Ethics Scenario #3: Midtown Bar Association Library

3. Expense reporting. Katrina is the executive director of a nonprofit organization, the Midtown Bar Association Library. Her national conference was being held at a luxury hotel in Orlando, Florida, 500 miles away from where she lives. She decides that because of the location, it makes sense to turn this conference into a family vacation. Rather than spend almost a thousand dollars on a flight for herself, she arranges for herself and her husband, with her two children, to travel by private vehicle, with her husband and her sharing the driving. At the conference, she uses the organization’s credit card to charge the entire cost of her suite at the conference hotel, and some of her family’s travel expenses including gasoline, justifying this as offsetting some of the savings her organization realized because of her driving to the conference rather than flying--savings that would not have accrued if she had not had her husband with her to share some of the driving.

a. Is Katrina acting unethically by having the organization paying for any expenses that related to her family’s trip?

b. Is she acting unethically if she decides instead to reimburse the organization for any incremental expenses that are attributable for her family’s presence on the trip?

c. How might she handle this issue in advance if she decides she does not want to violate any ethical principles, but would like to consider having her family with her to this conference?