Reimbursement for e-NABLE infrastructure costs
When I set up the Hub and e-NABLE Web Central on Azure hosting, it was done using a grant from Microsoft that covers $3500 per year in hosting services. However, over time, as the Hub has grown, our resource usage also grew, and we started to exceed the annual amount covered by the grant. At that time, Microsoft started charging my credit card, averaging around $500 per month.
Unfortunately, I didn't discover this for quite a few months. When the issue was identified, we made changes to the Azure billing setup to take advantage of reserved capacity. This resulted in a significant reduction in monthly costs.
In addition to Azure hosting, there is another service that I've been paying for called Mailgun, which is used to send transactional emails (i.e. email notifications for e-NABLE Web Central and the Hub). This service has been costing around $60 per month on average.
I'm seeking reimbursement from the e-NABLE Fund for the out-of-pocket costs of Azure and Mailgun over the last couple of years. I realize that it would have been better to proactively inform the community of these costs and get approval in advance, but I only recently became aware of the Azure fees. This is why I'm opening this for discussion... I really don't know what the most reasonable approach is here. It doesn't seem like it would be right for me to just absorb all of these costs. But it also might not be right for me to receive a full reimbursement since it took so long for me to report the issue. I would be open to whatever the community feels is appropriate. Perhaps a partial reimbursement is in order.
In the interest of full transparency, here is a summary of the investments I've made to support the e-NABLE community, including the Azure and Mailgun expenses outlined above. I am not seeking reimbursement for any of the items on this report other than the Azure and Mailgun costs.
Please share your thoughts in the comments. We do have a healthy balance in the e-NABLE Fund right now. How much, if any, of the $7,552.16 shown above would you be in favor of seeing reimbursed?
I'll be letting this run as a discussion for at least a week before putting forth a formal proposal.
Jon Schull Fri 15 Jul 2022 3:57PM
I agree with Eric Full reimbursement
It was well worth the full cost and you have already invested plenty of your time and money.
Everton Lins Fri 15 Jul 2022 4:49PM
I agree. Full reimbursement.
Theo Fri 15 Jul 2022 3:56PM
I would support full reimbursement of the proved costs.
Sandra Dermisek Fri 15 Jul 2022 6:50PM
I also would support full reimbursement.
Bob Rieger Fri 15 Jul 2022 10:05PM
Full reimbursement, immediately!
Rich B Sat 16 Jul 2022 1:15PM
I believe there should be full support.
Nate Munro Thu 21 Jul 2022 1:03AM
Thanks for covering those expenses for everyone Jeremy. You of course should be reimbursed, and I would go a step further with your proposal and ask that you build in some sort of mechanism so this type of admin expense could be approved without you having to go through the extra effort of writing a proposal, let alone a proposal for a proposal. Your time is too valuable for that. Some system with a spending limit that would qualify for automatic reimbursement in good faith for regular expenses, so you just submit an expense report/bill unless there's an issue or special arrangement, and then it could go to a proposal to clarify or correct the special issue. It was very nice of you to do, and you shouldn't have to wait to get your $7K back. Hopefully this policy change would prevent that debt from ever getting that big again or at least slow it down. Good job and thanks again for all your dedication!
Jen Owen Thu 21 Jul 2022 1:50AM
I vote for full reimbursement and just want to say thank you for all of the work you do, have done and continue to do that many don't even know about as you silently and humbly support this community as you have from the beginning. This community would be lost without you and because of your love for this project and the work and tireless hours of dedication and commitment to this global family of ours, we are about to celebrate 10 years of e-NABLE. You are a founding member and still supporting this project in so many ways. I agree with Nate - please find a way to make this easier for yourself and not have to wait so long for reimbursement. You have proven yourself repeatedly to the rest of us to know that you would never take advantage of this community and the funding. Please make sure you and your family don't have to continue asking for reimbursements like this after so long - especially for things that support our e-NABLE family in this way. :)
Leland Green Thu 21 Jul 2022 11:56AM
Hi Jeremy,
You certainly have accomplished a lot for e-NABLE and I think these are essential services and we should compensate you.
One thing popped out at me. Since I have zero experience with commercial email services, of course I don't know how many emails you're sending.... But that price seemed a little high.
(I thought the same thing about cloud hosting, but I realize that is a valuable service these days, and I imagine it's probably competitive. I've not checked it out, though.)
I expect you may have already searched for the best deal. 🙂 Just in case this may help, both pages have price comparisons:
https://www.emailvendorselection.com/free-cheap-email-marketing-software-comparison/
https://www.sendinblue.com/blog/cheap-email-marketing/
I realize that "sendinblue" is an email provider, so it might be a little skewed in the way they present their numbers?? I'm just hoping to be helpful. 🖖😎
Bottom line: we should definitely reimburse you.
ebubar · Fri 15 Jul 2022 3:50PM
I would support full reimbursement of the costs.