Grassroots Governance Community Forums

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Jonathan Postnikoff

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

governanceservicesguild@gmail.com

Additional applicants

Listed alphabetically:

• Vanessa Cardui
• Miroslav Rajh
• Tevo Saks
• Stephen Whitenstall

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source.

Yes, all documentation resulting from each Grassroots Governance Community Forum will be made available through our GitBook under an Open Source or Creative Commons License.

[METADATA] Category of proposal

Events

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

There has been a lot of discussion in the community recently regarding CIP-1694 and the Voltaire governance era for the Cardano ecosystem. What has largely been absent from these discussions is a recognition and appreciation of the significant amount of effort already being undertaken by a variety of individuals and teams, each working on and solving their own governance issues. 

CIP-1694 discussions do not address more foundational governance needs, such as team organizational structures, development of roles and responsibilities, process and procedure development, or any process of reciprocal learning and peer support. 

To support the community as it advances on its decentralised governance journey, the Governance Guild proposes to bring together individuals and teams from across Web3 ecosystems for a series of grassroots governance forums. It is our hope that this will be a launching point for blockchain governance that attracts like-minded individuals to work together to address our shared concerns. 

To accomplish this, we plan to deliver 4 sessions over 6 months, in an open-space style, with a group of up to 50 individuals and teams from Cardano and beyond who are interested in the issues around how we govern ourselves in Web3 spaces. 

Participants in the sessions will be invited to participate through several methods. First, the Governance Guild is well connected with other community groups such as Swarm, SingularityNet, Gimbalabs, etc. and will tap directly into these networks to distribute invitations. Second, participants may opt in to participate through our outreach, such as posting on Twitter, Telegram, and Discord. When invitees sign up, we will ask them to tell us about anyone else they think should be invited. Lastly, we will remain committed to involving other individuals through other Cardano events, such as After Townhalls. 

The “Open Space” approach that we plan to use means that attendees are invited to run breakout sessions on topics of concern to them, which helps ensure that sessions are responsive and current, and the attendees are co-creators of each event. Each breakout room will be documented using text summaries on GitBook, and our documentation approach will give concern both to crediting people for their input if they wish, and preserving privacy and anonymity for those who prefer it. 

We will share the documentation widely to the community via Twitter, Discord, Telegram, and the Cardano Forum, and will use the documentation from each session as the basis for planning the next. We will also conduct a short retrospective after each session, to understand in what ways it was useful, the key directions and ideas that are emerging, and which voices might be missing and might need to be included next time. All material will be publicly available to help anyone else who might want to run similar events.

Governance Guild is uniquely placed to deliver this proposal effectively because we are all very engaged members of the Catalyst community, each with our own wide network of connections that we can draw on to make these events a success, and each with our own insights on the complex governance issues that face Cardano overall, and particularly Cardano DAOs and communities.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

Currently, each community group or DAO is required to develop its own governance structure but often without the appropriate know-how or tooling available. By creating community spaces for broad governance discussions to take place, these groups can learn from their peers about best governance practices, innovative tooling, and/or community-driven solutions. 

The DAO’s <3 Cardano challenge highlights that Cardano needs “Effective Collaboration Management Platforms to Organize Community Intentions and Actions”. Our proposal would be one such platform where we convene community members and projects to organize their governance intentions and work towards collective solutions. 

Having individuals and projects working in silos will not deliver the true decentralization of the future. On the contrary, cross community and broad web3 ecosystem discussions on governance will begin to break down these silos and have us learning from each other. 

In addition, all outputs of the grassroots governance community forums will be open for use by any interested individuals. Groups will also be able to use any of the discussions and outcomes from the forums, including any potential solutions and tooling that are needed to support a project or team, to launch their own governance initiatives. While teams will need to determine their own level of comfort making their solution open-source, the Governance Guild will encourage such behaviour. 

The benefit of open source solutions is that we need to solve particular problems only once as a community. 

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

As we plan to conduct four grassroots community forums over a six month period, we will measure our successes in the following ways:

• Number of different Cardano community groups/projects or individuals who participate in each forum.
• Number of non-Cardano (other Web3 ecosystem) participants at each forum.
• Number of decentralised governance conversations, services, solutions, and/or tools resulting from the forums. 

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

All grassroots governance community forum outputs will be shared on the Governance Guild GitHub, such as meeting readouts (key takeaways), community position statements on a particular governance issue or question, and decentralised solutions or tools resulting from the forums.

As this is a community-wide proposal, we will also share all outputs with meeting participants and distribute them through our network of Cardano community groups (e.g. Swarm, SingularityNet ambassadors, WADA, QA-DAO, Gimbalabs, Community Governance Oversight).

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

Cardano Governance Guild is a network of individuals with a broad range of experience in Blockchain governance, administration, and project management. We support the exploration, development, and implementation of decentralised solutions to help teams govern their own initiatives. We do not prescribe or require particular ways of working but aim to identify appropriate mechanisms and/or tools that suit each team’s individual needs. 

Our goal is to offer nonpartisan and pluralistic services to a variety of groups and teams within the broader Cardano ecosystem. We seek to accommodate and work with a wide variety of individuals, groups, and communities from a diverse range of geographical and cultural backgrounds.

On July 15, 2023, the Governance Guild held its first Grassroots Governance Community forum.

In total there were 26 participants, with representatives from Cardano-based teams and broader Web3 ecosystem participants. 

As the convening body, Governance Guild was responsible for coordination and organization of the event, including creating and sending invitations, hosting the forum, documenting breakout room discussions, and finalizing the forum document output. 

This four hour workshop focused on a series of questions that must be addressed by all groups undertaking governance activities.

Part one of the workshop invited participants to engage in breakout sessions led by a diverse group of community members. Part one focused on the following questions:

1. What have been your biggest governance challenges so far? (legal, capacity, resources)
2. What tools, services, or supports would help your team succeed? 

Part two of the Grassroots Governance Community Forum centered around a discussion about our shared values and the importance of identifying similarities and differences in our efforts. Key takeaways from this second part of the Forum highlights to the team that we must take additional steps to adopt various forms and methods to include a wide array of voices, such as presenting the same information in different mediums to support different learning methods. Exploring and challenging our assumptions while also “meeting people where they are at” will be integrated into future Grassroots Governance Community Forums through this proposal. 

The final output document of the first Grassroots Governance Community Forum can be found on the Governance Guild Gitbook (link above) once it’s ready for publication. 

To underscore our capacity to deliver future events such as the one mentioned here, we’d like to highlight some of the feedback collected directly from forum participants. 

One hundred percent (100%) of respondents to the feedback form rated the event as “Amazing” or “Pretty good” and also were “Very Likely” or “Likely” to participate in future events. 

Participants described their key takeaways as: “Great insights and knowledge sharing from participants”, “Loved hearing from different communities and had some questions answered”, and “Need to work on confidence building to lift people up to be part of governance”. 

When asked about areas of improvement for future Forums, participants noted: “increasing new faces from the broader ecosystem”, “narrowing the scope of focus to specific challenges and identifying a particular solution”, and “building broader networks of community members, particularly from groups where different governance discussions are taking place and seeking opportunities to become more involved”. 

Given that F10 voting and final results will not be made available for several months, Governance Guild will host a second Grassroots Governance Community Forum prior to F10 results, covered by remaining funds available from F9.

This event is being planned for the end of August 2023, and will integrate the suggestions and feedback from the first session, while we also increase our efforts to identify opportunities for community inclusiveness and participation.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal of this proposal is to hold four Grassroots Governance Community Forums over a six month period and to deliver four forum output documents, one for each session. 

We will measure our success in two primary ways: 

First, we will measure the total amount of people who have been engaged through the forums. 

• In total, we aim to have engaged with at least 50 unique participants (individuals) from both Cardano-based individuals/projects/teams and 25 participants from broader web3 ecosystems following the last forum. 
• In addition, our intention is that these discussions will help a variety of community members increase their understanding of decentralised governance and to onboard them into broader Cardano governance discussions. 

Second, we will measure the amount of community solutions/tools that are launched as a result of the grassroots governance community forum.

• Solutions or tools are interpreted broadly here and should be understood to include any potential output that helps resolve a decentralised community governance need, or addresses a key governance question. 
• Solutions may result in community-led Cardano Improvement Proposals around decentralised governance. 

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1: Grassroots Governance Community Forum Calendar (2% complete)

• Prior to the first forum conducted under this proposal, the Governance Guild will develop a Grassroots Governance Community Forum calendar. 
• This calendar will be used to inform interested participants of each forum date and time. 

Milestone 2 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #1 (1-2 months) (22% complete)

• Once the calendar has been decided, the first forum will take place within one to two months from the beginning of this proposal. 

Milestone 3 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #2 (1 month) (42% complete)

• The second forum will take place within one month following the first forum. 

Milestone 4 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #3 (1 month) (62% complete)

• The third forum will take place within one month from the second forum.

Milestone 5 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #4 (1 month) (82% complete)

• The fourth forum will take place within one month from the third forum.

Milestone 6 - Project close-out (1 month) (100% complete)

• The project will be officially closed-out with a report and video within one month from the fourth forum.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1: Grassroots Governance Community Forum Calendar (2 weeks after voting results, if successful)

(2% of budget allocated for Milestone 1)

• This calendar will be used to inform interested participants of each forum date and time. 
• Deliverable: Prior to the first forum conducted under this proposal, the Governance Guild will develop a Grassroots Governance Community Forum calendar. 

Milestone 2 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #1 (1-2 months following)

(20% of budget allocated for Milestone 2)

• The first forum will take place within one to two months from the beginning of this proposal. 
• Expected Outcome: At least 20 different individuals/projects participating. 
• Deliverable: Forum #1 Readout Document - To be made available on Github
• Key topics and items discussed
• Key questions raised
• Solutions identified / Solutions initiated 
• Final decisions / position statements 

Milestone 3 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #2 (1 month following)

(20% of budget allocated for Milestone 3)

• The second forum will take place within one month following the first forum. 
• Expected Outcome: At least 20 different individuals/projects participating. 
• Deliverable: Forum #2 Readout Document - To be made available on Github
• Key topics and items discussed
• Key questions raised
• Solutions identified / Solutions initiated 
• Final decisions / position statements 

Milestone 4 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #3 (1 month following)

(20% of budget allocated for Milestone 4)

• The third forum will take place within one month from the second forum.
• Expected Outcome: At least 20 different individuals/projects participating. 
• Deliverable: Forum #3 Readout Document - To be made available on Github
• Key topics and items discussed
• Key questions raised
• Solutions identified / Solutions initiated 
• Final decisions / position statements  

Milestone 5 - Grassroots Governance Community Forum #4 (1 month following)

(20% of budget allocated for Milestone 5 )

• The fourth forum will take place within one month from the third forum.
• Expected Outcome: At least 20 different individuals/projects participating. 
• Deliverable: Forum #4 Readout Document - To be made available on Github
• Key topics and items discussed
• Key questions raised
• Solutions identified / Solutions initiated 
• Final decisions / position statements  

Milestone 6 - project close-out (1 month following)

(18% of budget for Milestone 6)

• Within one month from the fourth (and final) forum.
• Expected Outcome: wide community awareness of what the project has achieved.
• Deliverable: Project close-out report and video

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Proposed budget activities and amounts in ADA:

Session admin 

• Managing Zoom and invitations, creating supporting info for breakout room facilitators, coordinating session topics, liaising with breakout facilitators
• 600 ADA per session x 4 sessions = 2,400

Facilitation

• Governance Guild members or people from outside Governance Guild are invited to facilitate a room and are rewarded for their participation. 
• 4 breakout room facilitators per session x 4 sessions x 800 ADA = 12,800 

Documentation

• In-meeting note taking: 
• 4 documenters per session for 4 breakout rooms x 4 sessions x 800 ADA = 12,800

• Summarising, organising, adding to GitBook: 
• 4 meetings x 1,200 ADA per meeting = 4,800

Publicity

• Sharing material collated from sessions via Twitter, Discord, Telegram, Cardano Forum, etc: 
• 4 meetings x 200 ADA = 800

Retrospective 

• Retrospective sessions by Governance Guild to assess where sessions are leading and lessons learned for future sessions.
• 4 sessions x 1,600 ADA = 6,400 

Monitoring and reporting 

• Monthly and milestone reporting, close-out report and video creation & sharing 
• 8,000

Total ADA Requested: 48,000

Given the volatility and uncertainty of macro effects on cryptocurrencies writ-large, including ADA, we have set the above amounts in ADA at a conversion of $0.25 / ADA (~$12,000 USD as the total cost).

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

This proposal is requesting only those funds that are necessary to run four Grassroots Governance Community Forums over a six month period, and a small administrative cost to deliver the proposal. 

As per the budget above, the complete cost breakdown for each forum (in ADA) is:

• Session admin = 600
• Facilitation = 3200
• Documentation = 4400
• Publicity = 200
• Retrospective = 1600

Each forum is planned to cost 10,000ADA ($2500)

These are self-employed rates that take into account the employment overheads of the resources contracted. The rates are based on the low end of US and European averages. The amounts are calculated for each milestone based on the hours to complete.

In addition all the resources working on this project are taking on the currency risk of being paid in ADA. This means that a fall in the ADA price will result in being paid less or delivering less in each milestone. Any rise in the ADA price will represent a reward for investing in the Cardano ecosystem.

Consequently, given these factors, we believe this proposal offers excellent value for money in a volatile cryptocurrency environment

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept