Hi Bernelle
Thanks I am aware that I need to draft a contract specific to the Debian Conference’s requirements. SPI don’t have to sign the contract yet but I do need their details in order to complete the contract.
Regards
Belinda
From: Bernelle Verster [mailto:bernellev@gmail.com]
Sent: 15 September 2015 01:58 PM
To: Belinda Chapman
Subject: Re: FW: Query: DebConf16: 2016 - International Debian Developers Conference, hosted at UCT
Hi Belinda
I am sourcing the contact details for you. In the interim:
EVENT TITLE: DebConf16: The International Debian Developers Conference
SPONSORING ORGANISATION: SPI: Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
CONTACT PERSON: ?? _______________________ PHONE: ??________________
FAX:?? __________________
REGISTERED ADDRESS OF ORGANISATION: ??____________________________
_______________________________________________
CHECK-IN DATE:Sunday 26 June CHECK-OUT DATE: Sunday 10 July 2016
It is a bit of a catch 22 though, SPI (Software in the Public Interest, Inc.) want to see the draft contract before they commit to signing it. You attached what looks like the standard contract, but we have discussed a modified contract (please see the email thread below). Can you send through the draft modified contract? If this is confusing we could meet again?
regards
B
Thanks for your mail and the update.
Re: your notes below about UCT accommodation. It seems that the CMC involvement will now be greater than initially anticipated and I passed this mail via our manager, Deidre Raubenheimer.
She has advised that for us to take this admin of UCT accommodation - CMC would charge a co-ordination sub-minimum rate of R 8,000. Thereafter any additional work - a R240 per hour rate would apply.
I will only be able to handle further work re UCT accom once the CMC SPI contract is in place.
I will await feedback regarding this.
Many thanks
Belinda
From: Bernelle Verster [mailto:bernellev@gmail.com]
Sent: 12 August 2015 05:30 PM
To: Belinda Chapman
Subject: Re: FW: Query: DebConf16: 2016 - International Debian Developers Conference, hosted at UCT
Dear Belinda
I hope you are well?
It gives me great pleasure to tell you the whole team is very pleased with CMC.
Outcomes from our meeting today:
- SPI will pay a lump sum into your bank account upon finalisation & signing of the contract. You will NOT receive small amounts as well, so you don't need to manage that.
- SPI will sign the contract directly - this may take some time though, we will keep you informed.
- CMC handles accommodation. We have further questions about this please:
- The current accommodation facilitation fee is per hour. Could we restructure this to be per attendee?
- Can CMC then sign the contract with UCT accommodation?
Details:
Nights of Sunday 26 June - Friday 1 July 2016: 100 people
Nights of Saturday 2 July - Saturday 9 July: 300 people
Breakfast for these people.- Can the meals accommodate restrictions in diet? E.g. vegan meals, gluten-free meals etc.
- Can you please confirm if this will then be UCT internal rates?
- Can you ask Accommodation if we can reserve the dates for the accommodation for two months, which is the time we need to sign the contracts and secure the funds. I hope this will be possible as the conference is so far in advance? I dealt with Phelo before.
- As far as I am aware of, all the available UCT accommodation are single rooms. We will, however, have some families coming. Are there any accommodation options available for families, as part of UCT, or external, but in close proximity, that you are aware of? How would these be managed?
Can you please set up a contract reflecting all of this?
best regards
Bernelle
Dear Belinda
Please note that SPI refers to the Software in the Public Interest organisation (http://www.spi-inc.org/)
- Does CMC handle all attendee accommodation payments and credit them against our liabilities? I understood that we would receive lump sum payments from eg SPI and then make bulk payments to UCT accommodation for the group. Is that the case or will individual delegates be wanting to pay for their accom? If we need to receive and keep track of individual delegate payments a different fee will need to be charged as this will require more work/time.
- Do the registration fees get paid into the CMC/UCT bank account directly? Yes but that was not included in the initial budget. If you would like this facility, there will be a fee of R20 per registration and that will exclude communications with delegates and following up with amounts outstanding. We would provide a list of names and payments received weekly.
- How do the payments into UCT venues, accommodation, food work? We do EFTs to service providers. Do we get access to the bank account you mentioned, and have to put money in before we get money out? You do not have access to the bank account and yes, we will need funds in the account to make payments. Or can we finalise contracts with e.g. accommodation before we have money in the account? You can sign a contract with UCT accommodation before transferring funds to our CMC account.
- Would we be able to use the UCT bank account assigned to us for petty cash, e.g. to buy e.g. office supplies? Yes – we included a fee for cashing cheques for sundries – and we can pay all invoices for you .Or is the bank account solely to be used for UCT related costs (venue, accommodation, food)?
- What happens to remainder funds at the conclusion of the event? While we would plan for the event to end as close as possible to zero balance, we would like these to be paid back to SPI, what would the procedure for that be? Yes any surplus will be paid to the organisation you stipulate. If the surplus is not paid into a UCT fund, VAT will be payable on our coordinting fee. At any time we could let you know what your financial position is – ie funds in versus expenses paid.
- Would CMC also accept ZA-sponsor payments on our behalf? Or do we need a separate bank account for that? These sponsor amounts would go towards paying the UCT-related costs, but also other costs not related to UCT. Yes we would accept ZA-sponsor payments on your behalf.
- What's the tax situation like? What would we get taxed on, and how much? The only tax implication is the VAT on our co-ordinating fee.
- Who would be the body organising DebConf16? UCT or our organisation? And will we be charged internal or external rates? That is a decision that you and SPI need to make. If you or Graham make the booking at eg. UCT Accommodation then you should be charged UCT internal rates.
- What forms of payment do CMC accept into this bank account? EFT, SWIFT, credit card online? All those payments would be acceptable. We could issue for the funds you require. Would you be willing to sign the contract with an international organisation (SPI) and accept a SWIFT lump sum payment from them? (This would be the way we deal with international sponsorships) We can accepted lump sum payments (via swift).
- Also just confirming that we will manage the attendee registrations ourself, and liaise with the accommodation directly regarding the names and other needed details of the attendees. That is fine & noted.
- We may need to sign the contract with a local teammember for now (likely myself or Graham Inggs). Would the contract include provisions to allow us to transfer responsibility to a legal entity (SPI) later, or replace the contract with a different one once we have confirmed details? We will only be able to sign one contract. You need to make a decision as to who will sign the contract and take responsibility (incl financial responsibility) for the conference. Depending on your decision we will either draft an internal UCT MOU or an external standard agreement (as per the examples I sent to you).
- This is probably in the contract in legalese, but could you please give me the breakdown on (legal and financial) responsibility should anything go wrong? Just so we're prepared. We are hoping for SPI to be the legal signee, but we are awaiting response from them. We will be handling the finances only. You will need to check with eg UCT accommodation what their policy is on the refunding of any deposits paid. There is always a risk with running a conference but when a conference is run at UCT and the expenses are kept low then the risks are not high.
- Our next urgent step is to sign the contract for accommodation, but they require 50% deposit. Can you tell me if there are ways to get around this large chunk of money required upfront? Do you sign with them, or do we? How do we go about this? You can sign the contract with UCT accommodation. We would only be able to sign the contract with UCT accommodation once our contract with you has been finalised. If I were to be the contact with UCT accommodation then there would need to be a fee for my time (pls see attached updated budget).
Best regards
Bernelle
On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Belinda Chapman <belinda.chapman@uct.ac.za> wrote:
Hi Bernelle, Graham,
Thanks for the meeting yesterday.
I spoke to Rose, our accountant and please see attached an estimate of costs for the CMC to handle the finances for the Debian Developers Conference. If you have queries or need more information please let me know.
Please also see attached the templates for an external contract and an internal UCT Memorandum of Understanding. A contract for the Debian Developers Conference would not include quite a lot of this detail as we would only be handling the finances.
An example of an ATAS online registration form can be found at the following link: http://www.exbo.co.za/REG/dynamic_forms/generated_forms/dohad15_register.php
However if Debian has their own system that they use each year then that is probably the best way to go.
Kind regards
Belinda
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN
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