Writers Guild Governance Document

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Writers Guild Governance

Spirit and Philosophy

Culture

The Writers Guild seeks to foster a culture where creativity, experimentation, and play intersect to provide meaningful opportunities for our members to contribute writing and editing services for BanklessDAO and external partners. The Guild will encourage and support members to create and build new projects that promote the DAO’s mission of onboarding 1 billion people to the Bankless lifestyle.

Governance

Thoughtful governance means creating a flexible and secure framework that evolves as the Guild moves towards on-chain governance. A culture of experimentation and a marketplace of ideas is essential to ensure we continue to develop mechanisms for decision-making and task management. We should aim to maintain only the minimum viable bureaucracy (MVB) in our actions and decisions. MVB promotes decentralization, transparency, and autonomy.

Purpose

  • This Governance Framework provides guidance for Writers Guild members regarding the organization and operations of the Guild, including the management of labor and funding of projects within the Guild.

Guild Membership

  • There are three Writers Guild membership tiers: Pupil, Scribbler, and Scribe.
    • Membership tiers will be denoted using Discord role tags.
    • Guild membership is independent of DAO membership. Guest pass holders can hold any membership tier within Writers Guild.
  • Pupil
    • Has the Writers Guild tag but is not actively participating.
    • Cannot participate in governance polls or volunteer for paid activities such as elected roles, Client Services, Newsletter Team, or EPA.
    • To move to Scribbler, a Pupils can request the role tag from a DAO Level 2 Contributor working within the Guild.
  • Scribbler

    • Has the Writers Guild tag and wishes to start contributing to Guild activities and conversations.

    • Cannot participate in elected roles, governance polls or Client Services.

    • To move to Scribe, a Scribbler must:

      • Pass the writing and/or editing test AND
      • Complete one writing or editing task within the same Season (subject to passing the associated test).Tasks may include writing or editing contributions to a Newsletter, or editing/writing for the EPA.

    • Any DAO Level 2 Contributor working within the Guild may change a Scribbler to Scribe once the above tasks are completed. Promotees must provide evidence for their contributions. (multi-sig payments, witness, or otherwise)

  • Scribe
    • Has the Writers Guild tag and has demonstrated proficiency and reliability.
    • Can participate in all Guild activities, such as:
      • acting as a signatory on the Guild multi-sig wallet.
      • volunteering for elected Roles.
      • working for Client Services.
      • voting on all governance matters.

Guild Treasury Multi-Sig

  • 3 of 5 signatures are needed to execute a transaction.
  • There are no defined term limits for designated signers.
  • Lazy Consensus
    • At the end of each Season, there will be a temperature check via soft consensus poll to ratify the existing multi-sig signers.
    • Any signer can opt to retire from their role, triggering an election for that position.
    • If any Scribe votes “no” for the ratification of a particular signer, an election will be triggered for that position.
  • During the Season multi-sig signers can voluntarily retire or be removed, triggering the election process.

Elected Roles

  • Role holders carry out paid responsibilities which have been identified as crucial for the operational success of the Guild. Role holders are paid a salary from the Guild Treasury.
  • Role holders are required to keep record of their responsibilities and the tools needed to perform them. This record will be updated at the end of each season or upon the role holder’s departure.
  • There will be a Seasonal Lazy Consensus check for all Role holders. If there are no other nominations for the next Season’s Roles, the current Role holders may continue in their tenure. If another Scribe is nominated, an election will be held. Role holders are determined by the election process in Section V.
  • Roles have term limits of 4 consecutive seasons. Role holders can serve for 4 seasons but cannot serve for a 5th. After the season has passed, they may hold the office for another maximum of 4 seasons.
  • Guild Coordinator
    • Chief of Guild Morale: responsible for fostering the Guild’s culture; being the Guild’s primary point of contact; facilitating Guild meetings and distributing POAPs; producing seasonal Guild budgets; action items; producing the Writers Guild newsletter; and providing Community Call updates.
  • Talent Scout
    • The Warm Welcome: responsible for onboarding new members, administering the writing and editing tests, continually refining onboarding procedures, helping new members find their best place in the guild, and scouting talent to perform jobs brought to the Guild from inside the DAO. For more information, see the December 20, 2021 edition of The Scribe’s Quill.
  • Secretary
    • Scribes of Scribes: responsible for weekly Guild meeting notes, Notion documentation, treasury log, submitting Writers Guild multi-sig transactions, and remuneration payment schedule.
  • Governance Coordinator
    • Conductor of Consensus: responsible for mapping the future of Guild Governance, moderating and coordinating elections, serving as Ombuds Ambassador in the case of impeachment, and coordinating Governance meetings.
  • Role Apprentice Bounties
    • The Role Apprentice Bounties serve two functions:
      • Incentivize Guild members to provide support for Role holders if the Role holder needs assistance in performing their duties.
      • Help maintain awareness of each Role’s responsibilities such that institutional knowledge is not lost.
    • Role holders are responsible for creating Apprentice Bounties for tasks they need assistance in performing.
    • Scribes and Scribblers can claim bounties for completing tasks the Role holder needs assistance in performing.

Elections

  • There are two types of elections:
    • On-Cycle Elections: Held in the last few weeks of every Season
    • Off-Cycle Elections: Held mid-Season
    • In cases where the Governance Coordinator role is up for election, the Guild Coordinator will preside over the election process. If both roles are up for election, the Governance Coordinator will ask an Ombudsman to preside over the election.

On-Cycle Elections

  • On-cycle elections will primarily be managed by Lazy Consensus, as defined above.
  • At the end of each Season, role holders (Guild roles and multi-sig signers) wishing to maintain their role into the next Season will be subject to a Lazy Consensus check.
    • The Lazy Consensus check for each role will be completed via a Discord poll, administered and monitored by the Governance Coordinator.
    • The poll will remain open for one week.
    • Participation in this poll will be limited to Scribes.
    • The poll serves as a Lazy Consensus check and a nomination record concurrently. It will include an option to vote in support of the incumbent role holder continuing tenure into the next Season, and an option for the voter to nominate an alternative Scribe by adding this as a poll response.
      • If voters are unanimously in favor of continued tenure, then the role holder is confirmed for the upcoming season.
      • A single new nomination will initiate the election process (as described in Part D) for that role.
      • In the event that a sole new nominee rejects their nomination and where no other nominations have been made, the Lazy Consensus check will be considered intact and the existing role holder retained.
  • Should a role holder choose to retire at the end of the season, this will initiate the election process (as described in Part D) for that role, to decide a new role holder for the upcoming season.

Off-Cycle Elections

  • Voluntary retirement
    • Should a role holder or multi-sig signer decide to retire mid-season they must inform the Governance Coordinator .
    • Retirement will initiate the election process (as described in Part D) for that role.
    • The role holder must continue to fulfill their duties (if even by Bounty) until after the election has concluded.
  • Involuntary Retirement
    • Any Scribe can make a mid-season proposal to remove a role holder, which must be seconded by any other Scribe.This proposal to remove and its seconding can be initiated in the Guild governance Discord channel or via private direct message to the Governance Coordinator.
    • If the proposal is to remove the Governance Coordinator, the Guild Coordinator becomes the primary administrator of the election.
    • If the proposal has arisen from interpersonal conflicts, then the Governance Coordinator and DAO Ombuds team work to resolve the conflict. After Ombuds makes a recommendation, the involved parties will have the opportunity to resolve their disputes with each other. If an accord is not met, an election will be held.
    • If the proposal to remove has arisen due to an operational transgression (e.g. fraud or collusion), there will be a public discussion period of one week during which the Guild will vote on their culpability.
    • If a resolution is not reached following the public discussion period, this will initiate the Election Process as described in Part D.

Election Process

  • Lazy Consensus (1 week)
    • A poll will be created to maintain the incumbent as the role holder.
    • If one person votes “No” we will move to the nomination period after the week is over.
  • Nomination Period (1 week)
    • Scribes may nominate their peers (other Scribes) to be a role holder. During the one week period, voters may choose to support retention of the current role holder OR nominate another Scribe for that role.
    • Nominations for the role will be collected via a one week Discord poll, administered and monitored by the Governance Coordinator.
    • Participation in this poll will be limited to Scribes.
    • Scribes cannot nominate themselves. They must be nominated by another Scribe.
    • Nominees may accept or deny the nomination. If they accept, they must provide a statement detailing the following:
      • Contributions to the Guild and DAO
      • Qualifications/relevant experience for the position
      • Why they want to be elected
      • Additional sponsors (preferred, but not required)
    • Where a nominee accepts nomination, the Governance Coordinator will post in the #writers-governance channel and inform the nominee of the statement requirement and deadline for submission. A nominee who does not provide the required material in time will be deemed to have denied the nomination.
  • Statements must be submitted to the Governance Coordinator, who will hold them and release the statements into a dedicated discord thread on the first day of the election.
  • Election Period (1 week)
    • The election for each role will be completed via a Discord poll, administered and monitored by the Governance Coordinator.
    • The poll will remain open for one week.
    • Participation in this poll will be limited to Scribes.
  • Ties - In the event of a tie, we will have a 3-day run-off election. Candidates are expected to present a “platform” piece about what they will do in office. In the event of another tie, the winner will be chosen via the hand-to-hand combat or Super Smash Brothers Melee (Governance Coordinator’s choice).
  • Writers Guild Election Operations Playbook (Living Doc)

Projects

  • Projects will manage their own governance frameworks and guidelines.
  • New Projects asking WG for funds
    • Must follow the Writers Guild Program Proposal Framework
    • New projects must have a Minimum Viable Product before requesting funds.
    • Funds come from the Guild Treasury.

Remuneration

  • Writers Guild role and bounty payments are remunerated monthly to avoid high gas costs.

Amendments

  • Amendments to the Writers Guild Governance Document may be proposed by any Scribe during the weekly Governance Meetings.
    • Amendments to be put to a poll
  • Seasonal review of the Writers Guild Governance Document
  • Discussion in Governance Meetings

Full Document here: Writers Guild Governance V3 - Google Docs

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Good stuff :clap: :clap: :clap: Jake you’re the best thank you

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