JEP |
8 |
Title |
Google Summer of Code Budgeting and Expenses |
Sponsor |
|
Status |
Draft 💬 |
Type |
Process |
Created |
2018-07-17 |
BDFL-Delegate |
The budget sources are:
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Payments by Google according to the Payments to Google Summer of Code Organizations
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Other donations to the Jenkins project, which explicitly target GSoC
All payments are transferred to the Jenkins account provided by the Software In Public Interest non-profit organization, or to other official Jenkins treasury account.
The Google Summer of Code budget can be used ONLY to promote Google Summer of Code in the Jenkins project or to fund the ongoing Google Summer of Code or Google Code-In projects. It should not be used for other purposes unless approved by GSoC organization admins.
Possible usages:
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Travel grants for GSoC students in order to participate in Jenkins community or industry events
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Examples: Jenkins Area Meetups, Jenkins World, open-source conferences like FOSDEM, etc.
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Travel grants may cover: hotel, transportation costs, visa fees, travel insurance, meals
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Transportation costs may be covered only for economy-class travel. Upgrades like economy plus are not covered unless preconfirmed with org admins.
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Travel grants do NOT cover: conference fees, alcohol, souvenirs, etc.
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GSoC Mentor Summit travel grants for GSoC mentors and org admins
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The budget is provided according to the rules defined in GSoC Org Payments (as of 2018 - 2200 USD)
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Mentor travel grants may cover: transportation costs, visa fees, meals
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Transportation costs may be covered only for basic economy-class travel. Upgrades like economy plus are not covered unless preconfirmed with org admins.
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Travel grants do NOT cover travel expenses to any other events
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Travel grants do NOT cover expenses that are already covered event organizers, or other types of sponsors.
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Project expenses for students
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GSoC budget may be used to cover particular expenses for projects: special equipment costs, SaaS hosting
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Project expenses should happen within the GSoC timeframe between start of Community Bonding and end of the last coding phase
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GSoC budget may not be used to cover generic equipment costs: laptop, IDEs, internet, etc.
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GSoC budget may not be used to cover software license costs. Should a project require access to non-free resources (software or hardware), the project mentors and student are expected to discuss options with org admins. Org admins may help to reach out to potential sponsors.
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Total project expenses may not exceed the amount being paid by Google per project (as of 2018 - 500 USD)
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Promotional materials
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GSoC budget may be used to promote Google Summer of Code by distributing swag, e.g. stickers, T-shirts and other items. Swag may be sent to participants or distributed at community events.
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GSoC budget may be used to cover swag production costs and delivery costs by regular mail
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Swag may be sent out to active GSoC participants, including GSoC students, mentors, org admins, applicants, and other contributors who participated in GSoC
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GSoC budget may not be used for any kind of paid advertisement or payments to external individuals/organizations for promotion.
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GSoC budget may not be used to send out promotional materials which explicitly or implicitly reference other trademarks or commercial companies
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All expenses should be pre-approved with Jenkins GSoC org admins before the expenses are incurred, and as a pre-condition for payment
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Send the expense requests to the Jenkins GSoC Org Admins mailing list
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Jenkins org admins are eligible to approve the requests only within the GSoC budget defined in this JEP
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All payments beyond this budget should be approved by Jenkins Governance Meeting or Jenkins Board
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According to the SPI process, the GSoC-related expense reports still need approval by Jenkins Board once submitted (see Payment process)
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Approvals are done by Jenkins GSoC org admin consensus
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When a Jenkins GSoC org admin declared his/her non-availability, the remaining org admins can decide by consensus without the missing org admin
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If Jenkins GSoC org admins are unable to come to a decision regarding the approval of an expense, they will escalate the expense request to the Jenkins Governance meeting
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Jenkins GSoC org admins should respond within 2 weeks to an expense request
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If one or more Jenkins GSoC org admins have not responded within the 2 weeks, the remaining org admins can decide by consensus
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If no Jenkins GSoC org admins have responded at the end of the the 2 week period, the expense request needs to be presented to Jenkins Governance meeting
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To minimize delays, we kindly ask requesters to:
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Send a request at least 2 days before the Weekly GSoC meeting
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Join the Weekly GSoC meeting and discuss it with the Jenkins GSoC org admins on the call
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Jenkins project does not pay for expenses upfront, but it reimburses expenses post-factum to students, mentors or Org Admins
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Reimbursements are performed according to the SPI process defined Reimbursement of Expenses via SPI
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It may take a while to get an expense report reimbursed (see the Liability section)
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It is recommended that GSoC mentors do the payments for students and then seek reimbursement for the expenses. Pre-approval is still required in this case.
Jenkins project has no legal entity which can commit on expenses.
This means:
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Approval by GSoC org admins does not guarantee the payments
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Jenkins project, GSoC org admins or SPI cannot guarantee the timing of any payment or, in the worst case, the payment itself
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Jenkins Project or SPI cannot issue guarantee letters for visa applications or other travel documents.
Unused budget from previous years are transferred to the next year. Unused budgets for GSoC mentor summit travel grants may be used for different purpose once transferred to the next year.
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GSoC Org Admins report to the Jenkins Governance Board regarding the budgeting
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GSoC Org Admins are responsible to report the current budget status at the Jenkins Governance meeting at least twice per year:
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As a part of GSoC preparation process (est. January or February)
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After all GSoC payments are done (est. October)
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GSoC Org Admins are responsible to report on the budget at the Jenkins Governance Meeting upon request
Jenkins operates in Google Summer of Code within rules defined by Google, and it gets dedicated payments. In order to promote GSoC and community activities, we want to spend some of the budget on travel grants and other such promotional programs. Due to time constraints, travel grants need to be approved in a short timeframe in mid-summer. It is a vacation period, and it is difficult to reach out to stakeholders and get approvals during this timeframe.
Having a separate GSoC budget and approval policy would give the Jenkins GSoC administrators the autonomy they need to operate the GSoC program effectively and on a timely fashion with regards to the Google Summer of Code Timeline.
As stated above, Jenkins project and SPI cannot issue expense guarantee letters to students. Unfortunately, we do not have other way available. Should students need such guarantee letters for visa applications, they should reach out to mentors or org admins. There are several possible options:
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Mentors or Org Admins can issue personal guarantee letters for students and provide personal bank statements. In such case mentors will be personally liable for expense coverage, including unexpected expenses
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GSoC student or his relatives may issue guarantee letters on their own. In such case they will be personally responsible to cover travel expenses, including unexpected ones
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An event organizer (company or individual) may issue a guarantee letter
All options above are not ideal, but in the current state Jenkins project cannot offer other options. The approach will be revisited when (and if) Jenkins project has a legal entity.