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Background

As Project Catalyst evolves through rapidly scaling funds, improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance processes need oversight and assessment from the community.

To address this need in November 2021 a Community Governance Oversight proposal was submitted in the Fund 7 Improve & Grow Auditability Challenge. This was successfully voted for & funded in February 2022. The first biweekly meeting of the Oversight group was on Thursday, 10th March 2022 recorded here.

The Oversight group keeps alive interest & engagement in Catalyst governance processes, and observes & documents the collaborative relationship between the community & IOG.

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Community Governance Oversight Proposal Intent

This proposal's intent is to provide community oversight of improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance (incl. the Catalyst Parameters Pilot below) by collecting feedback and providing tracking, documentation, research and analysis of any proposed changes.

A complementary "Catalyst Audit Circle" ( https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/399163 ) provides oversight on the auditability of funded proposals and acts as a Catalyst Auditing working group.

In each Catalyst Fund new governance processes are introduced. Recent examples of governance processes initiated by IOG & the community include :

1. Challenge Setting - including community contributed challenges and the creation and expanding role of challenge teams
2. Catalyst Circle problem sensing - effectiveness of prioritized problem sensing
3. d-Reps - oversight of delegated voting innovations
4. Modifying the governance parameters in Catalyst via Catalyst Circle and a Technical Council. (see here for more details)

The Community Governance Oversight Group will provide oversight on such processes.

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Governance Oversight addresses the Auditability Challenge by providing much needed transparency of the use of Cardano's treasury resources.

Governance processes, innovations and experiments directly impact how funded proposals are assessed, voted on & executed. For example Catalyst parameter changes such as the amount of rewards paid out for voting, the amount of time proposers have to submit proposals would directly impact the outcomes for those proposals.

The Oversight group will allow the Cardano community to have more information at a high level on the effectiveness of the proposal process & the Catalyst innovation fund in general. This group plays a critical role in the evolving decentralized Catalyst governance process, and will serve as an important area to test experiments that will flow into the Voltaire processes.

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Risk: Lack of liaison with IOG

Mitigation: The Community Governance Oversight has liaised with the IOG Catalyst team since the submission of its Fund 7 proposal in November 2021. Regular contact is maintained with Daniel Ribar, Harris Warren, Kriss Baird & Dor Garbash.

Risk: Lack of community awareness & engagement

Mitigation: Biweekly slides are presented at Catalyst Town Halls to update the community on progress and provide a platform to engage people in oversight activities.

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The Community Governance Oversight Process

The Community Governance Oversight Group (hereafter, "the Oversight group") in its biweekly meetings, discusses, assesses and decides what methods are most effective and appropriate to oversee a Governance process.

The pre-planning meeting of 3rd March 2022 for the Fund 7 Community Governance Oversight & Audit Circle proposals is provided here as a YouTube link, and gives context to how these groups are organized.

Oversight Methods

These methods will include :

1. Surveys - The Oversight group creates internal & external surveys that will provide analysis of the quality of decision-making of each governance process. These can be included in any final report for a governance process. Internal surveys - Internal surveys are directed at self assessment & lessons learnt by those who participate directly in each governance process (including Challenge Team members, Catalyst Circle Reps & Technical Council members). External surveys - External surveys are directed at the Catalyst community and assess their reception of a governance process (e.g. processes such as Challenge Setting, Catalyst Circle Problem Sensing, d-Reps & governance parameters setting).
2. Workshops - Members of the Oversight group may facilitate workshops After Town Hall to complement feedback monitoring and survey design.
3. Facilitation of internal retrospectives - The Oversight group facilitates internal retrospectives that address issues highlighted by surveys and workshops, and identify improvement recommendations.
4. Final Reports - The Oversight group documents and tracks any innovations in Catalyst Governance, making these easily accessible to the community. Final reports assess the effectiveness of any governance process, check whether actions to resolve or improve have been executed, and recommend further improvements.
5. Research - The Oversight group will facilitate literature reviews and meta-analysis of decentralized governance methods and practices. This research will be used to facilitate informed feedback on design proposals regarding delegated representatives and Catalyst parameter changes.

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Timeline

Prior to F8 vote

Present - February 2022 to April 2022

• March 2022 - The first iteration of Oversight group & Audit Circle has been formed. Biweekly meetings commence.
• March 2022 - A Fund 8 proposal will be prepared by the Oversight group and submitted in an appropriate Challenge
• March to April 2022 - Members of the Oversight group collaborate with IOHK, the Catalyst Technical Council, Catalyst Circle V3 and Circle Admin to develop and implement oversight methods for governance processes (such as Challenge setting, d-Reps, Catalyst Circle problem-sensing, & modifying Catalyst governance parameters).
• March to April 2022 - Criteria are set for the success metric of each governance process.
• March to April 2022 - Reports for each governance process provide an assessment of whether they meet the success criteria.
• March to April 2022 - Research is prepared & published

Subsequent to F8 vote (if funded)

May 2022 to August 2022

• May/June 2022 - The second iteration of the Oversight group is formed. Biweekly meetings commence.
• May/June 2022 - A Fund 9 proposal will be prepared by the Oversight group and submitted in an appropriate Challenge
• May to August 2022 - Members of the Oversight group collaborate with IOHK, the Catalyst Technical Council, Catalyst Circle V3 and Circle Admin to develop and implement oversight methods for governance processes (such as Challenge setting, d-Reps, Catalyst Circle problem-sensing, & modifying Catalyst governance parameters).
• May to August 2022 - Criteria are set for the success metric of each governance process.
• May to August 2022 - Reports for each governance process provide an assessment of whether they meet the success criteria.
• May to August 2022 - Research is prepared & published

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A) Meetings :

Remuneration for members of the Oversight group : $1000 per person (up to 8 members) for a total of 12 hours' work per person : comprises meetings (1 hour twice a month - approx 6 meetings over 3 months) and preparation (communications, working sessions, etc. : 1 hour twice a month).

Subtotal : $8000

B) Fixed Costs :

Internal/external communication and organisation tools: ($1000)

1. Video conference/meeting (Zoom/hangout) x 3 months
2. Google form / survey design
3. Web hosting, Domain purchase
4. GitBook subscription.

Subtotal : $1000

C) Deliverables / Outputs :

Note : Provision is made for a range of approaches and the budget may be reallocated to adapt to changing circumstances that novel governance processes present. This will be divided between members according to the amount of work they contribute to creating, disseminating and analyzing a survey, presenting it at After Town Hall and facilitating discussion.

1 Surveys

For each survey : 

Survey design, review by group, implementation, execution, data collection, interpretation and presentation.

Up to 6 surveys (3 internal & 3 external) over 3 months -

$ 4800 for 6 surveys or $800 per survey

2 Facilitation of internal retrospectives

For each retrospective :

This will be divided between members according to the amount of work they contribute to the retrospective including interpretation, synthesis and identifying improvement recommendations.

Facilitation of up to 3 internal retrospectives over 3 months -

$ 2400 for 3 retrospectives or $ 800 per retrospective.

3 Production of reports

Production of up to 3 final reports, one on each area of governance (e.g. Challenge Setting, Catalyst Circle Problem Sensing & governance parameters setting) at the end of 3 months. This will be divided between members according to the amount of work they contribute to the report writing, including checking whether actions to resolve or improve have been executed, and recommending further improvements.

$ 2400 for 3 reports or $ 800 per report.

4 Research

The Oversight group will facilitate literature reviews and meta-analysis of decentralized governance methods and practices. This research will be used to facilitate informed feedback on design proposals regarding delegated representatives and Catalyst parameter changes.

• May 2022 - Establish Gitbook and Zotero resources
• June 2022 - Gather literature and interview inputs
• July 2022 - Draft “Securing Decentralized Governance”
• August 2022 - Publish first version of “Securing Decentralized Governance”

$ 10,000 for 4 months' research work ($ 2,500 per month)

5 Preparation for a Fund 9 proposal

Preparation to support the submission of a Fund 9 proposal to resource its ongoing activities in proportion to the scope of Catalyst governance changes in Summer 2022.

$ 500

Subtotal : $ 20,100

D - Project Management & Administration

A project management & administration resource will :

• Draft & circulate Agendas
• Prepare Town Hall Slides
• Record & take notes or summaries of meetings
• Maintain project documentation
• Administer the Governance Oversight Discord server

Subtotal : $ 2,000 for 4 months ($ 500 per month)

E - Treasury

Andre Diamond & Miroslav Rajh of Treasury Guild will set up the wallet for Community Governance Oversight, arrange ADA payments to members, and maintain budget records.

5 hours/week for 4 months = 80 hours = $40/hour for 80 hours 

Subtotal: $3,200

Total : $34, 300

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Community Governance Oversight Group : From the Catalyst Community (up to 8 paid members) including :

• Allison Fromm - left a 20+ year career in finance, banking, and business development to launch Crypto Alley in 2021. She has been involved in the cryptocurrency industry since 2012. Upon discovering Cardano in early 2020, she has focused primarily on projects in that ecosystem.
• Jo Allum, F7 Auditability Challenge Team Lead, Funded proposer in F6: Scale-UP Cardano's Community Hubs (Cardano Canvas, Cards & Calculator).
• Kenric Nelson - Founder and President of Photrek, https:\\photrek.world . Kenric is an innovative leader in the research, development and deployment of systems for complex decision-making. For the Catalyst community he served as the Community Advisor Representative to the Catalyst Circle v2 and successfully delivered the Fund 4 Diversify Voting Influence project. In these roles, Kenric has been a strong advocate for improving the quality, security, and inclusivity of decentralized governance. Kenric completed the Atala Prism Pioneers program and is currently enrolled in the Plutus Pioneers program. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenric-nelson-ph-d-7495b77/
• Matthias Sieber - CEO Loxe Inc., Circle V2 representative for Cardano Foundation. Funded proposer in F6: Atala PRISM DID Mass-Scale Adoption, F6: DApps & Integrations, F6: Scale-UP Cardano's Community Hubs, F6: Developer ecosystem
• Phil Khoo - experience as an accountant, UI/UX frontend and graphic design and business advisor amongst numerous other pursuits. He currently has a lead position in the development and direction of Cardano AIM and is co-creator of the Community Tools.
• Stephen Whitenstall - Co Founder of Quality-Assurance DAO, https://quality-assurance-dao.github.io/ , Circle V2 representative for funded proposers. Funded proposer in Funds 5 to 7. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-whitenstall-166727210/
• Vanessa Cardui - Community engagement professional with 20+ years' experience of working with communities to record and collate their information, archive it, and make it discoverable. Part of QA-DAO where she is currently leading on documentation of Catalyst Circle v2 and v3 (see https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/catalyst-circle-oversight-v2 )

Treasury Guild : offers a 1 to 1 accounting and treasury service to projects within the Catalyst ecosystem. Setting up and managing Project Wallets and the distribution of funds. Keeping track of all budget items and the exchange rate at which the funds were released to ensure that the budget is spent correctly. Including metadata in the transactions enabling future dapps to pull data and create dynamic tailor made dashboards & templates.

• Andre Diamond has experience in small business operation and accounting. Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team as treasurer in Nov 2021 and has expanded this role by starting the Treasury Guild alongside Miroslav to support projects in the Catalyst community as well. Currently using and documenting GitHub Actions to help automate some of the tasks in Catalyst Circle and treasury work. Linkedin
• Miroslav Rajh has 20 years of experience in managing finances and organizing the business of NGOs and the University. He also worked as a Human Resources Manager (HRM). Joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team together with Andre as treasurer in Nov 2021. Currently he is recording, documenting and managing all transactions for CC Admin Team, Swarm, Cardano4Climate, Community Governance and Bridge Builders. LInkedin

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The Oversight Group maintains a record of its progress in a project GitBook at https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/community-governance-oversight/.

If this proposal is voted for and funded, its progress will be tracked and documented in a similar fashion to its preceding Fund 7 proposal here : https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/community-governance-oversight/fund-7-reporting/fund-7-on-boarding

This will include documentation of :

• Meeting recordings & summaries
• Analysis of the success criteria of any governance process
• Survey design, execution & results
• Workshop recordings & summaries
• Retrospectives & Final Reports
• Community Research

At the end of this project's 3 month timeline a Project Close Report will provide an overview of progress & lessons learnt.

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Community Governance Oversight Objectives - what does success look like ?

The Oversight group will seek to ensure that :

1. No central entity or authority controls improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance.
2. Key groups are fairly represented - such as Voters, SPOs, Toolmakers and Maintainers, Funded Proposers, Community Advisors, Challenge Teams and Cardano Ambassadors.
3. Activities of participants in any governance changes are accountable to the community.
4. The risk of adversarial capture is mitigated.
5. That governance is transparent and understandable through accessible, timely and widely distributed documentation and communication.
6. Will assess whether improvements to Catalyst Governance have : a) recruited capable participants, b) access to impartial data and analysis, c) robust methodologies, d) clear rules and policies.
7. Formal security and emergency mechanisms are developed and implemented.
8. Governance culture is legitimate, stable and lively.

This is a continuation of the Fund 7 Community Governance Oversight proposal - https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/383517