Expenses guidelines for events
At the Denver CiviCon in 2015, we (Dave Greenberg, Kevin Cristiano and I) established the following policy on expenses for people giving training associated with the event:
We agree that it makes sense and would be good to pay accommodation and food costs for trainers as a thanks for the two extra days that they are doing the training.
Exact amounts will vary depending on the location.
Expenses can only be paid if the conference as a whole breaks even
Although we followed this policy at at least some future events, we did not published anywhere public.
We should:
- publish it (or something similar) as part of the event guidelines
- make adjustments as necessary as we go based on feedback
- ensure that event organisers tell the people that are carrying out the training about the expenses policy when the recruit them
My general feeling about event guidelines is that we don't want too many of them. With this policy, for example, I feel like there is room for flexibility on a per event basis on what the compensation arrangements are. We can offer this as the standard approach but conference organisers should be able to be flexible based on individual circumstance. What should be required is to make sure that people who are delivering the training are aware of the expenses policy.
Note: this policy only covered people giving training associated with the event. There are other volunteers to think about: speakers, core organisers etc. I'm not sure what the policy is for those people but I think something similar to the above should apply.