CA/VCA Treasury for Rapid Funding

[IMPACT]

CA and VCA are community driven roles which emerged through engagement in the Project Catalyst proposal funding process. We proactively participate in building the Cardano Ecosystem and provide constant collaboration and services to our Community, particularly during the proposal assessment period, but also during the pre-and post-assessment phases. 

The living, organic nature of Catalyst means that not every crucial engagement is planned and funded in advance, and not every critical solution is known beforehand, with proper incentives in place. This leads to unsustainable ‘volunteerism’ gap around key services and structures that form the backbone of Community participation and potential within the wider ecosystem.

A transparent, well documented Operational Treasury can bridge that gap by providing reliable funding for Core services and maintenance, while allowing for flexibility to incentivize solutions that are created and used by the Community.

The main risk to a proposal of this nature is for the speed and growth of Project Catalyst and its members to overwhelm the team that administers the proposed Treasury with suggestions on protocol and claims against the Treasury. We include here a simple Governance Protocol to address both of these issues, described below. This Governance Protocol also requires the issuance of audit reports, which addresses a secondary challenge faced by this proposal, which is transparency of results.

[FEASIBILITY]

The created Treasury will provide funding for the following categories, and a Treasury Admin Team will have the responsibility of carrying out the process for funding start to finish:

Community Management and Moderation

Coordination and management requires experience, knowledge and commitment within the ecosystem. Constant engagement is needed to establish, maintain and deepen connections within the Catalyst Network, and our Community Managers are the key to that growth. Our Moderators take that engagement to the next level and represent our highest community values. They make sure close, collaborative communication never steps outside the bounds of Catalyst core values of diversity and inclusivity. They are a constant presence to offer help when needed or to point people in the right direction.

Community Events OR Events & Offerings - Could include workshops/training??

We organize recurring community events to allow our community to put faces to people and to meet and connect with each other. We provide open spaces for people to present their ideas and projects to the community. Organizing workshops, sessions and events requires constant connection to multiple sectors to keep and develop familiar formats. Convening the People is a longstanding principle of strong communities, and our organizers and event administrators are the source of the energy and engagement that those gatherings bring.

Treasury Management

No Treasury system is complete without clear frameworks for governing how they operate. We have included an Operations Treasury Governance Framework document that captures our process, and highlights our commitment to transparency and accountability in getting these funds disbursed to the community.

Documentation and Auditing

A transparent and clear documentation of our project is a major part of our accountability and legitimacy. As we receive Funds from the Cardano Treasury, we are accountable to the Community first and as such, the community has the right of access to all relevant information. To achieve these guarantees of clear, up to date documentation, we require committed community members to give their time and effort, often across projects and areas of Catalyst. We include here a standard Auditing Report for the Treasury proposal itself, which will keep it on track through multiple funding cycles.

Tools & services

We use tools and services ( e.g Zoom, Domains, Gitbook, DeWork, Discord, Telegram, Miro, Jira etc .. ) which helps us to build and maintain our ongoing projects long past the periods of their original funding mandates. These tools can often be acquired for multiple funding phases and cycles, making them asynchronous to regular funding mechanisms.

Marketing & PR 

To spread the word about Cardano & our projects, engage new CAs and share opportunities specific to the role, we have a direct need to invest in effective marketing campaigns. 

Roadmap:

The treasury includes a Governance Framework, which is a living document that outlines purpose, scope, objectives, principles and general and audit requirements.

As covered in the Governance Framework document, the process to institute and administer the Treasury is as follows:

• Proposal team appoints a Treasurer or Treasury Admin team
• Proposal team creates a Treasury wallet and transfers it to the Treasurer
• As work under the scope of our Operations budget is completed, claims are issued against the Treasury and validated by the Treasurer
• In order to disburse funding the Treasurer establishes a quorum as defined in the Governance Framework, and holds a vote to validate the disbursement of funds
• If the vote approves, funds are disbursed and the Treasurer creates an Audit Report for the transaction, as defined under the Governance Framework.
• This process repeats until either the Treasury fund is depleted or it rolls over into the next funding cycle

The funding cycle for this project is 6 months.

The funding total will be disbursed across the following categories, and is flexible based on the needs that arise across the six-month period.

• Community Management
• Moderation
• Community Events
• Treasury Management
• Tools & Services
• Marketing & PR
• Flexible/Miscellaneous Use

$500 is requested to fund the activities required of the Treasury Admin Team at a rate of $100 per Treasury Admin Team member for a term of 6 months for a total of 5 team members, to be paid at the conclusion of their term. In the event their term is concluded early, they will receive a daily pro-rata share of the $100 stipend at a rate of $100/180=$.55/day. In the event there are fewer than the targeted number of administrators on the team, the stipend will increase accordingly. However the goal is no less than 5 members of the community on the admin team.

The proposal drafting team includes the CA Circle Rep and multiple long-standing CA community members. Five members of the CA community will become the CA Admin team supporting the governance of the treasury.

[AUDITABILITY]

The measurements of the progress and development of the project can include:

• Number of Audit Reports and total ADA dispensed to community contributors
• Amount of specific recurring Community events, workshops, workspaces, sessions
• Number of unique community members receiving Treasury funds
• Engagement of active voters involved in disbursement validation
• Average value of settle claims against the Treasury
• Number of other participants who adopt similar Treasury protocols

CAs/VCAs maintain and grow the community and its members filling this role, and funds many unique users engaged in many unique activities that foster that growth and improvement of the capacity to provide high-quality assessment work. The Treasury also creates a model that can be replicated by other circle groups, and has the opportunity to display successful governance frameworks.

This is a new proposal.