comment #6) > (In reply to comment #5) > > Great! How would you like to proceed from here? Shall we just send receipts and > reimbursement information directly to trustees@g.o and take it from there? > Please attach them here, this allows us to track it better for record keeping purposes. In this case as well I'd like to avoid using paypal if possible due to the cost of fee's that would be leveraged and general limits of what you can pull out by month (thus delaying the funds getting to you). Would Anant have any issues with a check being issues to him from a US bank etc? Basically I want to make this as painless as possible. I can also look into direct transfers from our banks to your accounts through wire transfers. Basically I just want to make this as quick and painless for everyone possible.
Created attachment 204497 [details] Receipt for Flight to GSoC Mentor Summit Attached is my receipt for the flight. I am able to accept a direct bank transfer to my US bank account, or a check mailed to my Netherlands mailing address; whichever is most convenient to you. Thanks!
Anant, Try and catch me online this weekend and we can discuss details about how to reimburse you for the cost of the flight.
adding anant as a cc as he obviously didn't get my reply to contact me, not being a cc'd member on this and all that jazz. Anant contact me when you get the chance and I'll try and work with you to get you reimbursed for this as soon as possible.
Sorry about that Joshua, I completely forgot to add myself to Cc! I'll try and find you on IRC or email you to work out the details :)
Created attachment 205203 [details] dberkholz_gsoc_2009_ticket.pdf
anant & donnie, I'll have to send you both checks it appears. There's no easy way to do a bank to bank without verification first ( So much easier with EU based bank accounts :( ). I got your address Anant and will send it off this week to you as soon as I can. Donnie, want to handle it via paypal or would a check mailed work as well?
(In reply to comment #13) > I got your address Anant and will send it off this week to you as soon as I > can. Donnie, want to handle it via paypal or would a check mailed work as well? Either way is fine, it sounded like a check worked better for you. I just sent you my mailing address on IRC, please let me know if you need anything more.
checks were mailed today. Anant it should be there in 5-10 days. Donnie, its domestic so hopefully 4 days or so. I'll leave this open until I get confirmation from you both that you've received the checks.
(In reply to comment #15) > checks were mailed today. > > Anant it should be there in 5-10 days. I have received the check and deposited it at my bank. Thanks Joshua (and the foundation) for processing this so quickly!
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > 1. We never got paid for last year that I am aware of. > > We did not, due to it being too late by the time we could readily accept > checks. In fact I'll have to check records but the last two years we've not > received the funds due to the method in which they could distribute and issues > with banking. > > > 2. We would need to be _certain_ to get paid this year. > > Absolutely and we have stuff in place to allow for that. A quick grep over your meeting logs doesn't match anything. Is this done for this year?
Still have not heard from donnie about the status of reimbursement from Google yet :(
(In reply to comment #18) > Still have not heard from donnie about the status of reimbursement from Google > yet :( If Donnie does not follow up, do we have a fallback? As antarus is listed as "backup admin" of the Gentoo SoC project and also gets this mail, maybe he can help?
(In reply to comment #19) > (In reply to comment #18) > > Still have not heard from donnie about the status of reimbursement from Google > > yet :( > > If Donnie does not follow up, do we have a fallback? > > As antarus is listed as "backup admin" of the Gentoo SoC project and also gets > this mail, maybe he can help? > Hi folks, Tsunam can you please email me your name & address so I can verify we have the right registration in the vendor system? Once that is done I will request a PO. Once we get a PO we can email an invoice form with the PO#. I am pretty sure as long as we have a PO# by the end of the year we will be OK here (but I don't work in finance so I cannot be 100% sure.) Anyway if you can verify the address and name I can get the wheels spinning.
(In reply to comment #20) > Anyway if you can verify the address and name I can get the wheels spinning. Name and address were verified and the wheels are spinning?
According to donnie it is...
Per a message from Donnie (from the 21st) he has submitted the numbers to google and are awaiting their return.
first payment was received. Second is still pending
Second payment cleared on Friday. Thank you donnie for all your work on this.
