Authors: Erik_Knobl, Chuck
Contributors: Doswell, Boris - g01din.eth, Alex1237
Summary
So far, most of the decision-making has been located in the Core Team; However, the need for decentralization exists, and this is a concrete step in that direction. This initiative proposes the creation of the Steward, a role with the responsibility of taking actions in issues related to the management of the Treasury.
Scope of Work
This proposal will formalize a council of Stewards, with the following definitions:
- Role Description. Definition of the scope of the role.
- Membership and Composition. Defining who can have the role and how
- Obligations and Accountability. Defining how the DAO has oversight on their activities.
- Temporality and Rewards.
1. Role Description
Stewards are elected members of Developer DAO with proven experience as contributors in the DAO. Itâs an ongoing role which requires active participation on a weekly basis. Their duty is to oversight the following processes of the DAO:
1.1 Review Budgets Proposals
(This description replaces the acts described in P-17: Reward Contributions in $CODE and P-15: DAO Operators for Budget Stewards).
Stewards must review proposed budgets, and express their opinion regarding them, with the purpose of ensuring fairness for contributors, taking into account the overall financial health of the DAO. Stewards must ensure that budget proposals contain clear expected outcomes. In many cases these expected outcomes will be quantitative but not always. In all cases, the expected outcomes can be used to frame a conversation with those receiving funding about progress and whether the project should pivot or persevere.
The following are the actions they can perform while reviewing budgets:
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ENDORSEMENT. This action certifies the budget, allowing it to continue with the process.
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CHALLENGE. This action asks for clarification on specific points, up to the whole budget, or asks for correction of any items. The team proposing the budget (the Team) is required to respond to this action. Failure to respond to any Challenges will render any budget void for the season.
If the Team and the challenging Steward canât reach an agreement, any side can ask for a vote of the whole Counsel of Stewards by tagging all Stewards in the Stewards channel in Discord, and giving opportunity for both sides to express their opinion. The vote will last for 72 hours after being triggered, and will be solved by basic majority vote of the acting Stewards. If the vote ends in a tie or in favor of the Team, the budget will be able to continue the process. Any budget can have any number of votes called on different items, but only one for each specific item.
In the case of DAO Operators as Guild Leaders, this includes basic oversight in the process to elect them, ensuring elections are done in an open and transparent process.
1.2 Revoke Budget
(This description replaces the acts described in P-17: Reward Contributions in $CODE for Budget Stewards).
If any Guild or Project with an active budget fails to deliver Status Reports, or any Steward has any reason to suspect bad behavior in an individual and/or Team, any Steward can trigger a vote to revoke the allocation of the budget in any given month and/or permanently, by stating the case in the Stewards channel, tagging all Stewards, and giving opportunity for both sides to express their opinion. The vote will last for 72 hours after being triggered, and will be solved by basic majority vote of the acting Stewards. If the vote ends in a tie or in favor of the Team, the budget will be able to continue the process.
1.3 Hire DAO Operators
(This description replaces the acts described in P-15: DAO Operators for Budget Stewards).
At the instance of any member of the DAO, any Steward can trigger the process to create a new Operator role by stating the case and propose a basic definition of the role in the Stewards channel, tagging all Stewards. All the council must have at least 7 days to express their suggestions for the role, and after that, an open, recorded meeting must be set for a majority of the Stewards to attend, ending with a simple majority vote.
If the vote is affirmative, the role will start the second phase of the DDIP process, while each Steward will have 7 days to nominate individuals and/or teams of up to three persons to perform the role. Once the DDIP process has been completed, the nominations will be elevated to a Snapshot directly.
1.4 Remove DAO Operators
(This description replaces the acts described in P-15: DAO Operators for Budget Stewards).
At the instance of any member of the DAO, any Steward can trigger the process to remove an Operator by stating the case in the Stewards channel, tagging all Stewards, and giving opportunity for both sides to express their opinion. All Stewards must have at least 7 days to express their opinions in the case, investigate allegations, and after that, an open, recorded meeting must be set for a majority of the Stewards to attend, ending with a simple majority vote. If the vote is affirmative, the removal will be effective immediately.
2. Membership and Composition
2.1 Basic Definitions
The council of Stewards is composed of 8 members. They must have one or more of the following requisites, in addition to being members of Developer DAO:
- The candidate has performed as a core team member of a guild or project.
- The candidate is involved in the management of the multisig safe of a guild or project.
- The candidate has acquired one of the following tags: Moderator, Scribe, Champion, Initiative Lead.
- The candidate is being sponsored by at least three current Stewards.
Failure to comply with any of the previous requisites will make the nomination void.
The following persons canât be nominated as Stewards:
- Current DAO Operators.
2.2 Elections
Elections of the Stewards will be done during the offseason, when their term is completed. The elections will be managed by the Operations Guild and/or Coordination Operator. The process must have the following phases:
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ANNOUNCEMENT: At least 3 days and no more than 7 days must be given for the community to learn about the process, where and how it will happen, and the rules for it.
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NOMINATIONS: At least 3 days and no more than 7 days must be given for potential candidates to nominate themselves, by writing a post in the designed channel explaining the reasons, motivations and profile of the nominee.
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CONVERSATIONS: At least one open meeting must take place with the nominees, for the community to be able to have a conversation with them.
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VOTE: A special Snapshot vote must be done with all nominees listed in alphabetical order, with voting open for at least 3 days and no more than 7 days. The top 8 will be elected as Stewards. If there is a tie in the 8th place, all tied members will become Stewards. If the nominees are 8 or less than 8, the last place in the voting will not be appointed Steward.
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TRAINING: All newly appointed Stewards must complete a common training so that they are all aware of the same mission, expectations for the role, and systems and processes that they need to work within.
2.3 Diversity
In an effort to encourage a more diverse leadership in the DAO, the following action should be taken:
- ENCOURAGEMENT: All members of the DAO should reach out to minority members who comply with the requisites to invite them to post their nominations as Stewards.
3. Obligations and Accountability
3.1 Coordination
Stewards must divide the work among themselves to review and negotiate budget proposals and make their recommendation on whether funds should be allocated.
3.2 Transparency
The council formation, deliberation and decision process needs to be fully transparent. This means that from the very beginning, they need to ensure that members of the DAO can follow along or catch up easily to past or active proposals. The following are the basic communication channels Stewards must maintain:
- Regular, recorded meetings.
- A public Discord channel where all Stewardsâ async deliberation takes place. No DMs for Stewards business should take place.
- Section in Probably Nothing devoted to Stewards deliberation and decisions.
Stewards can rotate responsibility for sharing their reasoning for budget decisions with the DAO publicly. Both assenting and dissenting views should be published.
3.3 Public evaluation
The performance of the Stewards body should be evaluated each season by DAO members. It is the obligation of all Stewards to comply with this during the first day of the Offseason, by posting a vote in the Forum asking the community to Approve or Disapprove their performance. The vote must be available for at least 3 days. As a group, Stewards must be held accountable for helping initiatives spend DAOâs resources in an intentional way, cut off spending to projects/individuals who are not delivering, not overspend, and not leave money on the table.
If the DAO-wide evaluation falls below 80% approval, that must trigger a within-Stewards accountability vote that must be completed within 3 days, this will require all Stewards to evaluate each other as Approve or Disapprove in an open, individual post in the Stewards channel. The individual accountability to evaluate should be focused on responsibility, attendance of meetings, do their best work, and act in good faith. Any Steward failing to comply with this vote will be removed from the role. Any Steward who receives at more than half disapproval from their peers will be removed from the role, and an election process must start to replace them.
4. Temporality and Rewards
Stewards is one of the most strategic positions in D_D, the role requires dedication, attention, and vision of the whole DAO.
4.1 Temporality
The role of the Steward will be held for two seasons, with the option of continual reelection.
4.2 Rewards
Each Steward will be rewarded with 4,800 CODE for each season, accordingly to the following formula: 15 $CODE * 80 monthly hours * 4 months = 4,800 $CODE / Season.
Temporal Article:
Election for Stewards for Season 1 should be done in the first month of the season, following the above rules.
(To be discussed) Since Stewards are making funding disbursement decisions on behalf of the DAO, they may be considered liable for the disbursement of funds to bad actors. Therefore, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance needs to be part of the Stewards activities.