Authors:

@Bruno, @cozeno , @DioDionysos , @Meertitan , @Spiral , @countvidal , @fei.saver , @pavel, @arcology

Summary

Proposal to create a 3-month pilot program for long-term contributors, called Tribal Force, to attract and retain talent within the community and foster decentralization.

Motivation

Many community members have voluntarily contributed to the protocol since the early days and are deeply enthusiastic about the future of FEI. Unfortunately, Fei Protocol’s compensation is not competitive with other DeFi protocols, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and keep talent. Fei DAO does not yet have a compensation plan.

We think that it is time to increase the decentralization of Fei Protocol by creating a group of long-term contributors focused on the growth of Fei. Currently, Optimistic Approval is one of the only community driven groups that is active in the protocol. We wish to expand upon that success, and introduce reforms to the OA by electing new members, and more community elected bodies to contribute to the growth of Fei.

With the Tribal Force we are looking for community members that will be continuously working for DAO in multiple tasks. By long-term contributors we mean not single isolated contributions or proposals. We mean a continuous presence in the community bringing value. In the future, a DAO grants program could be operated by Tribal Force.

A fair compensation plan for active contributors will encourage even more value-adding contributions, promote further growth and foster community engagement. This is an important step for a decentralized and resilient project.

Many community members have made core contributions to the DAO and it is time to structure a pilot for a compensation plan using other protocols and their respective frameworks as a benchmark.

For context, Maker DAO is paying 15,000 DAI per contributor per month 9 plus 240 MKR with 3 years vesting and 12 months cliff vest 4. At current prices, total annual compensation is $180,000 in DAI and $240,000 in MKR with vesting 2. Balancer community contributors are paid between 250 to 500 BAL per month 2 ( $ 6250 to $12500 given current prices) for activities including LM allocation, discord support, newsletter production, and translation.

Some projects like Index Coop are discussing community ownership, Compound supports a long-term contributor and others are testing Coordinape as a tool to decentralize the decision of how much each contributor will receive. This just confirms that the core aspect of Web3 is about community empowerment.

Specification

An elected “Tribal Force Leads" group, of four members, will be directly responsible to the DAO for the administration of Tribal Force. The Tribal Force members operate in a decentralized way, with Tribal Force Leads being responsible and accountable for the wise application of the requested funding, as well as managing Tribal Force member positions. At the end of the month, contributors will be compensated according to their level of engagement during that period (10%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%).

If 100%, the member receives the full reward, if not the respective percentage in relation to the base remuneration. The level of engagement and value creation can vary for each month. Contributions should be evaluated considering the effort and value created. The Tribal Force payments are meant to incorporate and supersede existing community payments such as OA, Grants committee, and mod payments. Pending imminent reform of those committees, newly elected members of those committees would be automatically included in Tribal Force, and paid accordingly as outlined by their charters.

Accountability is key to the success of this initiative. Each Tribal Force member including the leads will be responsible to write a post in the forum at the end of the quarter sharing their contributions (including KPIs and links when applicable).

TF Leads will examine these reports and request additional follow up as needed. TF Leads will be responsible for publishing reports detailing and justifying their decisions, such as the admission of new members, assessment of a member’s work level, and censure members for misconduct or consistently misrepresenting their workload. Upon the second censure, that member is irrevocably removed from the Tribal Force.

Tribal Force Leads will create a notion page with a summary of all contributors and the records from the payment transactions. This will be called Tribal Force Tracker and will be updated monthly with the contributions of each member.

Tribal Force will coordinate its efforts with at least bi-weekly working meetings.

The process to approve members should be open and transparent to all. The focus of this program is on contributors that already have shown high commitment with Fei and value creation. The pilot would welcome for now only community members who have demonstrated at least three month of continuous and effective contributions to the protocol to self nominate for Tribal Force under this forum post. Members who would like to also run for Tribal Force Leads should include an additional section detailing their intention and credentials.

All members who have indicated their intentions to run for Tribal Force Leads will have their names listed on a Snapshot where voters may vote for up to four candidates. Tribal Force Leads require dedication of approximately 40 hours a week, seeing that they are expected to administer the program on top of their other routine responsibilities at FEI Protocol. The four members with the highest final count, and who have cleared a 10M vote quorum will be elected as the pilot Tribal Force Leads.

At the end of this three month period, a meeting will be called to pass the next Tribal Force budget, assess the performance of the pilot program, and to assess the efficacy of the administration of TF Leads. A separate snapshot for a new election of Tribal Force Leads will also be conducted at this juncture. All DAO members are welcome to participate in this meeting; this is meant to establish a precedent for a permanent accountability mechanism conducted quarterly to the DAO should this charter be renewed.

In future renewals of this charter, new members who wish to join the Tribal Force should indicate their intention and scope of participation and start contributing on a trial basis. At these quarterly meetings, those who have been recognized by the Tribal Force Leads for their effective contribution in the last three months trial period can be formally admitted to the Tribal Force. At this proceeding, the DAO may vote to officially condemn members of the Tribal Force Leads for abuse of power or poor administration, which will render them ineligible for future election as TF Leads.

After the pilot, TF Leads will present a brief report listing the lessons learned and potential improvements, and seek the DAO’s approval for an extended charter. The future program can be funded in increments seen appropriate by the DAO.

We propose a maximum rate per person of 8,000 FEI and 8,000 TRIBE; roughly in line with other protocols such as MakerDao, GRO, Balancer, and Aave. It is important to note that the rate will be revisited after the pilot and implement measures to provide some measures of job security to Tribal Force members who might quit their current jobs and engagements.

This proposal and the associated vote will approve the charter and elect four Tribal Force Leads, who will then promptly select eligible members to the pilot Tribal Force. After the final list of Tribal Force members is established, Tribal Force Leads will officially request funding of TRIBE for 3 months funded by the DAO Treasury for the initial trial in a separate snapshot. Note that the requested amount is only the maximum amount and will not be used in its entirety unless all members uniformly contribute at the maximum possible level. Any unused funds will be returned to the DAO treasury at the end of the pilot period.

Participating in the Tribal Force

The Tribal Force is composed of long-term community contributors that are highly engaged with Fei. If you feel like you fit in this profile and are interested in being a Member of the Tribal Force or would like to nominate someone to be, please reply to this thread with basic info, including:

• Are you applying for a Tribal Force member position or Tribal Force Leads?
• Describe your/the expert’s involvement with Fei Protocol, especially past contributions to the Fei ecosystem?
• What skills/experience do you/they bring?
• What are your expected contributions?
• Bonus question: What are some of the long-term goals with your contribution to the Fei ecosystem?

Feel free to post here if you have any general questions or comments about the Tribal Force as well!