As we approach season three at BanklessDAO, there is one topic of discussion that has been on many people’s minds. It has to do with how we mature as a DAO. As frogmonkee explained in his brain dump 6, we’ve come to an inflection point. We’re moving from an environment of a constant firehose of new projects and innovation to a more focused and intentional framework. The firehose approach has allowed us to make incredible progress. We’ve established ourselves as a respected and sought-after organization amongst our DAO peers. But rapid progress comes with problems of its own. Taking an introspective look at our organization lets us see that slowing down to focus will allow us to grow stronger.
As BanklessDAO is maturing, it’s important that each node (i.e guild) in our system also operates with clear intent in order to support our shared mission. This post is a proposal to create a clear identity and direction for the education guild. When we are successful, education will be a cornerstone for the growth and support of BanklessDAO.
Why
Everyone in any organization holds the responsibility to be experts in the product or service they sell. If they are not experts when they walk in the door, it is the responsibility of the organization to provide the resources for them to do so. Our mission reads, “We will help the world go Bankless by creating user-friendly onramps for people to discover decentralized financial technologies through education, media, and culture.” As the education guild, our responsibility lies within this mission. Our dependents are BanklessDAO members and the greater web3 community. These are 4 ways I believe we can fulfill that responsibility. I’ve outlined each one below. While I recognize that parts of each focus area are currently happening, the goal of this post is to start to organize all the educational efforts while solidifying the role we play at BanklessDAO.
The mission: To enable web3 community members to achieve a mastery-level understanding of web3 concepts.
Our mission will be accomplished by focusing on 4 areas:
- DAO-wide support - providing support for educational products and services led by other guilds.
- Operational knowledge - providing the knowledge and resources necessary to enable members to effectively participate in BanklessDAO.
- Web3 knowledge - providing the knowledge and resources necessary to allow members to increase their understanding of web3 protocols and concepts.
- Developing our members.
DAO-wide Support
There are many educational products and services that are already being led by members outside of the education guild. We must support and encourage this. As I said before, anyone in any guild has the opportunity to educate. Most importantly, no one should ever feel like they are forced to work with the education guild. If they want to develop their own educational materials, they are welcome to. It is the goal of the education guild to create such an amazing team and set of resources that others WANT to work with us. One example of a team I’d like to see us support is the developers guild with their knowledge share program. Some ways the education guild can support them are administrative, organizing the content, and presenting the content. We can also help them create supplementary resources and repurpose the content to increase its impact. This is just one example. There are several others where we can lend a hand.
Operational Knowledge
There are several tools that we use within the DAO that allow us to operate. We have tools to give out tips to show appreciation for hard work, tools for fairly distributing funds, tools for collecting and managing bounties, etc. We also have important processes in place that help us stay organized and productive. Guilds, membership levels, and voting power just to name a few. Understanding how to use these tools and processes allows members to better navigate and participate in the DAO. The Discord workshop put on by the Mentorship Program is a great example of this. The education guild will continue to create content such as this.
Web3 Knowledge
The more knowledgeable our members are about the field we are in, the stronger we are as a DAO. Understanding topics like liquidity, layer 2, and wallets are not only critical to understand because we are in that industry, but because we talk about these subjects every day. We will help members understand these topics so they can intelligently participate in those conversations, as well as get involved in those projects. Our responsibility is to help members level up so they can go from guest pass to level 3 faster. I’d like to highlight ErnestOfGaia.eth for creating learning sessions. It’s a great start that the rest of the guild can build on. Creating web3 learning resources should be a top priority.
Developing And Encouraging Our Members
We won’t be successful in supporting educational projects, teaching members our operational tools, and leveling up on web3 knowledge without the right people. Everyone has the ability to do amazing work, but it takes a concerted effort to not only find talent but help people discover it within themselves. Talent coordinators have a difficult but important job. It’s not as simple as directing people to a guild. It’s getting to know them. What motivates them. What they can provide the DAO, but also what the DAO can provide them. Our talent coordinators have been doing really well and I see them talking with new members all the time. This area of focus will be to continue that work while building on top of it. I’ve seen talk about creating DAO-wide community managers. I think that’s a perfect step in the right direction. And while this isn’t specific to the education guild, it’s something every guild should have in mind.
Bonus: Promoting Our Work
The work we do should be easily accessible and discoverable. Anyone walking into the education guild should be presented with opportunities to learn. Maybe that means additional calendars so people can see what workshops are coming up next. Maybe it’s something else. All of these focus areas have room to get creative.
Owning the Work
Since I’m proposing this structure, I’m prepared to take on as much as I need to. My interests are wide. Some things that are particularly interesting to me are DAO-wide support, promoting our work, and organizing all of this educational information into something more accessible. However, as I said earlier, some of what I’ve talked about has seeds planted across the DAO. My goal is to organize these efforts and support their development. If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself, “That kind of sounds like what I’ve recently started”, there is a good chance I wrote this with you in mind! I encourage you to take formal ownership of it. I agree with those of you who have said there is room for specialized roles in the education guild. If it interests you, raise your hand.
Next steps
If we agree to slightly tweak our focus to support the initiatives above, I propose the following next steps.
- Revise the Education Start Here channel to reflect the 4 areas of focus. We have to make it very easy for people coming to us for the first time to understand what we do and how to get involved.
- Grow and develop the team of talent coordinators so we can attract and develop top educational talent from across the DAO.
- Continue doing outreach to internal projects and guilds to determine how we can best support them.
- Brainstorm additional educational products and resources to offer our members and the general community.
- Recognize, develop, and promote specialized roles within the education guild.
- …
- …
- Take over the (crypto)world.
- I agree with this direction
- I do not agree with this direction
0 voters
