Tldr: below is a proposed new program to incentivize participation in DXdao governance through paid rewards. Feedback appreciated
The Governance Steward Program is a new, experimental initiative intended to incentivize good governance and participation by compensating REP holders who spend their time helping to govern DXdao. The health of DXdao relies on REP holders making informed decisions about various proposals that affect the organization’s operations and future. Staying up to date on all the issues that these proposals may touch on requires time and effort that should be compensated. This initiative proposes to compensate governance participation directly by paying those who participate.
A set amount of treasury funds (currently proposed as $10,000 in USD & $10,000 in one year vested DXD) would be set aside per budgetary period to be distributed to REP holders who meet the minimum participation thresholds.
The proposed thresholds for the H1 2023 period are:
attend (10) governance calls and…
vote in at least (1) proposal per month (6 total).
All individuals with more than 0.5% of total REP are welcome to register to be a Steward. Stewards are eligible to earn up to $2000 USD & DXD per budgetary period ($333.33/mo). If there are less than 10 individuals who apply and meet the thresholds then the additional funds will be returned to the treasury at the end of the budgetary period. If there are more than 10 individuals who apply and meet the thresholds then the total pool will be evenly split between all eligible stewards.
Specification
A new DAOtalk post (or post on another forum if DAOtalk is undesirable for some reason) should be created where applicants post the following information:
Name they go by to determine attendance.
Wallet address where they hold their REP.
Any other information they want to share.
Applications are verified and confirmed by a member of the Operations Guild.
Attendance of each governance call is taken at the beginning and end by a member of the Operations Guild.
At the end of the budgetary period, a report of all votes is compiled by the Operations Guild that shows the participation of each participant.
Perhaps the participation thresholds would also include drips of REP, as so far it has been mostly available for participation on the social media side, which I rarely participate in even though I actively follow (usually asynchronously) and (admittedly) sporadically vote.
In my short time in the space I have come to realize the importance of participation in governance. It is key to the credibility of DAOs and the proposals they pass or fail. So I think this is a great idea and I can see where you are coming from with this because I know it takes time and effort to do and therefore participation is not always what it should be.
For me voting in the DAO is a privilege that we earn, a duty we should perform to keep things running and a chance we get to be part of history by helping design and iron out the kinks in a system that in my mind remains the future of work and human coordination.
To your questions and request for feedback, this is my thinking with the information I have:
I think this is sufficient incentivization because I think regular participation should be occurring even without it, especially in a persons area of expertise/knowledge.
For this reason, I think the proposed thresholds are too lenient. I would say all governance calls should be attended, unless as a result of emergency, illness or vacation. I am assuming the one vote refers to a mainnet vote where costs and frequency of proposals can be prohibitive. If this assumption is correct then I would also say there has to be a threshold set for voting on Gnosis Chain, especially related to areas of expertise and/or knowledge. If it just relates to voting then I think one vote is too little. So, if the threshold is adjusted to basically require a consistent governance input, then I think everyone should be included. If the threshold is not adjusted, then contributors who have consistently participated in the past should still be considered. There could even be a consideration for a tiered system with different thresholds. Naturally I have limited experience in governance so I am open to info that would change my opinion.
A whole missed month seems like a very long time not to vote, unless planned in advance. If planned in advance I think an exception makes perfect sense.
Below is updated text. The most notable change is lowering the minimum REP amount to 0.1% for participation. After a few days of discussion, this will go to an on-chain proposal. One signal proposal on Gnosis Chain and then a corresponding funding proposal on mainnet that sends $10k to the Operations Guild.
Proposal to Establish Governance Stewards program
Tldr: below is a proposed new program to incentivize participation in DXdao governance through paid rewards. Feedback appreciated
The Governance Steward Program is a new, experimental initiative intended to incentivize good governance and participation by compensating REP holders who spend their time helping to govern DXdao. The health of DXdao relies on REP holders making informed decisions about various proposals that affect the organization’s operations and future. Staying up to date on all the issues that these proposals may touch on requires time and effort that should be compensated. This initiative proposes to compensate governance participation directly by paying those who participate.
A set amount of treasury funds (currently proposed as $10,000 in USD & $10,000 in one year vested DXD) would be set aside per budgetary period to be distributed to REP holders who meet the minimum participation thresholds.
The proposed thresholds for the H1 2023 period are:
attend (10) governance calls and…
vote in at least (1) proposal per month (6 total).
All individuals with more than 0.1% of total REP are welcome to register to be a Steward (mainnet or Gnosis Chain). Stewards are eligible to earn up to $2000 USD & DXD per budgetary period ($333.33/mo). If there are less than 10 individuals who apply and meet the thresholds then the additional funds will be returned to the treasury at the end of the budgetary period. If there are more than 10 individuals who apply and meet the thresholds then the total pool will be evenly split between all eligible stewards.
Specification
If passed, a new DAOtalk post will be created where applicants can post the following information:
Name they go by to determine attendance.
Wallet address where they hold their REP.
Any other information they want to share.
Applications are verified and confirmed by a member of the Operations Guild.
Attendance of each governance call is taken at the beginning and end by a member of the Operations Guild.
At the end of the budgetary period, a report of all votes is compiled by the Operations Guild that shows the participation of each participant.
get rid of the vested DXD portion, and replace it with USDC. Such a small amount of vested DXD-$167/month-is almost more trouble to claim and account for than it’s worth. That will save ContributorX time also
Maybe this is already implied, but clarify that active contributors at 50% time or more can’t also be governance stewards, as they’re already paid for their time doing governance through their regular salary. Purpose should be to get more community members involved in governance
Apologies for the delay. Final text below. Submitting shortly on Gnosis Chain and Mainnet. Proposal below is prorated to just under 5 months. It also lowers the minimum needed to 0.1% and also precludes current contributors with 10% of their time committed to DXdao.
Proposal to Establish Governance Stewards program
Tldr: below is a proposed new program to incentivize participation in DXdao governance through paid rewards. This was discussed on DAOtalk here. A corresponding mainnet funding proposal has also been submitted to fund Operations Guild Multisig with $8,250 Dai
The Governance Steward Program is a new, experimental initiative intended to incentivize good governance and participation by compensating REP holders who are not actively contributing but spend their time helping to govern DXdao. The health of DXdao relies on REP holders making informed decisions about various proposals that affect the organization’s operations and future. Staying up to date on all the issues that these proposals may touch on requires time and effort that should be compensated. This initiative proposes to compensate governance participation directly by paying those who participate.
This proposal authorizes $8,250 in USD & $8,250 in one year vested DXD would be set aside per budgetary period to be distributed to REP holders who meet the minimum participation thresholds.
The proposed thresholds for the H1 2023 period are:
attend (9) governance calls and…
vote in at least (1) proposal per month (5 total).
All individuals with more than 0.1% of total REP are welcome to register to be a Steward (mainnet or Gnosis Chain). Stewards are eligible to earn up to $1,650 USD & DXD per budgetary period ($333.33/mo).
DXdao contributors with more than 10% of their time committed to DXdao during the steward term are not eligible to participate in the program. Participating requires finishing the program to completion of the term or you forfeit payment. Starting late is allowed but still requires participation until term completion, and you are not paid for the time you missed at the beginning.
Specification
All applicants should post on this DAOtalk thread with the following information:
Name they go by to determine attendance.
Wallet address where they hold their REP.
Any other information they want to share.
Applications are verified and confirmed by a member of the Operations Guild.
Attendance of each governance call is taken at the beginning and end by a member of the Operations Guild.
At the end of the budgetary period, a report of all votes is compiled by the Operations Guild that shows the participation of each participant.
Details
This proposal authorizes the program as outlined above, to be administered by the Operations Guild with Caney Fork as the directly responsible entity. The mainnet funding proposal sends 8,250 Dai to the Operations Guild multisig, identified as 0x22F3BB8defB1B9A6c18da5E1496cd1b15fc79d70 on Mainnet
The DXD portion will be handled at the end of the budgetary period with the DXD vested in a single contract, with vesting starting on July 1, 2023