Gitcoin DAO - Workstream Accountability Flow

Summary

This proposal seeks to amend, improve and standardise the proposal process for Gitcoin DAO. The purpose of this standardisation attempt is to improve transparency, accountability and accessibility when it comes to proposal review processes.

Motivation

One of Gitcoin’s missions is to upgrade society’s capabilities to coordinate - with the hope of defeating coordination failure altogether.

As a constantly iterating and innovating force in the web3 ecosystem, improving the accessibility and transparency of DAO flows is the next level in better coordination. For our DAO ecosystem to flourish, it requires a mindful effort to improve on current tooling and to support better ways for DAOs at large to enable governance engagement and accountability across the board.

Current proposal framework

Proposals can vary broadly in their stated goals and requests.

*They may ask the community to endorse a specific policy and procedure (e.g. “Should Gitcoin Grants allow VC backed projects?”), or ask the community to build something (e.g. “Building a new software tool” or “Writing improved documentation”).

*They may have no funding requests attached, or make an explicit request for funding (e.g. “We would like to create a workstream focused on building a decentralized architecture for Gitcoin Grants”).

There is currently no formal template for proposals. This document aims to establish a standard template to facilitate review. The proposal also aims to align all Gitcoin DAO activity around quarterly dynamics for better alignment, contribution and transparency across the organism.

New (improved) proposal framework

All proposals should ideally follow the following format:

1. A tl;dr section at the top of the proposal summarizing the main points. This is for increased transparency and a smoother decision making process.

2. If applicable, a milestone report containing goals achieved during the previous quarter. The milestone report should include:

• number of current contributors (marked as FT or PT)
• funds spent to date - perhaps adopting some quarterly reporting?
• any funds carrying over to the next quarter
• notable achievements for the quarter
• have the actions of the workstream brought back value into the DAO/treasury

1. The flow of a proposal will still follow the steps laid out in the Gov process 20

These (and other) accountability metrics could form the basis of workstream health cards/reports that may serve not only as a catalyst for self improvement but as an opportunity to bring greater transparency, collaboration and accountability into the DAO ecosystem at large.

Standardisation does not aim to stifle creativity and originality, it merely aims to facilitate better and speedier delivery of information to promote better engagement in governance and participation mechanisms.

Example Proposal Template:

TLDR

Text of section goes here.

Milestone Report

Text of section goes here.

Proposal Body

Text of section goes here.