Re-evaluating ApeCoin DAO Special Council Salaries Structure
Category: Process
ABSTRACT
This AIP proposes the re-evaluation of Special Council salaries from AIP-1 with an immediate salary cut of 50% (From $20,833 of ApeCoin/month to $10,417 of ApeCoin/month). Including all current, forthcoming and future terms detailed in AIP-137 and AIP-138.
MOTIVATION
Since March 2022, the Special Council member positions have been established to fulfill the essential role of administering DAO proposals and aligning with the community’s vision. The question of whether the compensation for this responsibility is justified remains a subject of community deliberation. I believe It’s important to enable the community to reach a collective decision regarding this matter, recognizing that varying perspectives exist regarding the appropriateness of the compensation.
RATIONALE
Before we dive in here’s the current structure of the ApeCoin DAO (Thanks @Vulkan for the image):
As Vera suggests, there’s always room to write a proposal but also taking into consideration that the right compensation is necessary to attract and retain talent.
SPECIFICATIONS
Special Council Members: Administering DAO proposals and aligning with the community’s vision.
Administrators: WebSlinger, in charge of Finance, Legal, Operations, Compliance & Treasury.
STEPS TO IMPLEMENT
If the AIP passes, initiate a dialogue with the Administrators (WebSlinger), to implement and execute the proposed modifications to the salaries of the Special Council effective immediately.
TIMELINE
If the AIP is approved, it shall come into effect as soon as possible.
OVERALL COST
$0. No costs for the ApeCoin DAO. Instead it will save the DAO up to $104,165 ApeCoin/month.
Did not even know how huge was their salary
But I think first thing to do should be to know what are their role…
I approve but hope first that this AIP will be more discussed to know more about the reasons.
I agree. A year has passed and for sure many great things have happened but as a business owner (and I feel like an owner in the DAO) I wouldn’t be willing to pay that much just for the exchange of time. But it’s not up to me to decide, as a community I’m sure we’ll make the best decision whether that is to reduce or not to reduce the salaries.
Hey Moon, I saw a similar suggestion by @furiousanger and had just one feedback on it, so I’ll also post it here: 10k would be less than some Working Group salaries (I believe 12k is highest there?). This role is in many ways more encompassing/has highest-level responsibility. At least that’s how it’s positioned. 10k is also… not a lot in the West for this kind of job.
So my suggestion would be, if a cut is desired, to not go below other positions at the DAO. Imho SC should always be highest-paid, though I understand if others disagree. Thus, perhaps 15k or whereabouts is more inline with the current DAO structure?
Frankly the amount wildly depends on location. In San Francisco, 15k/mo is pretty standard for many tech jobs, cost of living there is insane. In SEA, 15k is a ton. So that already makes it difficult to find a number for a technically-global job. But at least not cutting below WG salaries seems somewhat logical, wdyt.
Fair point, if we take into consideration the WG salaries (highest paid position on WG is $9k from the “Governance” group) as a standard which again, are they fair? To pay a moderator on Discourse $8k/month for a forum where there’s thousands of people at best? Not sure… Maybe it is… maybe it isn’t… But inaction and not doing anything is a problem imo… reason why at least we should go up to vote and let the community decide. I’m trying to be as unbiased as possible and looking at it as a business owner perspective.
That could be an option but that’s not what this AIP will involve (also would seem very biased to say we reduce money there so we can get money here… it’s not about that… It’s about the long term sustainability of the DAO), I would prefer to address one thing at a time.
What I’m getting is that cause the role of Special council inherently comes with a lot of opaqueness in terms of its operations, which leads to a lack of general transparency further exacerbating the sentiment that the SC should be more accountable.
Then comes the chicken and the egg problem
Checks and balances should be seen as a good thing imo, we’ll have to figure out a way to track KPIs
I agree that the salaries for the SC need to be re-evaluated.
It seem the Apecoin community were misled about the role of SC from the gate by comparing their roles to that of a ‘Director of a billion dollar public company’ to try and justify their over inflated salaries by guess who, the ones that were going to be paid those salaries.
The role does not carry the same amount of responsibility nor accountability as a director. It is more of a senior admin role. Yes there is a responsibility for the SC to fulfil the will of the community, but in a DAO they don’t have the responsibility to make those decisions themselves and then be accountable for the results.
There are no measures of performance to evaluate their success nor failure in their roles either. Leaving a lot of the community feeling bewildered as to what the SC actually do and how well are they doing it?
Well if they were in fact directors and stock prices plummeted by 94% in one year then I think serious questions would be raised about their leadership. But in this case the SC are not responsible for steering the ship.
Now the question arises, how much responsibility and risk do the SC take on, how much work does the role actually involve, how do we measure their performance in this role and how much is that worth paying for?
Oh yeah, $9k is highest atm, you’re right. So from there, 12-13k for SC is a reasonable target imho. But ofc you propose whatever you feel is right.
Facilitators are definitely more than mods. They prepare risk reports for SC. They need to know which questions to ask of each project related to legal and regulatory risks, understand various businesses/projects. It’s not a very skilled role (no software engineer), but there’s also more to being a mod.
