Document:The Network of Networks

A handbook for Integrity Initiative activities, including starting clusters

 analysis  by Chris Donnelly dated 30/05/18

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Subjects: Integrity Initiative, Clusters, propaganda, influence operation
Example of: Integrity Initiative/Leak/1
Source: 'Anonymous' (Link)

All the bold text is from the original document

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The Integrity Initiative Guide to Countering Russian Disinformation

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The Integrity Initiative was set up in autumn 2015 by The Institute for Statecraft in cooperation with the Free University of Brussels (VUB) to bring to the attention of politicians, policy-makers, opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by Russia to democratic institutions in the United Kingdom, across Europe and North America.

The Integrity Initiative aims to unite people who understand the threat, in order to provide a coordinated Western response to Russian disinformation and other elements of hybrid warfare.

The nature of this response needs to render counterproductive the Russian tactic of dividing countries internally and from one another. This will be the case if each Russian information and influence attack provokes the country targeted into sharing analysis of the attack with other countries in the network on a governmental basis, thereby increasing collaboration and Alliance cohesion. NATO’s Political Committee can play an important role here.

An effective network is best achieved by forming in each European country a cluster of well-informed people from the political, military, academic, journalistic and think-tank spheres, who will track and analyse examples of disinformation in their country and inform decision-makers and other interested parties about what is happening.

Programme Outputs

1. Creating / Improving structural mechanisms, tracking, analysing, responding to Russian malign influence and disinformation

2. Commissioning in depth research and conducting analyses of significant events

3. Dissemination of knowledge

Team Expertise / Languages

(MdG) Maria de Goeij – Defence specialist - (learning Swedish and Russian), Afrikaans, Dutch, English, French, German & Danish (reading)

(GR) Greg Rowett – Infowar and - English

(YD) Yusuf Desai – Daesh and Muslim Community specialist – English, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Gchichewa, Afrikaans, Arabic

(EG) Euan Grant – HMRC, - English, Russian?

(CD) Chris Donnelly – Russian studies, Statecraft, Strategy, NATO - English, Russian, French

(CHa) Charlie Hatton – Marketing, PR, Project Development & Management, International relations - English and Italian

(SBL) Simon Bracey-Lane – US & election campaign specialist. Distribution / Cluster liaison - English

(VM) Victor Madeira – Intelligence and National Security, Orthodox Church – English, Portuguese, French and Spanish/Italian/Russian (reading)

(AF) Alex Finnen

(CHe) Chris Hernon – Executive Editor, Social Media specialist – English, Russian, Ukrainian, German

(SD) Stephen Dalziel – Russia politics and studies, Broadcasting/Journalism - English, Russian, Spanish

(JM) Johanna Moehring – Military Power and Influence campaigns of part of a wider strategy - French, German, English, Russian

(BR) Ben Robinson – Ukraine / Eastern Europe, Photographer, Education specialist – English, Russian

(JS) James Sherr

(HE) Harold Elletson – Former MP, - English, Russian

(NdP) Nico de Pedro – Analytical RU specialist

(AB) Anne Bader

(TR) Tim Reilly Arctic/Russia-China specialist – English

(TL) Todd Leventhal –

Job Specs

These must be established and put on a share point together – appraisals to take place 2x per year

Team meetings

Defined template to follow – Charlie H to chair – Notes circulated on group email and then posted on Teams or other. Meetings to take place online, or

am / pm…no longer than 100 mins per session

Communications / Internal & External - tbd:

• Email – Formal internal comms

• Whatsapp – Casual but succinct comms

• Nationbuilder – Predominantly for Clusters/ATA/YATA – campaign software to engage individuals and cluster development and for dissemination of material

• Slack – Project development – especially with clusters (quite a lot of our clusters

• Typeform – Web form platform

• Signal – More secure Whatsapp

• Skype – Skype for business? David from Fluid suggested this.

• Proton mail – more secure mail (expensive)

• Eventbrite – Good for large scale public events like e.g. 28.2.28 / ATA / YATA

• 365 Teams – Still to discuss

Fluid IT will advise us on the best / safest routes and protocols to follow when travelling and we may receive personal laptops

EVENTS:

Events at 2TP to take place either am or pm (only at lunchtime if guest speaker/s requests or if the guest list is Whitehall ‘heavy’)

Nationbuilder – Use for these events?

FCO to be included

Fellows, internals and 300 GDPR individuals – on a list – CD to describe individual titles / specialties SD – CHatton – SBL – To be responsible for 2TP events. events@statecraft.org.uk

Room bookings

Event info doc

Dietary requirements

Check with guest speaker/s ref. equipment, slides etc

ACTIVITIES

A: Expanding our cluster network

N.B. Budget allocation is tentative only and must include team member time % on each stage / process, travel costs and expenses too. Time sheets will be allocated. Ensure you consider this when planning activities. Contact Charlie for any clarification and for final approval on budgetary costs.

Guidelines for research re setting up a new cluster

If you are on a recce visit, your aim is to gather all possible information and bring it back in a useable form so that we can make a sound decision and develop plans we can realistically implement.

Questions we need answered

General

Within the country, what is (a) the general public’s and (b) the political leadership’s understanding of and attitude towards: Russia; Russian influence; Russians (inc living locally); Russian media outlets? To what extent is Russia seen as a problem?

What is the public/leadership’s attitude within the country to: US/ the West; Western media outlets?

Who is there within the country who might be interested to track Russian influence and monitor Russian disinformation as part of our network? Are there already people/organisations doing this work?

Might they also be interested to expose and try to counter that influence/disinformation as part of our network? Is there an organisation that can act as a base for our cluster?

How can we establish if these people are trustworthy, reliable, competent, interested?

Specific

What form does Russian influence take?

What sectors does it affect, and how? (e.g. business, politics, media, academia)

How pervasive is it?

How difficult will it be to organise effective (a) mapping/tracking; (b) exposing; (c) countering

Who are the key individuals/ organisations acting for Russia?

Who are the key individuals/ organisations who might act for us?

Approaching the topic

Before going, read up well re our topic on: the country; the government; the organisations involved, and; people you might meet. Flag up any concerns to the office.

Be absolutely sure you have good references for people so we know we can trust them before we talk to them about our programme What is the standing of the individuals or organisation locally?

Establish clearly what the nature of their interest or involvement is

What access do they have to the individuals or groups we might want to see represented in a cluster (e.g. journalists, politicians, civil servants, military, academics, business etc.)?

What are their capabilities/competencies for: research & analysis; networking; mentoring, conference organising, dissemination (writing, translating, public speaking, publishing, broadcasting)?

What funding do they have/have access to/need? Caution! This is always a very sensitive issue.

NB 1 If asked about money for funding activities of a cluster, always be firmly vague and helpfully uninformative and at all costs avoid making any funding commitments until we have discussed it!

NB 2 When talking about the Institute, be sure you can explain clearly what we are and what we do.

NB 3 if asked about our funding, be very clear: the Integrity Initiative is funded by the Institute for Statecraft. The IfS gets its funding from multiple sources to ensure its independence. These include: private individuals; charitable foundations; international organisations (EU, NATO); UK Govt (FCO, MOD)

Follow up

Take careful notes of all meetings: Make sure the office has all details of whom you met and what was said.

Make an analytical, bullet point report with clear conclusions and recommendations.

Send thank you/follow up emails to everyone, and agree follow-on action, if any.

Keep track of and drive the follow up within the office.

Business cards & contacts

Event/Trip Meeting Report

Each team member is responsible for following up with contacts accrued and checking whether they are happy we put them on our mailing list (GDPR) for events and bulletins. Once the consent has been received – this can be passed on to Simon BL for future reference.

Initial summary of post trip report should be on group email. Then the formal summary should be completed on Survey Monkey. Decide who will be the key editor between yourselves. Key editor is responsible for chasing completion and final upload. No contact names should be mentioned (Chatham House rules) reference conversations and spoken word. Contact the report holders for more detailed information on individuals and encounters.

External documents & bulletins

With II logo and converted to PDF.

Country cluster Set Up/Costs indicated in this section are calculated per cluster (TEAM WIDE) – PLEASE PROVIDE COMPLETION DATES, per cluster, TO CHARLIE - for each of the below stages

• Chris Donnelly makes initial country introduction with nominated trusted 'coordinator' & relevant II team member/s (normally 2 members minimum per country)

• II team member/s coordinate foundation workshop to connect members, formally introduce them to II aims, establish target programme for research, dissemination and events. Members to sign code of conduct & non-disclosure Greg Rowett to start code of conduct doc to include basic info on passwords and etiquette with social media etc – final ok should be sought from James Wilson. Debate and decide preferred methods of communication. Activity: £3k budget (based on x 20 clusters)

• II team member/s coordinate an inaugural (national) event with country and jointly host the event (NATO to part fund.) to establish the cluster 'MO', share expertise, boost morale and media coverage. Regional discussions to ascertain principal disinfo narratives another malign influence threats. Cluster publish event report (NATO as recipient or FCO if not funded by NATO) - what happened, successes, learning curves...etc. (media and social media training - 'ted talk' style + skype Q&A where possible with Stephen and Chris Hernon during events). Activity: £4k budget. (based on x 20 clusters)

• Cluster provides a fundamental country report to provide a basis of common understanding on which to develop the national programme and share information more coherently and consistently with the Int'l audience. Activity: £2k budget. CHernon (delegates to Euan Grant/Victor M/Stephen D/Chris D) to edit final report & decide eventual destination. Translations where necessary - clusters get translated in local language and/or in Russian language. Chris H is overall Editor here. Anything in Russian could be transformed into an infographic which could be more widely used and deposited. (roughly £400 per 2000 words). BR/ChrisH/SBL/GR to disseminate across clusters, website, Twitter. (Based on x 20 clusters)

• Following these events cluster members will pass on information via research papers, articles, presentations, individual conversations and personal contacts. (There is no fixed format ref. the type of output or product produced by a cluster. Written, visual, audio…all welcome. If a cluster wishes to remain anonymous we can publish under the II name. Products can be shared on websites, twitter accounts, FB etc). As ever Chris Hernon is the Exec. Editor of these items and has final say so.

• Targeted educational events to take place bi-annually, with key national audience of influencers, to discuss national trends. Pro-reactive editorial and social media output by the cluster. Activity: £1.2k (Cluster needs to identify cross disciplinary audience to bring them together for educational objectives. The cluster should contact local media, where possible, and communicate back to Chris H the details so that we can pro-actively support on Twitter etc. E.g. If it’s a conference, Stephen D is a key speaker and we can take part in their events or suggest experts to speak where necessary).

• Follow up workshop to review cluster organisation and early work. Assistance with issues/concerns and modifications following feedback. Planning for the future. Activity: £1.2k (Can be via Skype or other means, not necessarily country visit…only one II team member necessary).

• Professional comprehensive country report (updated version of earlier report, can be anonymous), to be paper printed (in some circumstances) and digitally published, (translated, as previous) – this is to be edited by Chris Hernon and the format and translation is at his discretion - to analyse and illustrate a comprehensive picture of country network activities. Activity: £2k budget. Our ‘house’ graphic designer will be responsible for formatting in our house style and making it look pretty for desired outcome.

• Cluster members will be sent to educational sessions abroad to improve the technical competence of the cluster to deal with disinformation and strengthen bonds in the cluster community. Activity: £1.5k budget. (Events with DFR Digital Sherlocks, Bellingcat, EuVsDisinfo, Buzzfeed, Irex, Detector Media, Stopfake, LT MOD Stratcom – add more names and propose cluster participants as you desire).

• In N. America core team and cluster experts will carry out a briefing tour, to spread understanding beyond capital cities. Activity: £50k budget. (Timing tbc Smith Richardson outcome). (SBL – GR – BR – have shown an interest in participating on this tour)

• Application of Nationbuilder tool to enhance communications between project and general population and provide greater autonomy and structure for clusters to engage with local populations. Activity: £2K. (SBL to coordinate this project)

B: Research and assessment/Costs indicated in this section are calculated as total for activity

• Regular educational seminars in London with expert speakers addressing key issues to educate core team and clusters. Activity: £30k events and £15k for clusters to travel to them. See events here below: (Stephen is key coordinator during Q1. Charlie and Simon also key Events contacts. Q1 seminars include: John Rendon, Alan Riley, Eduard A, Glen Grant, Neil Barnett, Julian L-F, The White Helmets, John Lough, Tim Reilly (with Carrie Gracie?) Tentative for Q2: Anto Veldre – Cyber (Estonia), Commercial advertising people ref. e.g. astroturfing methods e.g. Saatchi – ref. common tactics used in disinfo, Orthodox Church, BIG STUDY DAYS: Several speakers on one day – if advertised early enough we can pull bigger more interesting crowds. Dependent on crowd size we can contact external colleagues to host at larger locations. E.g. Commonwealth Argosy.

• VUB IES commission research and educational project + outreach with policy makers, academics and the general public. Activity: £120k? Research paths 1-9 (VUB to contact us on launch dates of said papers. Chris H to decide amplification and sharing and any translation requirements.)

1. Competitive Strategies for Combatting Political Warfare

2. Myths, Narratives and Memes: Political Warfare in the Information Age

3. Disassembling the Myth-Machine: Russian Political Warfare in the West

4. Myths and Martyrs: The Political Warfare of the Islamic State as Nation-building

5. The Political War on Chemical Weapon Use in Syria

6. “The EU can’t meme” – why the EU is losing the political battle of the narratives

7. Do Democracies Engage in Political Warfare?

8. Measuring the Strategic Effects of Political Warfare: the Case of the Baltics

9. Issues and non-issues for triggering multilateral solidarity against hybrid or political warfare: looking for certainty where we should not

• Journalist skill-sharing seminars. Activity: £25k (Partner with Dean at Foreign Desk and curate a 2 day event inviting clusters / journalists – all age groups and stages, for short informative talks, with longer Q&A) (Separate Scottish event – via Dean at Foreign Desk, Ben Nimmo? And others to highlight the Sputnik, Alex Salmond, media, David Leask etc issues up there)

• Series of 5 x educational films. Activity: £100k (StephenD – Director, Chris Scheurweghs – Film Team – 1) Berlin Wall/Paul King) Topics 2-5 PLEASE DISCUSS

• Elves Academy. £60k + £5k product + £5k follow up (Charlie H/Giedrius – Autumn event, follow up, guidelines ref. anonymity and conduct, product as outcome/output? Czech Rep. needs to be removed from proposal and reporting, as they are already being funded by FCO).

• VUB structured series of workshops, per quarter, in Brussels. Activity: £5k per workshop = £20k (workshops with key national institutes to help them develop their own progs. Luis to manage.

• Topics to be researched. Nos. 10-27. Activity: 18 x £1500 = £27k PLEASE PUT YOUR NAME AND ROUGH ESTIMATE OF DELIVERY NEXT TO SUBJECT

10. Organised crime (1 – definitions and understanding and 2 – the security and military nexus)

11. Money laundering and investment as weapons

12. Corruption

13. Oil & gas

14. Dirty tricks (eg Skripal)

15. Economic warfare: Swift, Stock Markets etc

16. Cyber warfare

17. Hard military power

18. The Russian Orthodox Church and religion as weapons

19. Military sports clubs, hooligans and sport as weapons

20. Influence exerted through oligarchs abroad, and Russian diasporas

21. Improving the effectiveness of sanctions

22. Russian power in the Middle East as a means of influencing Europe and the US

23. Russian exploitation of the Arctic as a means of influencing Europe and the US

24. Russian-Chinese collaboration and its impact on Europe and the US

25. Russian action v Ukraine as a testing ground for Russia v Europe

26. Russian theory and practice of reflexive control

27. Russian military doctrine, principals of war and their relevance to information warfare

• Bulletins on Russian online shill activity, using mass data surveys (see next line costs – combo) Greg Rowett and Martin Dubbey of Harod Assoc.

• Use of data surveys to begin mapping out the details of Russian shill net. Activity: £7200 pm x 13 £93.6k + £15k = £108,600 Greg Rowett and Martin Dubbey of Harod Assoc.

• Implementing discernment and media literacy training prog. (using Skripal as a case-study). Activity: £90k Ben Robinson, Yusuf Desai, Greg Rowett (Tallinn University, Chester University) Teachers Unions?

C: Expanding the impact of the II website, dissemination and Twitter/social media accounts, and increasing the reporting of the issue in the mainstream and specialist press

• Translation of cluster publications and material (local language, English and RU). Activity £60k (150 papers based on £400 x 2000 words approx Chris Hernon is Editor and Simon to facilitate connections via clusters.

• Experimental social media (calendar) pin pointing. Activity £5k (approx 16 days work) Chris Hernon – with dates from Euan Grant and Victor Madeira (historical dates, for e.g.) Each cluster country to provide a list of upcoming dates which may be compromised by RU

• Media interviews. (no cost) Stephen Dalziel and Victor Madeira and Euan Grant

• Expanding content areas on website, including a series of podcasts. Activity £5k podcasts / £15k papers (10?) Ben Robinson & Bram + Stephen Dalziel / Victor Madeira – Monocle could let us hire a studio for a price, hire ‘actors or journalists’ for podcasts – SUBJECT MATTER TBC

• Targeted op-ed pieces to highlight crossover experience across the cluster network. Activity: £40k (27 papers) Chris H to identify and commission with help from Simon B-L

• Website maintenance and IT/Comms security. Activity: £10k security / £15k Bram, Ben Robinson and Charlie H/Fluid

• Ongoing production of infographics and other visual materials. Activity: £25k (approx £2k pm) Charlie H and Jack Hagley – Data to be supplied by team members

• Social media training. Activity: £5k Chris Hernon and Charlie Hatton – Jacky Sloane to film.

• Branded materials. Activity: £10k Charlie Hatton – business cards, in house publications, infographics, printed marketing

• Best practice sharing. (no cost) ?

• Media performance reporting. Activity: £3k (approx 10 days) (Chris Hernon, Stephen Dalziel, VM and EG to report back)

• Increase links between our website and like-minded, trusted 3rd parties (no cost) (Team wide)

D: Engaging national political and military establishments and societal organisations, improving their ability to counter RU disinfo and other weapons of hybrid warfare strategy

• Engage national military authorities to increase their interest in joining the information warfare battle and in collaborating with clusters and other national assets. (no cost) Alex Finnen and Chris Donnelly and Maria de Goeij

• Coordinate and host conference in Kyiv, Ukraine for representatives of British Army's 77th Brigade, UCMC, NATO, cluster reps. Activity: £4k Ben Robinson and Euan Grant

• Education and training on how to use social media (where appropriate for the organisation). Activity: £5k See earlier – Chris Hernon and Charlie Hatton

• Develop and launch training seminar for journalist in 'visual story-telling: real stories to counter disinformation'. Activity: £3.5k Ben Robinson / Foreign Desk – how to do this? Filmed product for wider dissemination?

• With the help of the UK financial sector (BBA, ABI, London Stock Exchange) establish relations with EU counterparts and European for liaison with European bourses. Activity: £1.8k Euan Grant?

• Through links with UK law enforcement and revenue organisations, anti-corruption and development NGO's and journalistic orgs, gain access to their European counterparts. Activity: £9k Euan Grant?

E: Increasing the impact of effective organisations currently analysing Russian activities, making their expertise more widely available across Europe and N America

• Publications and reports on common and different experiences in commenting on hybrid warfare, propaganda and reports on such and criminal and geopolitical activities 'your view, our comments' and vice versa e.g. Clingendaal, Egmont, Konrad Adenauer Inst. And Swedish equivalent and Poland, Balkan/Baltic states etc. Activity: £10k (x 5 reports?) Stephen D

• Obtain the agreement of these Int'l orgs to disseminate our prog. Material: link to national clusters where appropriate. Produce report based on press releases of Europol and Interpol on RU speaker criminality and produce proposals for identifying possible links with state bodies. Activity: £5k Stephen D

• Setting up UK chapters of ATA and YATA. Activity: £25k (Pending outcome of legal situation between YATA/ATA – Greg and Dan to start process) Plan for large flagship event. Some smaller prototype events at e.g. Reading or Edinburgh - could be useful. We can start the process now – under our own steam – before the ‘int’l’ situation is resolved. Maria to connect with her Uni in NL to offer guest lecturers / training tips for studying etc.

• Research papers in publications of the institutions. (no cost) We already do this with e.g. Stopfake, Bellingcat, Vilnius Policy Institute, Atlantic Voices – Need to continue widening the net with other int’l NGO’s

• Lectures and seminars at events organised by these int'l organisations. Activity: £3k NEEDS MORE BUDGET HERE – UNLESS WE ARE INVITED TO SPEAK OR CHAIR – with 2 team members going to a variety of events – this is going to need more money

F: Engaging RU and RU speaking audiences to challenge Moscow narratives

• Andrei Sakharov Centre – Kaunus University Prog. Activity: £50k Dainius and Ignas to oversee? Chris D

• Expand RU citizen focus group programme in minority communities and diasporas. Activity: £2k (Ask Glen Grant on 17/05 + some other clusters) Ask SD if worth doing here in the UK too.

• Make presentation at Donbas Media Forum (July 18), Ukraine. Activity: £500 Ben Robinson

• Provide guest articles from IfS and our clusters for StopFake's printed material published and distributed along the contact line in Eastern Ukraine. Activity: £9k Chris H and Ben R

• Produce questionnaires for RU speaking audiences, inviting them to rebut Western analyses of key media stories (e.g. MH17, Litvinenko, Skripal, doping) and invite reasons for supporting RU counter narratives. Activity: £300 Victor Madeira

G: Adapting our approach as Russia responds to our successful counter moves

• Continued curation and preparation of the 'armoury' (database of articles and key items of information) to improve the programme's ability to respond quickly in new RU disinfo initiatives. Activity: £12k (£1k per month) Chris Hernon + Maria

• All publications and proposals to produce lists of a) likely and b) potential responses (no cost) Ask clusters for their year plan / forecast – see Victor Madeira dates

• Monitoring of RU and pro-RU information (no cost) Team Wide monitoring

H: Applying lessons of the programme more widely e.g. short report on best practice, twice a year, which could be shared with other FCO depts (Daesh, China, for e.g.)

• Quarterly written report in English on output and media performance – successes and failures. Activity: £5k Team wide – constant monitoring and proactive warnings.

• Presentations to partner organisations. Activity: £1.5k e.g. sessions with Bellingcat and Atlantic Council and exchanging progress reports (Euan Grant – for example – on various themes so far under the radar)

• Manual and lexicon (no cost) Stephen D and Greg R to circulate these docs, get feedback, edit (translate?/later down the line) and disseminate widely

Code of Conduct (Greg to commence with internet etiquette)

Anonymity of the team remains paramount. As our activity increases we will, no doubt, attract unwanted attention.

General Admin

Armoury – The reality is that we have not needed this data yet in terms of social media attacks. It is a great concept but not practical to keep updated and has lapsed. For review at a later date and for possible upgrade to a better software. Keep an eye out. Chris H and Simon BL have been main editors…Greg R needs to do research on better system – IfS/II focused (rather than clusters). Condense the criteria too. Make use of automated alerts (VM) e.g. BBC – with key words…work is done for you…(VM to send data to us and we set up Gmail account for alerts and fwd to group email)

Integrity ‘reading list’ and ‘watch list’ – circulate and share with clusters – top 5 reads or podcasts – group email share

WEEKLY BULLETINS - 2/3 line abstract from team experts to summarise topical activity - to kick off our bulletin and to complement the external content – then top reads / things to watch

Library & Media (TV, Radio etc)

NATO rules – Large event 2 months ahead for funding (for any objection purposes) - get rough rules here. Recipient cluster needs to be a registered company to receive NATO funds – CharlieH to look at CD docs.

Business Cards – Widely share these generic business cards across cluster to generate more interest.

Logo use – Guides can be found on Teams 365 under Branding

Legal stuff (code of conduct/non disclosure) Always check with James Wilson

Outlook Calendar: Each team member is responsible for personal / individual dates and travels. CharlieH to manage team events.

External Communications: Please use the II headed Word or PP template when creating external communications. Ensure documents are converted to PDF to ensure secure dissemination.

International Events Calendar:

Website expansion: Let’s look at google analytics to discover current stats and what is popular. Chris H to have access. SBL has started adding links to the weekly bulletins to get more traffic.

Events at 2TP: See additional comms above. Any events at 2TP should ideally be channelled through Stephen, Charlie or Simon. The process should be as follows, for events at 2TP: where the Boardroom is required, one must first check with bmartin@bulldogtrust.org that the room is available. / book the room & timing under Integrity group on Outlook calendar / email the invitation with details of the talk - ideally attaching a bio of the speaker/s - requesting any dietary requirements if occurring at a meal time - and ask invitees to RSVP to events@statecraft.org.uk / fill out the 'event info doc' and file in Teams/II/General/Events - ensure office team are aware of these arrangements – participant list

Travel: We have committed to a value-for-money service and we therefore travel as economically as possible. Unless unavoidable, low budget flights/tickets, 3* hotels, Airbnb type services are advisable. We are happy to cover additional needs for baggage, subsistence and extra leg-room seats.

Any doubts, please be in touch with chatton@statecraft.org.uk

As a rule of thumb, for most European locations, £200-300 per return flight/train and £70 per night hotel, are a reasonable assumption. Meals and subsistence are covered too. Hosting at least one meal for the cluster group / country hosts is also anticipated within the budget. Travel resource accounts: Dial-a-flight (b2b deal?), Airbnb Business

For flights best to google search best airlines then go to airline direct for tickets as the Expedia/E-flights type sites often do not guarantee your place

Beware the friendly host who wants to book travel or accommodation on your behalf. Absolutely get their tips on where to stay but avoid getting into tricky scenarios and ensure you follow company guidelines and book everything yourself. If in doubt, ask advice from another team member.

Invoices/Receipts: When submitting your monthly or expense reports please ensure you label them efficiently. Invoices must include your name, date, invoice ref. No, itemised expense, bank details etc. Where receipts are abundant, please number these – for ease of process – and reference them on a separate sheet (e.g. excel). If you need assistance in converting currencies (I use www.xe.com)

Timesheets: Miranda/CH to format Given the complex activity-based nature of this budget we will need to account for the funds accordingly. It will be imperative that each team member keep an accurate timesheet of % time spent on each activity. Cost codes (per activity) will be issued to help you keep track and invoices should reflect these codes.

IT: Once we have contracted to work with Fluid IT (this is imminent) they will do a complete audit of our internal structure and hardware; and give recommendations. It is likely we continue with Office 365 and necessary training will be supplied forthwith.

GDPR (24th May 2018): Fluid IT will be guiding us through this process.