P-15: DAO Operators

Authors: Colin4ward, Erik_Knobl, kempsterrrr, Bobbay

Previous status of paid contributors
Previous Draft: DAO Operators
Previous Draft2: DAO Operators

Timeline

  • Posting in Forum in Draft form: Wed 8 June (Delivered)
  • Move to Forum vote: Wed 15 June (Delivered 17 June)
  • Move to Snapshot vote: Wed 22 June
  • Submit nominations to Snapshot: Wed 22 Jun
  • Candidate vote in Snapshot concludes: Wed 29 June

Summary

There is no regulation around Paid Employees for D_D. While being a strategic position, there is no definition on: What is the scope of the role? How to become one? What tasks each one of them should perform? How should they be rewarded? How should they coordinate with the rest of the DAO?

This initiative proposes the role of the Core Operator, for members with highly specific and strategic tasks, defined by the DAO, for the improvement of the community as a whole.

Scope of Work

Core Operators are members dedicated to the improvement of Developer_DAO, and rewarded by the DAO for their contributions with a monthly payment. They carry the highest degree of accountability for the success of the DAO in that they are expected to foster the culture of the collective, do the strategic planning, and drive the execution of work towards our goals. This proposal fully replaces P-7: Formalizing our Developer DAO Operations Team

Each Core Operator role should have the following definitions:

  1. Job Description. Definition of the scope of the role.
  2. Obligations. Activities the Operator does in the course of the role.
  3. Measurable Goals. Defining success; outcomes for the DAO, guilds and initiatives.
  4. Temporality and Salary.

There can be two types of Operators: directly appointed by Budget Stewards, and Guild Leads, which each Guild can define in their Budget Applications for each season.

Budget Stewards are the Core Team and the top 5 verified members from our early contributor rewards round, chosen by DAO members. This proposal asks them to perform three tasks:

Hire Operator. At the instance of any member of the DAO, any Steward can trigger the process to analyze the value of hiring an Operator, and discuss the issue in an open meeting with the rest of the Budget Stewards, and have a majority vote. If the vote is affirmative, the group will initiate the hiring process, discuss and define the role with the community, and submit nominations for it.
Approve Operator. The Budget Stewards will review the Budget Applications of the Guilds, and any of them can issue comments and improvements on the proposal. As well, any Steward can object to a specific item in a Budget, which would trigger a majority vote for all Stewards. The item should be changed if the vote favors the objection.
Remove Operator. At the instance of any member of the DAO, any Steward can trigger the process to analyze the removal of an Operator, and discuss the issue in an open meeting with the rest of the Budget Stewards, and have a majority vote. If the vote is in favor of the motion, the removal will be effective immediately.

What is the process of hiring Core Operators?

  • Any Budget Steward can trigger the process by making a DDIP in the forum stating the problem the new role would solve.
  • Budget Stewards will make sure there is open discussion of the role, pros and cons.
  • Nominations can be made by anyone in the DAO at the time when Budget Stewards convoke for them, with a previous inquiry for availability and interest in the role. Each nomination can be of individual persons, and/or teams of maximum 3 persons. Each Budget Steward participating in the process is expected to make public their reasoning behind their votes and proposals.
  • The proposal will be voted in Snapshot.

How do Core Operators work in relation to the other members of the DAO?
Core Operators are expected to lead the DAO towards the achievement of the goals they have been hired to accomplish, coordinating guilds, projects and individual members that may be needed.

What are their Obligations?
Operators need an accountability mechanism. Each role has its definitions with measurable goals but the community needs to see the work is being done on a regular basis. They should present a monthly report of activities. The following is the bare minimum so people throughout the DAO can discuss whether the Operator is keeping the tasks on track.

  • Overview (How are they reaching their key objectives)
  • Next Steps
  • Other comments.

How are Core Operators paid?
Their payment will be a base of USD amount, with $CODE incentives depending on achievement of KPIs, and defined for each role.

How does the DAO hire Operators for S1?
The DAO will hire Operators when it has funds, which is expected to be the start of S1. Efforts are underway to bill S1 sponsors in advance. In the case that the DAO does not have funds available, each paid operator will have a percent of payment deferred equal to the budget deficit. Deferred payments will be accrued and paid when the DAO has funds.

The following are the two positions suggested a part of a Hiring Process for Season 1 (discussion of these roles, and nominations for them should be done by the community and the Budget Stewards before Jun 22th):

Coordination Operator:

Accountable for overall organizational process excellence, building internal coordination, with a lean on accounting.

Tasks to deliver for Season 1:

  • Improve internal coordination and champion process improvements accordingly.
  • POC for legal representation in the Caymans (and anywhere else) and liaison between them and the DAO, and keep an open record of all processes.
  • Creating processes required for KYC/AML (such as ensuring grants to the DAO itself are correctly accounted for under Cayman Law), and owning these.
  • Host weekly Initiative Leads meetings, and ensure records are accessible to everyone.
  • Set cadence and structure for hosting monthly DAO wide town halls in coordination with the Community Guild.
  • Oversee the Seasonal Budget application process and tracking of how budgets are finalized, allocated and distributed, as well as any incoming revenue.
  • Define and maintain access permissions across DAO tooling (discord, discourse etc.) to ensure organizational security. Work with any team looking to implement change to DAO tooling or structure to ensure it doesn’t harm coordination as a whole (at the DAO > Guild level).
  • Creating a process for issuing, fulfilling and tracking finances for The Developer DAO Foundation and any other entity created to support the DAO functioning (this may include hiring external partners given compliance risk in maintaining accounts correctly).
  • Establish a $CODE buyback mechanism in partnership with the Governance Guild.

KPIs:

  • 80% of active projects/initiatives submit applications to receive $CODE funding
  • Foundation successfully receives S1 sponsorship funds and pays all S1 financial obligations based on approved proposals
  • First $CODE buyback successfully completed ($CODE returned to treasury)
  • Agreements executed with at least one subsidiary initiative (e.g. pixeldevs, web3con) and one affiliate initiative (e.g. p3rks, DAO Agency)

Temporality and Rewards:

  • Base payment will be $8,000 USD monthly for one Season, plus incentives up to 5,000 $CODE for achievement of KPIs. (25% of the total for each KPI achieved), to be delivered at the end of the season.

Fundraising Operator:

Accountable for overall organizational process excellence, building internal coordination, with a lean on fundraising.

Tasks to deliver for Season 1:

  • Create the legal infrastructure for projects looking to apply for grants.
  • Establish a documented process for qualifying projects for grant applications under Developer DAO banner.
  • Develop a standard agreement between the DAO and projects which receive DAO funding or other resources.
  • Establish a documented pipeline of grant sources and build relationships with those granting entities.
  • Create an internal database of the projects and initiatives that will allow organizational visibility and better coordination.
  • Create guides and info resources that support internal projects who are looking to stand up their own infrastructure (i.e. multi-sigs) and entities (i.e. legal structures).
  • Support the creation of a Guild dedicated to support these efforts.

KPIs:

  • Legal setting for at least one type of Grant application being accessible to DAO projects.
  • Database has been implemented.
  • 30% of applications received funding
  • $30k of total grant funding for projects
  • $100k of endowment funding

Temporality and Rewards:

  • Base payment will be $8,000 USD monthly for one Season, plus incentives up to 5,000 $CODE for achievement of KPIs. (20% of the total for each KPI achieved), to be delivered at the end of the season.
  • Yes - Move Proposal to Snapshot
  • No - Do not move proposal to Snapshot

0 voters

1 Like

Erik, thanks a ton for all the work! A few notes:

  1. We should de-couple the “general operations” roles (such as coordination) and the “legal operations” roles (finalize foundation + make sure everything stays compliant on an ongoing basis). TBH, not a blocker for S1, but should 100% be considered for S2.

  2. Why fundraising operator should be a full time position paid in fiat, while other position like on-boarding / community management are not? Are we just sticking with the old paradigm of 2 full time contributors due to tradition?
    It make sense to have 1 contributor who is in charge of the connection to everything IRL, takes extra personal risk and must keep us compliant above all. Compensating them will help us insure that this is their number 1 priority, and everything is filed on time. However outside of that, not sure that getting grants is our number 1 priority as a DAO.

1 Like

Why fundraising operator should be a full time position paid in fiat, while other position like on-boarding / community management are not? Are we just sticking with the old paradigm of 2 full time contributors due to tradition?

Actually, the proposal states: “There can be two types of Operators: directly appointed by Budget Stewards, and Guild Leads, which each Guild can define in their Budget Applications for each season.”
Which means Community Guild can propose an Onboarding Operator/Guild Lead with the same duties and rewards as the Coordination Operator.

This has taken place already or still in the process?

This will take place this week, Will is scheduling one meeting for wednesday and we can touch the issue in the Initiative leads meeting of thursday. Nominations are expected to be delivered by friday.

1 Like

Again, how have we estimated the efforts involved here? $8000 + incentives. That is reasonably steep. Looking at fairly administrative tasks outlined here… involving barely any significant daily hours here. We really need to guard against mistreating $CODE. If we abuse it less, it will have more value, more currency. Else it will be debased like everything else out there.

Technically yes, but practically does any other guild is asking for payment in fiat instead of $CODE?

Some of the tasks are administrative in nature, yes. But other involve the creation of new processes, in areas where there is little to none precedent, and involve the coordination of large portions of the membership of the dao.
Discussion is ongoing about the definition of these roles. I would like to invite you to suggest changes in the Initiative-Leads channel.

1 Like

I think all of them should do it. If you have any doubts about how to proceed, let me know, and I can help with the definition of a specific role.

what is the thinking around if we don’t have the budget support request roles? are all budgeted roles equally important and we draw them all down by a %?

I too having funds for retaining more core contributors would be a good thing but think it’s important we get clear on this so expectations are based in reality.

1 Like

This is the current proposal:

1 Like

nice. sorry I skimmed and should have read. Have we thought about who is in control of if we have the budget to pay operators or not?

A scenario where we’re operating at break-even is a risky scenario for the DAO as any unexpected costs could shut it down. It is on my agenda to discuss with the initiative leads tomorrow, getting some people to support setting some standards here would be a good thing.

i.e. operators are only paid out on profit above a certain threshold to ensure the treasury is growing and has available cash to pay unexpected expenses

2 Likes

Yes, sounds reasonable.

tbh, until today I was sure for some reason that all the budget proposals should be solely in $CODE - my bad. thank you for the clarification!

Thank you for your work on this proposal!

There was mention of a “hiring process”.

What are the hiring/interview process pieces?

e.g.

  • Stewards approve job as outlined in this proposal
  • job is advertised – how to confirm diverse and qualified candidates? open certain period of time? where is it posted?
  • interview process – do steward’s interview? or Guild leads? what is process of evaluation?

What are the hiring/interview process pieces?

That’s an ongoing process. In the current hiring process, due to the timeline we have to comply, we have very open rulings, allowing stewards to define it.
The current process, outside the proposal:

  1. Review the current DAO Operators proposal
  2. Attend the initiative-leads meeting in Thursday, and any specific DAO Operators meetings for any discussion of the subject.
  3. Comment publicly in this channel your questions and opinions on the proposed roles and possible nominees.
  4. Suggest changes to the proposed roles / Vote on the proposed changes.
  5. IMPORTANT: Nominate your suggested members for the current roles (after any possible changes in the discussions), and your motives for doing so. You must do this before Friday 24th at 11:59 pm UTC. Nominations are required to be integrated into the current proposal.

Currently, there isn’t any way to ensure the process involves diversity, and it doesn’t include interviews. It will relay on work already done for the DAO, I would imagine.
This is something we should have considered in this proposal, and I would like to add it to the current proposal we are doing for the definition of the actual stewards.

2 Likes

Where can I find this Initiative-Leads channel @Erik_Knobl

here goes the link:

I’m blind typing this, sorry for typos. I disagree with the line dividing those two roles. The reason why you don’t have CFO running the companies is that it would create a wrong incentive. He will guide the company to a great money saving process - immediate death for most of thecompanies. We don’t need to copy how companies work, but if this is the jobs to do with a full time allocation, I’d say that the fund raising person should have the financials (and the system needs to be transparent enough to avoid misuse).

2 Likes

I personally believe $8,000 + $5,000 in $code seems high and I understand the idea behind these roles creating new processes and infrastructures but I believe that a lot of contributors do engage in the creation of new processes and even core contributors are not receiving up to 5,000 in $code, just seems a bit unfair to many people who put in a significant time commitment to the DAO who may not fall under an operator title or initiative lead title.

3 Likes