WAPOR Travel Support Policy

Approved by the WAPOR Council on August 03, 2023

As a general policy, WAPOR will financially support travel only under specific and rare circumstances. It will most commonly do so when the President or Executive Council specifically requests that an individual travel for purposes of conducting WAPOR business. Recent examples include (1) travel to represent WAPOR at meetings where the association has a specific interest and (2) travel to the WAPOR archive in North Carolina for research and planning purposes.

Prior to any travel, an itemized budget of reasonable anticipated expenses should be prepared and approved by the WAPOR Finance Committee. The decision to fund travel will be made upon the motion by the President, with the support of the Executive Council, following standard disbursement procedures. In all cases, when WAPOR provides travel support, the recipient is expected to submit a written report
back to WAPOR regarding the work accomplished during the trip, along with a final itemized list of  expenses needing reimbursement. Other key elements of WAPOR’s travel policy include the following:

  • When planning travel, the most reasonable and inexpensive means of transportation should be utilized. For example, when booking air transportation, travelers should plan to utilize coach or economy seating, as first class and business class travel will not be approved.
  • WAPOR does not reimburse Council members for travel to the annual conference. If special Council meetings are held beyond the annual conference, WAPOR may consider reimbursing the travel of Council members to those events.
  • Any requests for exceptions to WAPOR’s general travel policy need to be made in writing and approved by the Finance Committee and President in advance of the travel.
  • Student travel grant awards may be made in conjunction with the annual WAPOR conference when sufficient funds are available to do so. These awards will be overseen by the Conference Planning Committee, which will employ transparent procedures for announcing the availability of student travel awards and for determining which applications are to be funded. Historically, it has been the policy to make multiple small student travel awards rather than to fully fund a smaller number of students.
  • An annual travel award is also made to the recipient of the Dinerman Award to cover their expenses for attending the conference and accepting the award. This includes free conference registration, airfare and a two-night stay at the conference hotel. These funds are conditional on the award recipient’s attendance at the annual conference.