Objective

Proposing a simplified owl level framework with more objective thresholds for progression and regression. Owl levels will be automatically updated on a rolling monthly basis relative to a retroactive assessment of contributor reward allocation.

Summary

Owl levels have been an ongoing challenge/distraction over the past six months. In an effort to streamline the owl level process, contributor voting and ensure we’re incentivising high impact work, top talent 3 and operational efficiency, we’re suggesting a simplified owl level framework for Season 2, with Owl Levels being used exclusively to determine weight for contributor voting.

We are proposing three owl levels:

Gold Owls (4 x vote weighting). Core contributors. Individuals who are on fixed salary (have been taken through the core team hiring process).
Silver Owls (2 x vote weighting). Consistent flexible contributors. Individuals compensated from the flexible budget who have earned at least $6,000 over the past three months.
Bronze Owls (1 x vote weighting). Newer or less consistent contributors. Individuals compensated from the flexible budget who have earned between $1500 and $5999 over the last three months.

*Thresholds are pending final review from finance @Hammad1412

Progression and regression

Owl levels will be automatically updated each month. With Owl Levels displayed on a tab within the monthly rewards sheet.

Any Silver or Bronze Owls who exceed or fall short of the compensation thresholds mentioned above will have their owl levels automatically updated.

Gold Owl (full time hires) will need to be confirmed by the Nest Lead and Index Council to ensure the hires are aligned with both contributor roadmap and seasonal budget, and required to participate in ongoing impact alignment/performance review (more to come in Season 2).

Weighted contributor voting

The primary function of Owl Levels is weighted contributor voting.

Earlier in the year we established a contributor voting system through Snapshot + Unlock Protocol - NFTs have been distributed to contributors on Polygon. We will continue to use the vote weighting #’s below for both Snapshot and Choicevote.

Contributors Owl level will be associated with the following vote weight multipliers

Gold Owls: 4x
Silver Owls: 2x
Bronze Owls: 1x

Decisions relating directly to internal contributor operations can be proposed for contributor vote by any existing contributor (Bronze, Silver, Gold). They can recommend the preferred tools of Choicevote or Snapshot.

If there is contention surrounding whether or not a vote should be contributor or IIP, we will default to IIP.

Non active contributor vote participation

We recognize that in some circumstances individuals may be well positioned to participate in contributor voting but not qualify with the required compensation to meet owl level thresholds.

To accomodate for these fringe cases, we propose that any existing Gold Owl can request that that an individual who does not meet the eligibility thresholds still be assigned an Owl Level and be able to participate in the voting.

These applications will be approved via a rank order contributor vote. Existing contributors are able to vote in the following ways:

Support Gold
Support Silver
Do not support

Next steps

Prior to launching Season 2, we’ll adjust all owl levels based on the above framework, applying a retroactive compensation check.
The Owl Levels sheet will be maintained by Finance Nest and shared monthly as a tab within the contributor rewards sheet. We will update Owl Level changes and Polygon NFT’s for contributor voting on a monthly basis with contributor rewards.

Please let us know if there are any questions.