Travel policy

For privacy reasons, the name of the collective has been replaced as “The Collective”.

Travel and Accommodation Costs

The Collective will cover the financial cost of transport, food and accommodation when traveling.

Transport : We prioritize low-carbon transport means (train, bus, cycling) even if the cost is higher. We acknowledge that in some circumstances, flying is necessary. We don’t use taxis unless there is no other option. We trust people to make a decision that is right for them. We welcome these conversations in the team if you have any doubts.

Accommodation When possible, we encourage spending as little budget as possible by staying at local activists/allies’ homes, campings, hostels. When this is not possible or would impact your wellbeing, we will cover the costs of a lower-range/reasonable accommodation (depending on the city, we estimate this will be about €30-€80 per night).

Food

On days you are traveling for the The Collective, food costs* can be reimbursed. You will need to collect tickets from your expenses.

As a general line, we encourage people to cook food when they have access to a kitchen (at a retreat for example) and to eat within activist systems (at a climate camp for example).

*As vegan as possible (AVAP)
It is agreed, as a collective, that while traveling for The Collective’s work we prioritize vegan options when it’s accessible to us. We trust everyone to truly make an effort.
We acknowledge that unfortunately sometimes there aren’t (m)any (healthy) vegan options, and this agreement is based on trust between us individually. We will not judge ourselves when eating vegan is not possible.

As a rule, when we organize an event (whether our retreat or public events), the food we cook and offer is vegan.

Per diems

When traveling you can decide to receive a per diem according to the costs of living in the country you are traveling in, instead of collecting all receipts. The per diem covers 3 meals per day plus costs for local transport. The per diem does not cover long-distance travel or costs for accommodation.

You can add the per diem to your [collective system for reimbursements] listing the costs you made during travel. Here you find an overview of rates per country (the rates we use more or less come down to the EU per diem rates, divided by 5). If the country you are traveling to is missing, ask the [team managing the collective budget] to make the calculation.

Paying for allies

We can offer reimbursement for travel costs (traveling, local transport, accommodation and food) for allies.

Think well before inviting someone with little purchasing power to somewhere more expensive. Communicate well with the people you are inviting and be clear about what will and what will not be reimbursed.

Some questions we can ask ourselves and allies:

• Was this person invited by us to speak?
  • We reimburse travel, transport, accommodation and food costs for allies from grassroots movements.
• Is The Collective organizing the event?
  • Wherever possible, we pay for allies’ food, definitely if money would be an obstacle for someone participating
  • This is different for people who work for an organization that has its own funds, and can reimburse their employees’ costs.
• Are we visiting them, and are they providing us a service so we can do our work (e.g. drive around to show infrastructure)?
  • We can invite them for food or drinks as a way to thank them
• What is the amount you can set aside for participation? How does this impact your national/campaign budget and other trips?
  • Take this into account when deciding who to invite

Travel time

Before deciding to travel, we ask you to check with your team members (or your 1-1, or someone else from the collective) how many days you should attend an event.

How to count work days when traveling?

• If you would like to, you can count 1 travel day as 1 working day. It is also possible to count half days.
• This also counts if you are not able to work while traveling (e.g. if you are travel sick or do not have internet, etc.).
• 1 day of work abroad = 1 normal work day. We trust you to count work days in a fair way, if you have questions, share them with the collective.
• If you decide to extend your trip for your own pleasure, this is not counted as work days.

Suggestions:

• When you travel with other Collective members, agree together how many work days a trip/event amounted to.
• When traveling for work, for instance to camps, ask yourself if it is fair to really count all days as working days.
• We acknowledge that traveling can be intense and tiring, and that one should have the possibility to recover after travel. Try to do this as soon as you are back from your trip. For example: if you were traveling 5 days and you usually work 3 days a week, you only work 1 day the week after.
• Remember your traveling impacts the work flow of the collective. Try to find a balance between traveling and working from home. Try to prioritize joining collective calls after traveling if you are not working full days.

Google doc version.