Status: Proposed
Author(s): @Lavi, @Mel.eth, @sixtykeys
Reviewed by: @Mringz
Created: 27th September 2021

Situation

We are proposing the creation and Q4 funding of the Governance Operations Working Group [term ending 14th January 2022].

At present, governance operations are fragmented and not centralized into a specific function in the Coop. Operations are executed under the purview of a few individuals and the POC WG mainly, drawing focus from the funded initiatives tied to that WG. There is no holistic monitoring of the process or a clear avenue for iterative improvement or accountability. The desired outcome is providing greater focus and accountability related to governance operations, inspiring a greater sense of execution ease, importance, and protocol ownership. This ensures that contributors responsible for executing governance-related functions are well-trained, accountable and remunerated, providing a clear funding path for governance operations.

It is time to build out the resource-planning, accountability, process-improvement, and reporting functions that a dedicated WG can incentivize and coordinate. Coordinating and executing fair and successful votes, timely reporting, and tracking implementation are essential functions of any operational and autonomous DAO. Given that all executive functions currently flow directly from our governance processes, the importance of ensuring operational continuity in this regard cannot be overstated.

The DeFi Pulse Index also gives the Index Coop access to its underlying components, which are held in its smart contracts. This provides the Coop with Meta Governance power in protocols such as Aave, Compound and Yearn. Therefore, we need to ensure that this process is running smoothly and efficiently by enabling contributors to manage it and make improvements where needed.

Disclaimer: In recognition of the ongoing Index 2.0 discussions and potential near-term impacts on governance operations: This WG, if formed, will defer in whole or part to any resultant organized bodies that may overlap with (or obviate the need for) this WG as envisioned below, or endeavour to supplement and support the Index 2.0 efforts as appropriate. Nonetheless, the WG term is set to the conventional 3-months. A structural / efficacy review will take place within the first two weeks of the final month of the first term to inform a request for renewal or deprecation of the WG as appropriate.

What is the core problem(s) you want to solve?

• Currently, governance operations and meta-governance operations are done by different people who do not organically coordinate with each other.
• Some governance operations tasks are done by just one person, without a fall-back option should that person become unavailable for any reason.
• Governance Ops is a vital part of the community. It includes IIP management, setting up Snapshot votes, keeping the community informed on multiple channels, ensuring quality assurance on IIPs, and more. However, most of these tasks are done in isolation which leaves room for efficiency gains and improvements.
• Our governance process keeps changing and improving. However, most of it is done by the WG or person that needs to change something (e.g. general IIP template improvements, PWG improving the product IIP template, the meta-governance election process, autonomy group election, etc.). These examples happen organically within the community. However, a Governance Operations working group could support creating such a process, plus maintaining recurring things like the MGC election.
• Index Coop is in the midst of rapid growth; with the increased number of contributors joining and the increasing number of working groups, we expect the number of proposals to grow exponentially. Our Meta Governance powers are also increasing day by day. Thus we expect to attract even more outside parties to go through our governance process. This is a time-consuming process for the contributors who currently manage this process, allowing little time to focus on other initiatives. A working group structure would enable us to focus our time and effort solely on ensuring smooth governance operations and reporting and improvement of the process.
• Given that passed IIPs generally require that defined action occur, tracking of implementation is currently happening in an ad-hoc manner and generally removed from community awareness.

Why is this worth addressing today?

• Most processes focusing on Governance are already quite established and operated by capable people. This proposal is a means to bring the contributors under one umbrella to increase efficiency, improve coordination and streamline daily operations.
• There needs to be an accountability and feedback mechanism for governance operations to inspire greater confidence from token-holders that voting operations are occurring as planned and implementation status is clearly communicated. This creates a problem as contributors who make these proposals have to spend extra time following up on previous IIPs and, as a result, prevents them from focusing on the work at hand (examples here and here).
• The current system of governance operations is executed and funded in an ad-hoc manner that is susceptible to coordination inefficiencies.
• The governance process can be made more transparent and accessible.
• There is good reporting coming from contributors; however, it is not regular communication that the community can rely on.
• As seen in IIP-67 and IIP-82, several third parties wish to use the Index Coop’s Meta Governance powers. But due to the failure of IIP-80 2, external parties do not have a clear path, orientation, or point of contact when coming to the Coop to request Meta Governance.
• There is currently a lack of knowledge around Index Improvement Proposals, with many community members not aware of how to go about the process and, even if they do decide to make a proposal, not sure of the correct steps or format in which to present their proposals and take them to Snapshot. This group can be of support and guide contributors.

How will you address it?

This proposal, if enacted, would empower the resultant WG to:

• Ensure that governance operations are being attended to in a transparent and accountable manner (i.e. IIP review and editing, Meta-Governance Operations, Snapshot posting and elections).
• Provide robust tracking and reporting on governance.
• Provide coordinated process improvement recommendations.
• Provide risk, failure, and near-miss assessments requested by the community.
• Recommend and draft ‘clean-up’ IIPs that fill in gaps or may be required for ongoing DAO operations (i.e. setting advance reminders and facilitating coordination of quarterly funding requests in a timely manner).
• Provide feedback and education to community members active in governance re proper procedures and required discussion periods.

What impact will this project have?

This WG will aid in fostering the Guiding Principles (Our Guiding Principles - Index Coop Community Handbook 2) of:

• Innovation
• Data-Driven, Community Governed
  • Reporting
  • Recommend and implement improvements to the process
• Community
  • In keeping with the ‘people-first’ approach of Index Coop
  • Improved transparency, fairness, communication, organization, autonomy, and accountability

This working group will also create a clear and distinct framework to be followed and carried forward by any contributors who may take up these roles in the future.

Working Group Leader(s)

• Lead: Simon Lavi (@Lavi)
• Co-Leads: Brian Adam (@sixtykeys) & Mel Oxenreider (@mel.eth)
• Core contributors: Michael Mtenga (@Mringz)

Three people currently manage different verticals of the governance process; therefore, we feel this WG is best served by having three leads, one to focus on each work area: @Lavi → Meta Governance Ops, @sixtykeys → IIP/Governance Ops and @mel.eth → Meta Governance Proposals (e.g. using Aave to list tokens) and Elections. @Mringz will serve as a core contributor for the WG by continuing to serve as the point person for product related IIP’s while continuing to build out the protocol ambassador program.

Request for funding

Proposed Budget

• We are requesting a budget of $30,000 plus 1800 INDEX over the next three months.

Use of funds

Working Group Leader Compensation: 1,800 INDEX (200 INDEX per leader/co-leader per month).

Additional contributor rewards: We have budgeted for $10,000 per month (This is under the expectation of 2 or 3 additional contributors to this working group during Q4).

Unused contributor rewards will be returned at the end of term or discounted from future WG funding requests.

Note: The Meta-Governance Committee is funded via IIP-51 3 at $7,500/mo in total. No proposed change to amount or process; however, this WG will provide operational support upon request.

What will you be doing?

The proposed GOWG, if implemented, would be an operations and reporting function within the larger Index Coop organization to facilitate coordination and feedback relating to Governance, Meta-Governance, and Elections.

Over the three month term the GOWG will seek to solve the Core Problems outlined above by:

• Operations:

  • Review, coordinate, and execute the governance operations required by passed IIPs and available guidance.
  • Full ownership of Operations tasks related to the process of creating IIPs as well as Meta Governance votes.

• Improvement:

  • Improve the governance process to the extent possible within the current execution guidelines.
  • Suggest experience-informed improvements to the governance process that may rise to the level of an IIP, as appropriate.
  • Launching and further development of governance and metagovernance related initiatives (i.e Protocol Ambassador Program)

• Outreach:

  • Host a weekly WG meeting (will go to bi-weekly if interest or content is not sufficient to warrant) to review the governance operations and outcomes subsequent to the previous meeting.
  • Meet weekly among WG contributors to ensure that governance operations are well-coordinated and executed efficiently. We will also use this meeting to brainstorm any new ideas to improve governance operations, as well as discuss strategies for implementing new and existing governance initiatives.
  • Ensure that key stakeholders i.e VC’s, contributors, community are actively informed about governance proposals

• Gitbook Updates:

  • Keep the Community Handbook updated with the latest governance information.

• Governance Content:

  • Ideate and build resources to make voting easier to understand and execute.

• Tracking & Reporting:

  • Keep IIP tracking logs updated and accessible.
  • Create and maintain logs of IIP execution post-vote, along with periodic reports, to ensure that IIPs are being implemented according to design.
  • Coordinate with AWG to generate reports outlining voter participation etc.

• Comprehension:

  • Review governance-related proposals in the forum and provide timely feedback as to:
    • Ease of execution.
    • Necessary integrations and changes to existing processes.
    • Highlight available governance mechanisms that may improve the process.
  • Endeavour to encourage discussion, foster an environment of innovation and support thought-leaders around the subject of governance.
  • Supplement and create resources to build a comprehensive set of ‘bylaws’ out of the passed IIPs.

How will you interface with the community?

• As outlined above, WG meetings will initially be held weekly and timeboxed to 1-hour, adjusted based on utility but not less than bi-weekly.
• Group leads will ensure that the governance forum and governance-related discord channels are monitored with timely responses to all queries.
• Regular updates and announcements via the governance forum as well as relevant discord channels.
• Weekly report on governance proposals that need community attention and votes that are currently live or pending on Snapshot.
• Monthly report on the number of IIPs passed and failed, participation, the progress of implementation etc.

Commitments

We are committed to the Index Coop principles 2

We are committed to serving the entire Index Coop with our work.

We are committed to open, rapid communication: We know that clear, constant, public communication lifts up the entire Index Coop community. We are committed to this style of communication.

Shared learnings: We will share our progress and learnings with the entire community. We will ensure that anything we create is accessible beyond our tenure for future generations of Indexers to access & build on.

Intellectual honesty: We are committed to growth and improvement. We are open to feedback and will use feedback to improve our work for the benefit of the entire Index Coop community.

We are committed to making Index Coop a welcoming, fun, and engaging community to work in!