AIP-458: Hire a Head of Network Development at APE Foundation

Resubmission - go directly to re-vote

ORIGINAL PROPOSAL: AIP-413: Hire a Head of Network Development at the APE Foundation

RESUBMISSION UPDATES:

Amended to reduce the budget to $84k, without reducing SC salary.

PROPOSAL NAME: Hire a Head of Network Development at the APE Foundation

TEAM DESCRIPTION:

Author: @buuvei Profile - buuvei - ApeCoin DAO - Forum Trust Level Level 3 “Regular”

  • 10+ years of strategic planning and business development experience
  • 100k+ delegate representative
  • Thank Ape moonshot finalist
  • APEFEST HK performer

PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION:

This proposal aims to empower the APE Foundation to hire a Head of Network Development to help oversee matters within the Foundation, supporting our community in achieving its strategic goals and ensuring operational excellence. The Head of Network Development would be responsible for supporting daily operations, facilitating strategic planning, and representing the DAO in external affairs.

BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM:

As ApeCoin DAO continues to expand, the need for ongoing, dedicated, and professional
support at the APE Foundation has become increasingly evident. A Head of Network
Development will offer essential oversight, strategic facilitation, and operational management,
ensuring the ApeCoin DAO fulfills its mission efficiently and effectively. This role is vital for
maintaining momentum, building community trust, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of
the DAO. Additionally, this position will allow our Special Council to focus on their
responsibilities as the Advisory Board they are intended to be.

STEPS TO IMPLEMENT:

  • Upon the passing of this proposal, the APE Foundation is expected to commence the hiring process for the Head of Network Development.
  • The Head of Network Development would be offered an initial 2-year service contract, with the option to extend an additional year based on performance.
  • The Head of Network Development would receive compensation of $84,000 per annum paid in ApeCoin.
  • The APE Foundation would be empowered to oversee the hiring process for this position, ensuring that all legal, tax, and other relevant considerations are thoroughly addressed and optimized.
  • The Head of Network Development would provide quarterly updates for the ApeCoin community under the Transparency Hub on the public forum.

Key Performance Indicators:

  • Timely commencement of the hiring process by the APE Foundation.
  • Selection of suitable candidates by the Foundation.
  • Reasonable transparency and fairness in the hiring process.
  • Measurable ecosystem growth which can be directly related to the plans executed by the Head of Network Development.
  • Measurable improvements to the efficiency of daily operations of the ApeCoin DAO.
  • Stakeholder and community sentiment, based on the Head of Network’s ability to represent the DAO in external affairs.

Additional Details

  • The Head of Network Development would serve at the pleasure of the Special Council, the DAO’s Advisory Board.
  • The ApeCoin DAO may also exercise it’s discretion in terminating this role through the standard governance processes.
  • For clarity’s sake, this position does not equate to a chief executive officer or “leader”, but rather a critical support function for the APE Foundation and the DAO.

REPORTING EXPECTATIONS:

The expectation is that this proposal would be implemented by the DAO’s administrative team. The community should regularly review the impact of this proposal. If accepted, the administration and the community should review the impact of the updates after the 3-month period for conflict ends.

  • The Head of Network Development would provide quarterly updates for the ApeCoin community under the Transparency Hub on the public forum.

OVERALL COST:

Total amount requested from the ApeCoin Ecosystem Fund = USD $84,000 per annum paid in $APE.

The APE Foundation would be empowered to oversee the hiring process for this position, ensuring that all legal, tax, and other relevant considerations are thoroughly addressed and optimized for the benefit of the ApeCoin DAO.

Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

@buuvei has completed editing their AIP Idea Resubmission to be their AIP Draft.

This proposal has been assigned the AIP ID Number 458.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-@Facilitators

@buuvei few comments:

If you look at a global head roles for development, usually a salary would be 200-300k USD, plus all salary benefits, sick leave, pension, health insurance etc. So real cost to a company maybe double that.

Have you benchmarked to see what is a competitive compensation? How does it compare to roles in other DAOs such as Arbitrum DAO? I believe you are thinking of this to be the applicants main business activity.

Also this primarily is a business development role or an operations role?

What KPIs do you see for this?

You envisage them to be contractors to the Cayman Foundation?

Cost shouldn’t be the main consideration, what value are we aiming for the role to bring?

Good points man, some beg the question.

I have 1 question for you first:
Could you show me the approved KPIs of GWG? Also does anyone in GWG or SC have responsibility or authority to negotiate with 3rd party companies on behalf of the DAO? Please feel free to include your personal dealmakings with major players here as well.

GWG recent AIP details are listed here:

We in GWG don’t have an approved budget with this amount of discretionary budget. If GWG wants to suggest a new initiative we can make one, but it needs then to put up an AIP for the budget to do so. An initiative budget can up at anytime outside of the normal WG budget.

For example: Secretary Initiative and Facilitator Initiative

Regarding SC, I cannot answer that question.

This is my concern as well. My issue with this was never the amount of the ask. It was both reducing other people’s compensation (which has been addressed) and the broader issue of staffing the DAO piece by piece instead of having a broader proposed structure that addresses the problems we see in the DAO.

I know @SmartAPE has proposed AIPs to address the latter issue. I would love to see this effort be integrated into that discussion so we can have the conversation of how the DAO is operating and what is needed to continue to improve.

2 Likes

I missed this proposal when it went up because I wasn’t around. So, I will chime in now.

While I get the gist and intent of this proposal, I don’t see how it solves and does anything - other than creating additional and needless bureaucracy; even as it seeks to put the very same people in charge of yet another funds egress from the treasure.

dao_structure

That’s the Ape Foundation org chart.

Everything that this proposal is asking of the Head Of Network Development, is already being performed by the Ape Foundation. How else does anyone think some proposals (0xPolygon, F1 sponsorship, Banana Bill et al) came about? And is hiring this person going to somehow tell the Ape Foundation to “step back and stand by”?

What is the purpose of such a position when it’s only going to be subservient to the Ape Foundation which will have all the final say, anyway?

There isn’t a single thing - not one - that this new position will be able to achieve (effectively or otherwise) that is somehow going to give that person the autonomy to operate independently as this proposal suggests.

And making the Ape Foundation responsible for the hire is only going to lead to the evitable: they’ll just go hire their friends - who aren’t likely to do anything outside of what the Ape Foundation wants.

And as per the DAO guidelines, there is no way to hire/vote to put anyone in a position higher than the Special Council. You could very well write up a proposal today that creates a new position as “Leader of ApeCoin DAO” and they will shred that one so fast, it will be like it never even existed. Why? Because it will go against the “wellbeing of the DAO”. You can read what I recently wrote about that.

Regardless of the fact that AIP-426 now “clarifies” (sorry, but that was just too hilarious to me) the Special Council as “advisors”, we still will never know what goes on behind the scenes due to lack of transparency and accountability - which I just wrote about here.

I have no immediate concerns about the salary because I’m sure that there are people out there who would like to get paid $84K for doing nothing while achieving less.

What the DAO needs is a person or entity that can hold the Ape Foundation accountable, while bringing much needed transparency to the DAO. Now that the Special Council has been affirmed as “advisors”, we have the pathway to hopefully do just that. And I have a proposal underway to address precisely this deficiency. I expect to have that up later this week as my schedule permits.

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

@buuvei are you going to increase the salary ask now that $ape has tanked? It is highly unlikely that anyone - at least not someone competent enough to make a difference - would take that job for less than $350K in USDC, let alone $84K in $ape.

Oh! Thanks for the reminder to add this to my AIPs because having lost my TL3 when I was in time out last Oct, I regained it yesterday. :apekinwink:

It’s USD paid in APE so it converts.

AIP is almost 2 months in resubmission.

1 Like

Do you see this being a part-time or full-time role?

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Yes - but still too low for anyone with the required experience to take such a position seriously. Unless of course it just ends up being yet another position that’s paid for getting nothing of any tangible benefit done.

Oh? They probably forgot about it. Maybe you should have been pinging the facilitator who was handling it?

Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,

We have no further questions for @buuvei. This AIP is now under Administrative Review.

Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.

Kind Regards,

-@Facilitators