Working Group Guidelines and Process

AIP Ideas
1

Abstract

The goal of this AIP Idea is to socialize and garner community feedback for the work that WG0 has done so far regarding Working Group structure to operationalize DAO functions. It is a living document for the AIP that WG0 will be putting forth by the end of the WG0 mandate on March 31, 2023. We welcome all ApeCoin DAO members to comment and leave their feedback here, and in the AIP Draft linked below.

Link to full AIP Draft: Phase 1 WG0 AIP - Google Docs

The goal of the AIP is to propose a structure that will operationalize the ApeCoin DAO through autonomous Working Groups, further decentralize key functions of the DAO, and create an infrastructure that allows the DAO to adapt and evolve in the constant pursuit of our mission.

This AIP will include a budget that covers Steward compensation and provides the Working Groups the funds they need to tackle specific tasks each Working Group faces as they go through their initial setup.

It’s important to note once again that this proposal represents progress over perfection and many of the outstanding questions regarding the structure are meant to be answered by the future Working Groups themselves, with the input of any and all community members who commit their time and energy to support the thoughtful evolution of ApeCoin DAO.

Mission Statement

ApeCoin DAO exists to distribute $APE – empowering our community to build and participate in the future of the Greater Metaverse, today.

Key Terms
  • Working Groups: Working Groups are the core operational infrastructure required for the DAO to function.
  • Working Group Charter: A document published to the Discourse category for each Working Group, which outlines a Working Group’s mandate, scope, and reporting requirements.
  • Working Group Initiative: A Working Group initiative is a task or project necessary to fulfill a Working Group charter and support the mission of the DAO.
  • Workstream: Workstreams are responsible for executing Working Group initiatives.
  • Steward: Stewards are community members elected to serve within Working Groups on behalf of the DAO. They have a fiduciary responsibility to the APE Foundation and are contractually obligated to facilitate the will of the DAO.
  • Working Group Leads: A Working Group Lead will be selected by the Stewards of each Working Group to serve as the primary point of contact for inter-DAO operations. Including, but not limited to meetings with the ApeCoin Special Council, the DAO Secretary, and other Working Groups.
  • Ape Assembly: The Ape Assembly is a governing body of the most highly active governance participants within the ApeCoin Ecosystem. The Ape Assembly is considered a Workstream within the scope of the Governance Working Group.
  • DAO Secretary: The Secretary is responsible for managing and facilitating communications between Working Groups, the Special Council, and the DAO, taking meeting minutes with Working Group Stewards as well as assisting with potential coordination issues that may emerge within the DAO.
  • Working Group Budget Proposal: A budget proposal submitted to the DAO by the Lead of each Working Group in order to fund the execution of their charter.
  • Funding Window: The final 15 days of February and August each calendar year in which Working Group Leads propose Working Group Budget Proposals.
  • OKR: Objectives and Key Results. A means of measuring milestones or success.
Working Group Development Tenets

Phased Development

  • Operational Decentralization, Community Empowerment
    • Autonomous Working Groups
    • Paths for community participation
    • Fair compensation for work done
  • Automation, Redundancy
    • Streamlining processes with automation where possible
    • Creating redundancy to avoid single points of failure
  • Further Decentralization
    • The goal of the DAO is to eventually function as a completely decentralized entity

Build in Public

  • Discussions 3x weekly until submission of AIP on March 31
  • Schedule will be updated and shared Monday, March 13
  • ApeCoin Twitter, Twitter Spaces, and WG0 Discord
Working Group Structure
  • Four core Working Groups (WGs)
    • Metaverse
    • Meta-Governance
    • Marketing & Communications
    • Treasury & Grants
  • WGs will be independent and autonomous in the determination and execution of their charters
  • WGs will have Fiduciary responsibility to APE Foundation
  • Each WGs optimal corporate structure will be determined by its Stewards with legal oversight provided by APE Foundation legal counsel
  • All WGs will have three Stewards minimum in order to;
    • Mitigate collusion issues
    • Meet minimum of 3 signers for multi-sig wallets that hold WG budgets
    • Time commitments and/or pay isn’t the same for all stewards
Order of Operations
  • Phase 1 - Ends March 31, 2023
    • Interim solution AIP up for vote
      • Interim solution for Discourse Moderation / AIP Administration in place until formation of Operations WG
      • Interim solution for Discord Moderation / Community Management in place until formation of Marketing & Communications WG
    • WG0 AIP up for vote
  • Phase 2 - Commences immediately upon approval of AIP
    • Election of three Meta-Governance WG Stewards by DAO
    • Governance WG Stewards facilitate APE Assembly merit-based invites and confirmation of personhood
    • APE Assembly elects remaining Working Group Stewards and DAO Secretary
  • Phase 3 - Commences immediately upon election and onboarding of WG Stewards
    • WG Stewards choose WG Lead for each WG
    • WG Stewards determine each Working Group Charter that must align with the mission statement and guiding values of ApeCoin DAO
    • WG Stewards determine initiatives necessary to fulfill each WG Charter
    • WG Stewards work with APE Foundation to establish formation of entities necessary to fulfill mandate
    • WG Stewards propose budgets necessary to create Workstreams that execute proposed initiatives
    • DAO Votes on proposed WG budgets
  • Phase 4 - Commences upon approval of WG budgets
    • WGs are fully funded and operational

Core Working Groups

This Ape Improvement Proposal requests the DAO Administrators, the Special Council, and the community to begin the work necessary to form these four Working Groups:

  • Metaverse Working Group
  • Meta-Governance Working Group
  • Marketing & Communications Working Group
  • Treasury & Grants Working Group
Metaverse Working Group

The Metaverse Working Group is an experimental group of creators and creatives within the ApeCoin ecosystem. This is where our community brainstorms to advance our mission, and serves as both a landing pad for new builders and a launch pad for new initiatives. The Workstreams within this Working Group can either support the work being done in other Working Groups or become stand-alone projects.

As a DAO empowering our community to build and participate in the future of the Greater Metaverse, this Workstream is responsible for codifying this very definition of our perpetually connected lives. Initiatives from this Workstream can come from every corner of our global culture. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Business development and outreach to projects and creators;
  • Otherside and gaming development;
  • Uplifting creators and championing art, media, culture;
  • Championing data ownership and identity.
Meta-Governance Working Group

This group is responsible for providing objective governance oversight and support of the management and operation of the ApeCoin DAO as it pertains to our governance processes. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Provide operational support and project management support for the Foundation;
  • Acting as the team of moderators, administrators, and lead in Discourse;
  • Acting as the team of reviewers to prepare reports and any other supporting documentation necessary;
  • Transitioning Core Foundation Service Providers;
  • Standardizing Reporting Requirements for Grant Recipients, Special Council, Working Group “Leads / stewards / contractors”
  • Creating and maintaining policies and procedures as they relate to governance and coordination and any other necessary documentation as needed;
  • Taking custody of a budget and approving budgets for other Governance Committees and Workstreams;
  • Research and development as it relates to DAO governance tooling, methods, voting structures, coordination and cooperation, decentralization, and meta-governance.

The Governance Working Group will approve budgets for several Committees we expect may begin to form within the DAO. Some examples of these committees may include:

  • Compensation Committee - Ratifying pay for contributors
  • Education Committee - Hosting web3 webinars and classes
  • Social Impact Committee - Spearheading charitable initiatives

The Ape Assembly:

The Ape Assembly is a governing body of the most highly active governance participants within the ApeCoin Ecosystem. The Ape Assembly is considered a Workstream within the scope of the Governance Working Group.

Anyone in the WG0 Discord on or before the time this document is published, will be granted the “Assembly” role, and will automatically form the initial Ape Assembly. It will then be the responsibility of the Assembly to determine future criteria for onboarding users to this governing body.

The Ape Assembly formed in order to facilitate elections within a smaller, more contextual governing body. The Ape Assembly sets the criteria for nominations and elections for Working Group Stewards. They also facilitate all DAO wide elections in partnership with the Cayman Administrators.

  • The APE Assembly functions as a decentralized board of directors for the DAO
  • The operations of the APE Assembly are facilitated by the Governance Working Group Stewards
  • Merit-based Selection for members of the APE Assembly
  • Membership will be based on participation in Discourse, Voting, and the WG0 Discord.
  • Voting will be 1 vote per person
    • APE Assembly can decide best way to mitigate voting issues in the future
  • Arbitrary path to inclusion for anyone working in the DAO
    • Will be a larger group (in the low hundreds of people initially, exact number TBD)
Marketing & Communications Working Group

This group is responsible for fostering a positive and inclusive community within the DAO, including organizing events and activities, managing communication channels, and facilitating collaboration and engagement among members. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Providing first line support, onboarding activities, and outreach in Discourse, Discord, and Twitter;
  • Taking custody of a budget and approving budgets for other Marketing & Communications Workstreams;
  • Marketing, including providing a presence at relevant IRL and virtual Events;
  • Implementing brand guidelines around the usage of the ApeCoin IP & NFT;
  • Onboarding and Education, including maintaining user guides and user docs;
  • Managing and operating an ApeCoin DAO Discord server and Twitter accounts.
Treasury & Grants Working Group

This group is responsible for taking custody of a portion of the APE Foundation treasury assets and deploying them thoughtfully on-chain. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Active asset management in order to grow AUM/TVL;
  • Taking custody of a budget and approving budgets for other Treasury and Grants Workstreams;
  • Implementing a soft deployment of an on-chain ApeCoin DAO Treasury,
  • Accepting on-chain revenue, to facilitate on-chain grants;
  • Implementations of on and off-chain small / medium Grants Programs;
  • Standardizing Reporting Requirements for grant recipients;

Note: Include WG0 and legal recommendations for each of the entities required for these Working Groups to legally operate with an APE and USDC budget. - Focus on Tax implications for Stewards, and risk tolerance as a multi-sig holder.

Timeline

Major Initiatives Cadence
  • January
    • Special Council B Group Onboarding
  • February
    • Working Group Budget Votes
  • March
  • April
  • May
    • Steward A Group Election Vote
  • June
    • Steward A Group Onboarding
    • Special Council A Group Election Vote
  • July
    • Special Council A Group Onboarding
  • August
    • Working Group Budget Votes
  • September
  • October
  • November
    • Steward B Group Election Vote
  • December
    • Steward B Group Onboarding
    • Special Council B Group Election Vote

WorkingGroup Timeline
WorkingGroup Timeline1224×774 81.5 KB

2

Reserved for changelog. :slight_smile:

3/16/2023 – We’ve heard your feedback and made meaningful changes! First thoughts from many in our community are: “Too many groups, too many people, too fast”

Changes:

– Governance and Operations Working Groups were too similar, and have been merged into a single Working Group, “Meta-Governance”.

– Treasury and Grants Working Groups were trying to do very similar things. Treasury wants to grow AUM/TVL in order to facilitate grants. Treasury and Grants have been merged into a single Working Group, “Treasury and Grants”.

“AIP1.1: Changes to AIP-1” are incredibly impactful and should probably be it’s own AIP. Noted and removed.

3/20/2023 – AIP has been sent for initial legal review. We’ve heard your feedback and made meaningful changes again! All these operational roles and Working Groups are great, but we still need something for people to get excited about!

  • ApeCoin is a Metaverse token, we should have a Metaverse working group, it’s that simple.

Changes:

– “Metaverse Working Group” and initial description/scope have been added.

3/28/2023 – After community and legal review, we’ve decided to start with first principals. Identifying the core need in the DAO being facilitating Discourse management and our AIP process.

Changes:

– We will propose Working Group Guidelines and Process, in addition to the Governance Working Group and full Charter, including the Ape Assembly. This will serve as both a template and the start for the rest of the Working Groups to come after, in a separate proposal. There are now two proposals, with the links provided in the original document.

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Excited to see what the future holds !
Good luck team <3

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Great work all around :clap:t4:.

Please add Tax implications for anyone/everyone receiving grants or compensation to this note.

Thanks. SSP

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I think this is a really well thought through plan. It is a important move forward in how the DAO is organised.

will allow decisions to be made, and action to be taken, without the need for every decision to be put up as an improvement proposal This alone will make a massive difference to how fast we can iterate and improve. Move fast break stuff, keep what works repeat!

Workstreams can form and dissolve as needed - Fantastic, this keeps us flexible to changing requirements.

Overall a really great plan. I am very excited to seeing it being implemented, adapted and improved based on experience as we go.

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Can’t wait for everyone to participate on their timezones with the suggestions for implementations!

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Roles in the WG could be transformational for members of the community!

Too often in DAOs these opportunities are created and defined without this transparency and we fall back on loud voices, affinity networks, and private conversations.

This transparency is so important. Then, in implementation, so is the ability to log skill and interest and for that to be searchable by trusted members of the community, and then used to open access on a broader and fairer basis.

So proud to be part of this journey with Catapult!

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Well done, team. As @ssp1111 above noted, it’ll be important to clearly flesh out the taxable implications from the grantee side of things, and I look forward to providing some input in this area, as well as in the Governance arm.

Having so much clarity within each sub-group is a tremendous step in the right direction, and I commend everyone who had a hand in bring it this far.

I said it plenty before, but this is going to be a HUGE year.

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Second that @Rav-and-Greg!

Looking forward to becoming part of this and getting more people on board, after all the great work the WG0 has done so far!

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This is well constructed, comprehensive, inclusive, fair and ofc a wonderfully ambitious plan for our DAO’s future.

I firmly believe the whole apecoin community will get behind this and tbf, we already have perfect people in place to make sure it fully succeeds.

I am truly lost for words.

Fkin brilliant!!!

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Outstanding work and a significant step toward becoming the de facto standard for DAO governance.

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Well structured for someone with a technical background like me to over-appreciate. It’s wise to start lean and if the WG requires it, it can be expanded.

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Hey hey @Amplify and other Bored Members of the Council :grinning:

Super exciting to see this come to life. We have been following the evolution of WG0 and we think that it’s definitely a great step ahead in the right direction for the DAO. Great to see so much participation from the whole community as well.

Things we like

  • The proposal sounds comprehensive of the current needs of the DAO and it exhaustively covers all the areas that matter.
  • The organizational approach strikes a great balance in terms of efficiency and decentralisation, as it allows Working Groups to take independent and specialised action while ensuring the right degree of overall alignment and oversight.
  • We like that it envisions a series of steps towards further decentralization, which is definitely an organic process rather than an on-off switch.

Things that could be improved

  • It’s not yet clear how external contributors (who are willing to become more and more insiders :slightly_smiling_face:) can effectively build on these ideas & guiding principles but we assume it’s just a matter of time before it all becomes apparent in the weeks to come. So we stay tuned!

Where we can contribute

  • We thought of several ways that the Apecoin DAO could benefit from our long standing expertise in onchain asset management and would love to take an active role in shaping the future Treasury & Grants Working Group.
  • We would love to present our high-level ideas in one of the next open fora that are dedicated to the initial development of those core WGs. We believe in radical transparency and are open to listening to the community and receiving extensive input from the DAO.

Let’s start building the future of the Greater Metaverse, today. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Finally able to get logged back into the forum… Glad I had the chance to chime in before any next steps. Love seeing everything coming together and all the Steward’s + WG0 hard work and vision getting fleshed out. This is the way.

Can’t wait to cast my votes :muscle: :muscle:

AC

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From the google doc., highlighted in bold and italic are two stipulations I feel need much more discussion, and really should not be granted so easily.

“They also hold tangible assets such as Administrator rights, ownership on Discourse, ownership of the ApeCoin website, or login information to the ApeCoin Twitter account.”

I’m just saying, we are trying to grant apecoin twitter and apecoin website access to additional people in the absence of any community defined usage guidelines or anything at all really. Personally I’d rather see the twitter stay relatively dormant than be misused or abused, not intentionally perhaps, by an ever increasing number of people, security and brand protection being my main concerns.

Suggestion would be to remove these two points for now. Worse ways we grant them in the next term, when we have the structure and directions in place to make sure we protect our members and apecoin’s nuclear family, and will allow SC to devolve and/or share these responsibilities with confidence, when and if deemed necessary.

These ‘tools’ are very powerful and can dictate if “money go up” or “money go down” for example, and if not seen as such, used appropriately and wisely always, the resulting damage could be irreparable.

Am I over thinking those two points and what are other people’s thoughts?

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You make very valid points, thank you @furiousanger.

While I don’t think we can address all of these possibilities, we are fortunate enough to elect the people who will have custody over Twitter. So we do expect some level of professionalism, accountability, and brand identity protection.

I think you’re absolutely right that there should be guidelines around its usage, particularly when it comes to community retweets, requests, twitter co-hosting, etc. I’m of the opinion we need to elect Marketing and Communications experts who will draft these policies, so while it is a little bit of a chicken and egg situation, I expect there to be very little use until these policies are drafted. :slight_smile:

-Amplify

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If we can even just get the absolute minimum of what you outlined above in place I truly believe this will stand ‘us’ in good stead for the journey ahead. I certainly understand somethings are to be done in a peculiar/less than orthodox order and will take time, however I’m ngl (for added affect), I feel reassured to hear your opinions and vision on the subject. Certainly our goals are aligned, and I do have confidence in the current team.

Thanks Amplify.

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Hi @Amplify,

Your topic will be automatically closing in less than 24 hours. Are you content with the feedback received, or do you wish to extend community discussion for a further 7 days?

If we do not hear from you within 48 hours after your topic closes, your topic will be moved straight to the AIP Draft process.

We look forward to hearing from you.

-Vulkan

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Love seeing DAO activity/ project management split into three clear branches! I think it’s wise to split governance, marketing/comms, & treasury into separate groups for checks and balances within the community. Happy to help wherever I can, including being able to provide complimentary Web3 marketing & governance tools from our Web3 start-up, Blocksee.

The Blocksee Web3 CRM system is already live and offers plug-and-play solutions for wallet-based user profiles, bulk airdrop & communication campaigns (links to discord & Twitter), one-person-one vote DAO voting, in-depth KPI reporting based on on/off-chain engagement points, and more! Excited to see how these new governance structures help expedite further DAO growth, transparency, and decentralization. LFG!

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Thank you @vulkan.admin,

I would like to extend discussion for another 7 days. =)

-Amplify

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