Authors: @ElliottWatts @Pepperoni_Joe @rashmiashok11
Finance for the Future Domain Experts: @prairiefi @AcceleratedCapital @helmass @Matthew_Graham @Ahuja @DarkForestCapital @anon10525910 @ElliottWatts @Hammad1412
Summary
The first workshop in the Index 2.0 series was a clear success, with the 1.5-hour session enabling the community to come to broad alignment on some major topics.
These include; dissolving the FC wallet and instead of using the operations account and combining the Treasury WG and Funding Council into some combined “Treasury Council”.
Session agenda
Slides for the session can be viewed here and the meeting recording here. The session was attended by 40 attendees, of which 5 were WGLs (out of a possible 13).
The session agenda was structured as follows.
- Context building (45 minutes)
- Purpose of the workshop
- Introduction by Domain Experts
- Multi-sig structure
- Summary of the Operations account
- What is the Treasury WG
- What is the Funding Council
- Demo end to end of the contributor rewards process
- Pain points with our current financial operations
- Co-creation - Breakout sessions (45 minutes)
- Community co-design
- Attendees were split into 5 groups to complete an interactive exercise where they moved digital post-it notes to redesign the future of Index Coop finances. Outputs can be viewed here.
- Key discussion points included: the merging of Funding Council and Treasury WG, the role of leadership and the optimal level of IIP approval required.
- Finance of the Future discussion - Feedback from breakout sessions
- Key insights from their discussion were played back by each breakout group - with discussion on the key differences between the groups
- Community co-design
Community codesign
A critical part of the workshop hinged around the community codesign of a new financial structure for Index Coop. Whilst time was tight, the groups each came up with some interesting insights on what a levelled up Index Coop financial structure would look like.
A reminder you can view the outputs (without need for a microscope) here.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
The was general agreement on the following points…
- Broad consensus to merge the Funding Council and Treasury Working Group into a “Treasury Council”.
- Dissolve the Funding Council wallet and shift all payroll and WG funding to the operations account.
- Long term aim to transition ownership of the Community Treasury multi-sig to some form of “Index Coop Leadership”
- General desire for some form of “Index Coop Leadership team” to set quarterly goals, determine target budget and contributor rewards.
- The agreement is that the IIP should be used to validate key decisions make around strategic aims and funding.
- POC to coordinate relevant rewards disputes in coordination with WGLs (who will continue to determine contributor rewards)
Further discussion required on…
- Where should approval for ad-hoc funding and WG proposals sit (Treasury Council vs leadership team vs IIP)
- Whether payroll should technically sit within POC or with the Treasury Council.
- The specific scope and responsibilities of this combined “Treasury Council”.
Summary output
This discussion is captured on the summary jamboard below. Items with the broad agreement are in yellow, whilst topics that require further discussion are in orange. Note even “yellow” topics are likely to be revisited and further challenged and scrutinised.
raw output here
Next steps and main agenda for the follow-up workshop
- We propose a follow-up community workshop scheduled for:
- Thursday 16th of September
- This will confirm some of the broad points of consensus, for example disbanding of the Funding council multi-sig and merge of the TWG and Funding Council wallets into the Operations Account
- With context already built, attendees will pretty swiftly go into breakout groups to cover the following “key discussion points”
Some key discussion points for the next workshop
-
Structural
- When do decisions need to go through IIP? Can we define what requires an IIP versus what is delegated to Index Coop decision-makers
- Are quarterly goals validated through IIP?
- Are all WG proposals validated through IIP?
- Would it be a leadership team who would review the WG proposals or should the Treasury Council?
- Where should payroll sit, POC or Treasury Council?
- Is there a need for the is the role of the “Guidance on tax and disclosure committee”
- When do decisions need to go through IIP? Can we define what requires an IIP versus what is delegated to Index Coop decision-makers
-
Process
- How should payment disputes be managed?
- What level of review/recommendation should the leadership team/treasury council provide on WGL proposals.
- How do we set expectations on rewards for WGL? This is tied to broader conversations around compensation.
- Is there the opportunity for an approval framework based on quantifying of expected funds (i.e. funds request of <$15,000 can be approved by Treasury Council, with >$15,000 required approval by IIP)
- How can we ensure good operational security and reduce the risk of collusion on multi-sigs?
- Would people be elected onto a position on the Treasury Council? If so, how many people? How long would the term length be?
Lessons learnt
- Cap “+1s” prior to breakout room discussion to save time.
- Run short debrief of Domain Experts after the session.
- Keep Domain Expert intro brief to save time.
- Interactive jamboards and quizzes worked
- Breakout sessions worked well, but important to give people enough time to work through responses.
