Catalyst Circle - Funding Mechanism

[IMPACT]

The Catalyst Circle - Funding Mechanism is intended to incentivize community participation in the governance process by giving Circle members the ability to reward those who contribute to their respective community.

This proposal aims to keep to the Project Catalyst Guidelines and all active and vital roles in the Catalyst Proposal submission process. 

(A) Problem sensing process

The Catalyst Circle (CC) explored (in version one) an effective way to sensor and gather crucial problems the member groups of the community faced. By acting as an human sensor array, the Catalyst Circle is able to gather problems and bring those back to the community with a call to action to provide solutions to the presented problems. The Catalyst Circle itself, act only as a coordination and communication body, decisions are made by the community. This is the base of this proposal. The Circle Coordinates, the Community acts. 

(1) The Catalyst Circle members include their communities in sensing group/community-specific problems

(2) The sensed problems are gathered and communicated within the Catalyst Circle

(3) The Catalyst Circle members cluster and prioritize the gathered problems

(4) The Catalyst Circle presents the prioritized problems to the community

(1) While each CC member and constituency can execute problem sensing differently, the community ultimately communicates their problems to their representative.

The problem sensing process of the Catalyst Circle version 1 can be repeated and evolved over further iterations.

See problem sensing of the Community Advisors as an example

See problem sensing of the Toolmakers & Maintainers as an example

(2) The problems communicated by the community to their representatives are presented within the Catalyst Circle meetings. The meetings are recorded and accessible by the community to ensure the transparent functioning of the Catalyst Circle and the Community

See problem statement presentation from the Catalyst Circle version 1 as an example.

(3) The Catalyst Circle members cluster and prioritize the gathered problems from their groups within the Catalyst Circle meetings. 

See problem cluster & categorize process Catalyst Circle version 1 as an example (Can be evolved)

(4) After steps (1) to (3), the Catalyst Circle members present the prioritized problems back to the community with a call to action to propose solution-based proposals, initiatives and projects. This action is coordinated and supported by the Catalyst Circle and the CC Admin team.

(B) Proposal Submission

(1) The final prioritized Problems are presented to the community with the call to action for solution-based implementation proposals

(2) To encourage effective collaboration, the Community has five days to build action teams to solve the problem.

(3) The submitted solutions are reviewed in a 2-day timeframe by the community members that will act as CAs

(4) The highest-ranked proposal assessments are reviewed by the vCAs within three days

(5) The highest-ranked proposed solutions receive the needed fundings to execute their proposals

Mechanism for dealing with multiple teams: 

(1) The final prioritized problems are presented to the Community. The Circle will document the issues on the CC github board, and each case is “owned” by a Catalyst Circle - Member. The “Problem Owner” has to lead, coordinate and support the highest-ranked submitted proposal (5). 

(2) The Community has a 5 day timeframe to build action teams looking to provide an effective solution on the presented problem, to coordinate the available skill sets in the community and to create or to use networks that bring in the required missing skills. 

(3) The submitted solutions are reviewed in a 2-day timeframe from the catalyst community advisors, who will act as CAs out of the conventional CAs activity phase in the Project Catalyst - Assessment phase. The Catalyst Circle - Funding Mechanism allows us to explore new cases of evolution for the Community Advisors. It will enable us to gather a maximum of assessments on a low amount of proposals. This phase has to be well-coordinated from the Catalyst Circle. As we saw from the CA recruitment campaign in Fund 6, The CA, IOG and T&M representatives can initiate and coordinate very effective activities that require immediate community participation.

(4) The highest-ranked proposal assessments are reviewed by the vCAs within three days after the CAs assessment phase of 2 days has passed.

Team composition:

Each team assigns a communicator.

By networking and open discussion a team or multiple teams can form.

Using the broader networks of the community external implementers can be added to the team.

(C) Auditing the proposals

The Catalyst Circle acts in different roles. As a funding body and a “Challenge Team,” which stewards the overall activities of the funded proposals. Further, as an Audit Team, ensure the safe distribution of the funds in guidelines to the proposers KPIs/OKRs/Milestones and achievements or failures. 

(1) The Catalyst Circle and the Catalyst Circle Admin team will document and track the execution of the funded proposals.

(2) The Catalyst Circle and the Catalyst Circle Admin team will report the overall progress and status of the funded proposals every week in the Project Catalyst Town Hall

(D) Fund & leftover balances

(1) If the Catalyst Circle does not allocate all funds by the end of their term, the next Catalyst Circle will have the discretion to use the leftover funds to support upcoming initiatives. 

(2) The balance of the available and distributed funds will be transparently tracked and documented.

One challenge for the Circle going forward pertains to the sustainability of community engagement and support without proper funding. It is essential that the Circle deliver a flow of information outwards and create positive feedback loops whereby community input is integrated in an iterative and ongoing process. As this work is currently done on a volunteer basis, there are questions as to its effectiveness and durability over time. By creating rapid-funding for the Circle reps, they will be able to incentivize and reward community members to contribute to this information flow.

A second challenge is ensuring that the community is able to track the expenditures of Circle members so that there is full transparency and accountability. We plan to mitigate this challenge by working directly with the CC Treasury team to ensure that all funds are collected and disbursed in an open and transparent manner. The CC Treasurers have developed a working system that will auto-update transactions to the gitbook; an additional opportunity for community scrutiny.

[FEASIBILITY]

These funds will be allocated for the upcoming three months from April 2022 - June 2022. These funds are for community participation in governance and cannot be used by the Catalyst Circle, CC Admin Team, or CC Treasurers.

We commit to deliver:

(1) Executing the first iteration of the Catalyst Circle - Funding Mechanism through Funds 8 and 9

(2) Documenting and auditing the Catalyst Circle - Funding Mechanism as part of the CC Admin playbook so we can evolve over further iterations

(3) Introducing the Catalyst Circle - Funding Mechanism to the next version of the Catalyst Circle with improvement suggestions based on the first iteration

As the Catalyst Circle represents several vital groups within the ecosystem, we will allocate an equal amount of funds to each of the designated community groups to finance one project that provides a solution to their community.

(1) Community Advisors - 7000 USD

(2) Funded Proposers - 7000 USD

(3) General ADA Holder - 7000 USD

(4) Stake Pool Operators - 7000 USD 

(5) Toolmakers & Maintainers - 7000 USD

(6) Unexpected costs - 2500 USD

Each team assigns a communicator.

By networking and open discussion a team or multiple teams can form.

Using the broader networks of the community external implementers can be added to the team.

The members of the Catalyst Circle are elected by the community and therefore face community scrutiny and are subject to an open and fair election prior to holding the position. The current sitting CCv3 representatives are:

Community Advisors: Nadia Hopkins

General ADA Holders: Dimitri Fernando

Funded Proposers: Mercy A

Toolmakers & Maintainers: Joey Chessher

Stakepool Operators: Rhys Morgan

[AUDITABILITY]

As the proposed mechanism can repeat in fast iterations, we can adjust and improve the mechanism by staying flexible and dynamic to the situation and evolve this proposal over iterations. The Catalyst Circle and the Catalyst Circle Admin team will update the community at the Project Catalyst Town Halls. The new CC Admin Treasurer team will be responsible for disbursing these funds based on Catalyst Circle representative direction, and auditing and reporting how the funds were used.

Success for this proposal looks like active engagement by a broader section of the community in the governance processes of the Catalyst Circle.

Potential indicators of success:

• Number (#) of community members who received remuneration through these funds.
• Number (#) of sub-circles (e.g. CA Sub-circle) or other community responses to governance issues.

This proposal is a continuation of a F7 proposal that covered the current iteration of the Circle. https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384249