Re: [IAEP] Motion: To appoint Volunteer Laura Vargas as Sugar Labs Financial Manager [was Re: [SLOBS] URGENT action needed]

[Caryl Bigenho]

Hello All...


I came late to this discussion as we have been very busy the past few days and 
I didn't check my email until this am.

I wish to question the propriety of making the financial manager a paid 
employee who is also serving on the board. This is quite out of the ordinary 
and begs for a conflict of interest problem. This holds true for family members 
of a board member (spouse, children, mothers etc.). This is not just coming 
from me. A quick search turns up plenty of information:


>From Google:

Can an employees of a non profit be on the board of directors?
It is not a good idea to have a paid staff member serve on the board and may 
even be limited by your state's nonprofit laws. The chief reason staff members 
do not usually sit on a nonprofit's board is the risk of a conflict of 
interest. ... Staff may attend board meetings, especially the CEO or Executive 
Director.Oct 25, 2016

What state is SFC, our umbrella organization incorporated in? The state laws 
may actually forbid paid staff and/or their spouses, children, etc. from 
serving on the board.  There are also some IRS complications that may come up.

Sugar Labs is already paying SFC to do the books. It should not be a "job" to 
collect their periodic report and share it with the Sugar Labs membership. In 
the meantime, I understand the SLOBs have been granted access to the financial 
information now on an ongoing basis, which should help clear up some of the 
questions people have had.

Other Sources

https://www.thebalance.com/can-nonprofits-pay-board-members-or-appoint-paid-staff-2502271

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/56/files/2017/08/Screenshot-2017-08-21-06.14.27.png

https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/can-board-members-be-paid
[https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/sites/default/files/resources-tools/images/questions-answers-feature.jpg]

Can board members be paid? | National Council of 
Nonprofits
www.councilofnonprofits.org
The vast, indeed overwhelming majority, of board members of charitable 
nonprofits are unpaid volunteer members of their boards of directors. This is 
because of the ...

Caryl



From: IAEP  on behalf of Laura Vargas 

Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 10:32:28 AM
To: Adam Holt; SLOBs
Cc: iaep; Sugar-dev Devel; Karen Sandler; OLPC para usuarios, docentes, 
voluntarios y administradores
Subject: Re: [IAEP] Motion: To appoint Volunteer Laura Vargas as Sugar Labs 
Financial Manager [was Re: [SLOBS] URGENT action needed]

Adam,

I'm OK if you are not willing to mentor me. I'll research and learn as well.

I have published all the ledger commands here, that I know of to hopefully get 
you started: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2017-August/019935.html

PS a quarterly financial report makes Far More Sense that monthly voodoo / 
feel-good economics, when most transactions are reported at highly uncertain 
times many months after the fact.

Yes. Approved MOTION 2017-13 Approves the Sugar Labs Financial Manager to have 
a monthly stipend of US$ TBD in exchange for: 1 complete financial report per 
quarter and it's publication on the Sugar Labs Finance Wiki page.

20 hours or anybody's time to repeatedly run the same numbers is an extremely 
bad use of anybody's time in my opinion, particularly as there are many months 
with no transactions at all.


I estimated I would need to dedicate least 20 monthly hours, considering that:

A) English is not my native language and I have to account time for translating 
and rechecking.
B) Reports publication are due since February 2016 (1 year and 2 quarters to 
catch up).
C) All financial procedures require to be debugged and properly published on 
the SL wiki.

Anyhow, if this is what you are requiring please feel free to modify up or down 
the amount of the stipend so we can move on.

Regards,


--
Laura V.
I SomosAZUCAR.Org

“Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
~ L. Victoria

Happy Learning!
#LearningByDoing
#Projects4good
#IDesignATSugarLabs
#WeCanDoBetter
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Re: [IAEP] Motion: To appoint Volunteer Laura Vargas as Sugar Labs Financial Manager [was Re: [SLOBS] URGENT action needed]

[Laura Vargas]

Adam,

I'm OK if you are not willing to mentor me. I'll research and learn as well.


> I have published all the ledger commands here, that I know of to hopefully
> get you started: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2017-August/
> 019935.html
>
>
PS a quarterly financial report makes Far More Sense that monthly voodoo /
> feel-good economics, when most transactions are reported at highly
> uncertain times many months after the fact.
>

Yes. Approved MOTION 2017-13 Approves the Sugar Labs Financial Manager to
have a monthly stipend of US$ TBD in exchange for: 1 complete financial
report per quarter and it's publication on the Sugar Labs Finance Wiki page.

20 hours or anybody's time to repeatedly run the same numbers is an
> extremely bad use of anybody's time in my opinion, particularly as there
> are many months with no transactions at all.
>
>
I estimated I would need to dedicate least 20 monthly hours, considering
that:

A) English is not my native language and I have to account time for
translating and rechecking.
B) Reports publication are due since *February 2016 *(1 year and 2 quarters
to catch up).
C) All financial procedures require to be debugged and properly published
on the SL wiki.

Anyhow, if this is what you are requiring *please feel free to modify up or
down the amount of the stipend so we can move on. *

Regards,


-- 
Laura V.
* I SomosAZUCAR.Org*

“Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
~ L. Victoria

Happy Learning!
#LearningByDoing
#Projects4good
#IDesignATSugarLabs
#WeCanDoBetter
___
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IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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Re: [IAEP] Motion: To appoint Volunteer Laura Vargas as Sugar Labs Financial Manager [was Re: [SLOBS] URGENT action needed]

[Adam Holt]

On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 10:30 AM, Adam Holt  wrote:

> FYI Laura,
>
> I did not receive any training/mentoring and as far as I know nobody else
> in Sugar Labs has either.  I have published all the ledger commands here,
> that I know of to hopefully get you started: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/
> archive/iaep/2017-August/019935.html
>
> PS a quarterly financial report makes Far More Sense that monthly voodoo /
> feel-good economics, when most transactions are reported at highly
> uncertain times many months after the fact.  20 hours...
>

Clarif: 20 hours/month of anybody's time [is a bad use of anybody's time in
my opinion, to accomplish the stated goal of a quarterly financial report]

to repeatedly run the same numbers is an extremely bad use of anybody's
> time in my opinion, particularly as there are many months with no
> transactions at all.
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Laura Vargas 
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> 2017-09-08 7:39 GMT-05:00 Adam Holt :
>>
>>> On Sep 8, 2017 7:43 AM, "Laura Vargas"  wrote:
>>>
>>> 2017-08-14 23:51 GMT-05:00 Adam Holt :
>>>
 Thanks Karen for please responding to these 3 emails I sent you when
 possible:
 ...

 - Aug 9 subject line "Samson Goddy asks for visa supporting docs for
 GSoC visit to USA" [so that his visa is less likely to be denied, as
 happened around mid-June with the French Embassy]


>>> Adam,
>>>
>>> Am puzzled.
>>>
>>> If board decision on this motion 2017-08-13
>>> 
>>> was not to approve the travel,
>>>
>>>
>>> You are confusing apples and oranges.
>>>
>>> Apples: The board did not approve a large $627.05 loan/advance to
>>> Samson for travel within Nigeria to attempt to get a US visa.  This large
>>> personal loan/advance was denied in no small part because it could
>>> disappear, if for example the US denies a visa to Samson, similar to what
>>> happened in June with his failed attempt to get a French visa for a Scratch
>>> conference.
>>>
>>> Oranges: Nobody (or nobody in their right mind anyway) is suggesting
>>> Samson should not travel internationally to attend the GSoC mentor summit
>>> in the San Francisco Bay Area Oct 13-15, 2017 as soon as the US visa is
>>> hopefully sorted out soon.  Hopefully Samson can give us an update in the
>>> coming week.
>>>
>>> why are you making related requests to the Conservancy?
>>>
>>>
>>> So that his US visa is less likely to be denied, as happened around
>>> mid-June with the French Embassy.  Thankfully the SFConservancy has
>>> assisted Samson here (AFAIK, Samson can hopefully clarify).
>>>
>>> How about Sugar Labs use its talents to move forward instead of
>>> continually relitigating the past?
>>>
>>> Can we take a pause to consider that for 2018?
>>>
>>
>> Adam,
>>
>> *Thanks to your clarification I know understand you are only requiring
>> documentation and not a transaction and I guess that is OK.*
>>
>> Although I have been granted access to Sugar Labs ledger file, I still
>> have no training nor knowledge to use the commands to obtain reports and
>> publish them properly in the wiki so that community can have access to
>> Sugar Labs Financial reports.
>>
>> If you are willing to mentor me in the use of the ledger commands, I may
>> be able to dedicate weekly time to the Financial Manager position and
>> assume the responsibility of learning and documenting all the how to's for
>> publishing Sugar Labs financial reports at the wiki :D
>>
>> *Motion: To appoint Sugar Labs Oversight Board member Laura Vargas as
>> Sugar Labs Financial Manager with a monthly stipend of US$ 200 in
>> accordance with *AGREED MOTION 2017-13*. *
>>
>> I hope we can work together and publish solid financial reports soon.
>> Feel free to modify up or down the amount of the stipend. I estimated this
>> task will require to start at least twenty (20) monthly hours of high
>> concentration since I have to learn all the procedures.
>>
>> I also hope to count with anyone interested in making this process
>> automated from the ledger file to the wiki publication in the mid-short
>> term.
>>
>> Regards,
>> --
>> Laura V.
>> * I SomosAZUCAR.Org*
>>
>> “Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
>> ~ L. Victoria
>>
>> Happy Learning!
>> #LearningByDoing
>> #Projects4good
>> #IDesignATSugarLabs
>> #WeCanDoBetter
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
>
> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
>
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Re: [IAEP] Motion: To appoint Volunteer Laura Vargas as Sugar Labs Financial Manager [was Re: [SLOBS] URGENT action needed]

[Adam Holt]

FYI Laura,

I did not receive any training/mentoring and as far as I know nobody else
in Sugar Labs has either.  I have published all the ledger commands here,
that I know of to hopefully get you started:
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2017-August/019935.html

PS a quarterly financial report makes Far More Sense that monthly voodoo /
feel-good economics, when most transactions are reported at highly
uncertain times many months after the fact.  20 hours or anybody's time to
repeatedly run the same numbers is an extremely bad use of anybody's time
in my opinion, particularly as there are many months with no transactions
at all.


On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Laura Vargas  wrote:

>
>
> 2017-09-08 7:39 GMT-05:00 Adam Holt :
>
>> On Sep 8, 2017 7:43 AM, "Laura Vargas"  wrote:
>>
>> 2017-08-14 23:51 GMT-05:00 Adam Holt :
>>
>>> Thanks Karen for please responding to these 3 emails I sent you when
>>> possible:
>>> ...
>>>
>>> - Aug 9 subject line "Samson Goddy asks for visa supporting docs for
>>> GSoC visit to USA" [so that his visa is less likely to be denied, as
>>> happened around mid-June with the French Embassy]
>>>
>>>
>> Adam,
>>
>> Am puzzled.
>>
>> If board decision on this motion 2017-08-13
>>  was
>> not to approve the travel,
>>
>>
>> You are confusing apples and oranges.
>>
>> Apples: The board did not approve a large $627.05 loan/advance to Samson
>> for travel within Nigeria to attempt to get a US visa.  This large personal
>> loan/advance was denied in no small part because it could disappear, if for
>> example the US denies a visa to Samson, similar to what happened in June
>> with his failed attempt to get a French visa for a Scratch conference.
>>
>> Oranges: Nobody (or nobody in their right mind anyway) is suggesting
>> Samson should not travel internationally to attend the GSoC mentor summit
>> in the San Francisco Bay Area Oct 13-15, 2017 as soon as the US visa is
>> hopefully sorted out soon.  Hopefully Samson can give us an update in the
>> coming week.
>>
>> why are you making related requests to the Conservancy?
>>
>>
>> So that his US visa is less likely to be denied, as happened around
>> mid-June with the French Embassy.  Thankfully the SFConservancy has
>> assisted Samson here (AFAIK, Samson can hopefully clarify).
>>
>> How about Sugar Labs use its talents to move forward instead of
>> continually relitigating the past?
>>
>> Can we take a pause to consider that for 2018?
>>
>
> Adam,
>
> *Thanks to your clarification I know understand you are only requiring
> documentation and not a transaction and I guess that is OK.*
>
> Although I have been granted access to Sugar Labs ledger file, I still
> have no training nor knowledge to use the commands to obtain reports and
> publish them properly in the wiki so that community can have access to
> Sugar Labs Financial reports.
>
> If you are willing to mentor me in the use of the ledger commands, I may
> be able to dedicate weekly time to the Financial Manager position and
> assume the responsibility of learning and documenting all the how to's for
> publishing Sugar Labs financial reports at the wiki :D
>
> *Motion: To appoint Sugar Labs Oversight Board member Laura Vargas as
> Sugar Labs Financial Manager with a monthly stipend of US$ 200 in
> accordance with *AGREED MOTION 2017-13*. *
>
> I hope we can work together and publish solid financial reports soon. Feel
> free to modify up or down the amount of the stipend. I estimated this task
> will require to start at least twenty (20) monthly hours of high
> concentration since I have to learn all the procedures.
>
> I also hope to count with anyone interested in making this process
> automated from the ledger file to the wiki publication in the mid-short
> term.
>
> Regards,
> --
> Laura V.
> * I SomosAZUCAR.Org*
>
> “Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
> ~ L. Victoria
>
> Happy Learning!
> #LearningByDoing
> #Projects4good
> #IDesignATSugarLabs
> #WeCanDoBetter
>



-- 
Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
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[IAEP] Motion: To appoint Volunteer Laura Vargas as Sugar Labs Financial Manager [was Re: [SLOBS] URGENT action needed]

[Laura Vargas]

2017-09-08 7:39 GMT-05:00 Adam Holt :

> On Sep 8, 2017 7:43 AM, "Laura Vargas"  wrote:
>
> 2017-08-14 23:51 GMT-05:00 Adam Holt :
>
>> Thanks Karen for please responding to these 3 emails I sent you when
>> possible:
>> ...
>>
>> - Aug 9 subject line "Samson Goddy asks for visa supporting docs for GSoC
>> visit to USA" [so that his visa is less likely to be denied, as happened
>> around mid-June with the French Embassy]
>>
>>
> Adam,
>
> Am puzzled.
>
> If board decision on this motion 2017-08-13
>  was
> not to approve the travel,
>
>
> You are confusing apples and oranges.
>
> Apples: The board did not approve a large $627.05 loan/advance to Samson
> for travel within Nigeria to attempt to get a US visa.  This large personal
> loan/advance was denied in no small part because it could disappear, if for
> example the US denies a visa to Samson, similar to what happened in June
> with his failed attempt to get a French visa for a Scratch conference.
>
> Oranges: Nobody (or nobody in their right mind anyway) is suggesting
> Samson should not travel internationally to attend the GSoC mentor summit
> in the San Francisco Bay Area Oct 13-15, 2017 as soon as the US visa is
> hopefully sorted out soon.  Hopefully Samson can give us an update in the
> coming week.
>
> why are you making related requests to the Conservancy?
>
>
> So that his US visa is less likely to be denied, as happened around
> mid-June with the French Embassy.  Thankfully the SFConservancy has
> assisted Samson here (AFAIK, Samson can hopefully clarify).
>
> How about Sugar Labs use its talents to move forward instead of
> continually relitigating the past?
>
> Can we take a pause to consider that for 2018?
>

Adam,

*Thanks to your clarification I know understand you are only requiring
documentation and not a transaction and I guess that is OK.*

Although I have been granted access to Sugar Labs ledger file, I still have
no training nor knowledge to use the commands to obtain reports and publish
them properly in the wiki so that community can have access to Sugar Labs
Financial reports.

If you are willing to mentor me in the use of the ledger commands, I may be
able to dedicate weekly time to the Financial Manager position and assume
the responsibility of learning and documenting all the how to's for
publishing Sugar Labs financial reports at the wiki :D

*Motion: To appoint Sugar Labs Oversight Board member Laura Vargas as Sugar
Labs Financial Manager with a monthly stipend of US$ 200 in accordance
with *AGREED MOTION 2017-13*. *

I hope we can work together and publish solid financial reports soon. Feel
free to modify up or down the amount of the stipend. I estimated this task
will require to start at least twenty (20) monthly hours of high
concentration since I have to learn all the procedures.

I also hope to count with anyone interested in making this process
automated from the ledger file to the wiki publication in the mid-short
term.

Regards,
-- 
Laura V.
* I SomosAZUCAR.Org*

“Solo la tecnología libre nos hará libres.”
~ L. Victoria

Happy Learning!
#LearningByDoing
#Projects4good
#IDesignATSugarLabs
#WeCanDoBetter
___
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep