Grants talk:Documenting project expenses

It seems the nice people who set up this policy didn't think about it very thoroughly. "As with all travel-related expenses, grantees are expected to conform to the policies set forth in Wikimedia Foundation's Travel Policy when budgeting car travel." Wonderful. And the Travel Policy says: "This policy applies only to travelers whose expenses are being paid by the WMF; it does not apply to travelers whose expenses are being paid by another organization, or by the traveler him or herself." Now, does this policy apply to people travelling on the expense of a grant, or does it not?

This is a very important question for grantees like Wikimedia Estonia, because the Travel Policy also says: "All travel arrangements (air, rail, vehicle rental and lodging), including all changes and cancellations of travel arrangements, must be made through WMF’s designated travel service provider, except with advance approval from the Executive Director or Chair of the Board of Trustees." Would someone, please, tell me, how many WMF’s designated travel service providers are operating in Estonia? If there are none, Wikimedia Eesti evidently has to ask advance approval from the Executive Director or Chair of the Board of Trustees for each and every case someone wants to come to our general assembly with their own car. I sincerely doubt if ED considers this process would be a good use of her time (and everyone else's). --Oop (talk) 09:25, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the question: I think we may have resolved in previously, but I would also like to include a response here on the discussion page for the record. This page states, "Please review the WMF's travel policy before including car travel in your budget, since we will rely on this policy to understand acceptable project-related mileage expenses." This indicates that you should review this policy as a reference point, and does not indicate that you need to follow the parts of the policy that do not apply to you as a grantee (for example, use of WMF travel providers). We understand that this is a policy pertaining to those with travel booked directly by WMF and is not designed to include grantees. We are happy to answer any specific questions you may have about how to budget Wikimedia Eesti's travel appropriately in the context of your grants. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 23:57, 5 February 2014 (UTC)