RFC: DRAFT Phonon DAO Governance Process

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Phonon DAO Governance Process DRAFT

Based largely on ENS governance: Governance Process - ENS Documentation

The Phonon DAO needs a governance structure to facilitate decision making and prioritize DAO efforts. This document is a suggested process by which the DAO would elect Working Group Agents to meet these goals.

The DAO will elect four agents for each working group (Economics, Product, Operations and Governance, and Communications). The agents will serve for a six month term, and there are two terms per year:

  1. The first term starts on January 1 and runs until the start of the second term.
  2. The second term starts on July 1 and runs until the start of the first term the following year.

The responsibilities of the agents include, but are not limited to:

  1. Managing the operations of the working group;
  2. Maintaining a description that sets forth the focus and intent of the working group;
  3. Developing working group goals for the term and providing a road map for achieving those goals;
  4. Approving the creation and dissolution of sub-groups or workstreams within a working group to undertake work and/or carry out specific projects or tasks;
  5. Requesting working group funds from the DAO; and
  6. Approving and making funding available to sub-groups, workstreams, or contributors within a working group.

To request working group funds, agents of all working groups will collaborate to submit a formal proposal (gov.phonon.network) for DAO vote via snapshot, which shall be held within the first 30 days of a term (each a “Funding Window”).

  1. Before being voted on, the budget must be submitted for discussion and feedback for at least 7 days.
  2. In the case of an emergency, where working group funds are needed by a working group outside of a Funding Window, a formal proposal may be submitted at any time by a Steward of a working group to request funds from the DAO.

Welcome your thoughts and feedback here or on the Google Doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GAp-juB56XZoB5qINf3akB9pHmOKUm3Bg4JFojCQkNs/edit?usp=sharing

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I like this approach. to sum up the org structure:

-Working Group Agents are kind of like Working Group Leaders, with overall responsibility for driving each of their areas of focus
-The Working Group Agents would come together into an Executive Committee to drive initiatives forward.

I like this overall approach, but also think that we should have a structure, not just for developing tasks, but also streamlining governance.

What we might want to do is to have:

-An overall Phonon DAO Board, consisting of the Working Group Agents, AND:

-Community representatives or delegates who would be on the board. The Working Group Agends would be responsible for reporting to the Delegates on PHONON DAO operations, making recommendations and then working on developing proposals for Delegate review.

In this way, we can be sure that the DAO has the flexibility to get things done and also is repsonsible to the community Delegates in terms of oversight and operations.

These Delegates would be elected by the community and be mainly responsible for reviewing operations, asking questions, etc, and helping to facilitate communication with the community.

This might be something to consider from an operational perspective. I view the Working Group Agents and kind of like the Executive Committee and the Delegates as having oversight ability (operating kind of like an Executive Board.

2 Likes
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Love this idea - Phonon board of directors. We’ll probably get pushback from some in the community since this “is a DAO” - but we need better framework and structure if we are going to scale quickly. Accountability and KPIs are crucial at this point in our journey.