GovOps WG November Update

Governance
1

Governance Nest November Update

Leads: @Lavi @sixtykeys @mel.eth Core: @Mringz Advisory: @oneski22

While the GovOps WG is beginning to plan for the transition from Working Group to Nest we wanted to get our inaugural monthly report up to inform the broader community as to where we’ve been since formation, challenges we’re working through, the plan for the coming few months, and some things that are on our radar otherwise. Let’s dive in:

Mission

Simplify Governance

We are using this as our mantra for now and this has been the primary objective of the first month, as processes were scattered. Going forward: ensure that IC’s governance processes are:

  • safe,
  • well communicated,
  • well facilitated,
  • upgrading along with the governance capabilities of the INDEX token and DAO.

From Notion:

At Index Coop, Governance is front-and-center to how we operate our DAO. The GovOps team is here to facilitate usage of our governance systems, we maintain and manage current processes, and we strive to improve how governance is done.
Our goal is to make contributing to the Coop - through our Governance systems - as simple and efficient as possible, while ensuring our processes remain robust and are not corruptible.

We’ll be seeking to hone-in on a more permanent mission during the Nest Formation Process.

Operations

Operationally the first month probably hasn’t appeared to function much differently than it has in the past; which is a good baseline during a time of transition. Let’s discuss what’s been happening under the hood.

The GovOps WG manages the operational aspects of some or all of the following:

  • Index Improvement Proposal (IIP) Process [IIP Tracker];
    • Since inception we have facilitated a total of 18 standard IIPs, of which 15 passed, 2 IIPs voted down, and 1 IIP fell short of quorum.
  • Product Proposal Process (DG1, DG2);
    • In since inception we have had 8 DG1 and DG2 votes
  • Meta-Governance Process (voting using tokens in our Defi Pulse Index);
    • In November we had 27 meta-governance votes
  • Election Process (MGC, ad-hoc); and,
    • The November MGC Election was successful (we learned a good bit about Snapshot)
    • The ad-hoc election of the Index Council was sucessful
  • Proposing Process (using tokens in our composite indices to make proposals).
    • No proposing using composite index tokens was done this period

Improvements so far:

  • Communications have improved and functional areas of governance are coordinating
    • All functional areas of governance coordinate twice weekly (Internal sync, 1-hour public call).
    • Increased guidance on forum
  • Speed has improved with a soft-target outside response time of 12-hours for addressing forum requests for GovRep action
  • Reduced and clearer discord channels for governance operations, increased channels for discussion of topics
  • Actively onboarding 2+ contributors that already have some context
  • Actively working with 2 new partners
    • Arcx
      • An on-chain activity scoring system including voting-activity insight
    • Paladin
      • A voting market; working with core member to improve protocol resilience relative to governance capture and ensure that we’re positioned positively in the coming landscape

Specific Challenges

  • While the GOWG has been effective at improving transparency, guidance, and accountability, there is still a long way to go in this regard. Operations is the core-function; smooth-operation is the goal and we’ve had more than a few bumps in the road, but we’ve learned a lot by bringing the functional areas together. There have been some instances of quorum misses and MGC votes that were not executed in time; this is improving: recently the bot that ports MGC votes to snapshot went down and users likely were not even aware due to real-time operational adjustments.
  • While the GOWG has sought guidance, in some cases engagement has been low.
  • Sunsetting IIP proposal did not hit quorum; disappointing given that this is regarded as administrative. We’ll look to rerun this during a higher activity voting period and raise awareness.
  • The GOWG is in the early stages of seeking to understand and support the Index Council’s addition to some governance processes.
  • Making our efforts done in an operational capacity explicit (is it mel.eth posting or mel.eth acting in a GovOps capacity being the challenge). This may require a ‘GovBot’ style user in the forum, similar to what F.Nest uses, so that there is no confusion as to what capacity a contributor is acting when commenting on a post, and allow portability of the GovRep role without requiring updates to the community. This is under careful consideration.
  • The formation of a GovOps WG during the Index 2.0 transition period was a considered event; however, finding a rhythm and getting operational assets built while also keeping an eye toward the structural changes, and now beginning to plan for them in earnest, has been a challenge. @Pepperoni_Joe has been invaluable in this process.
  • Asynchronous Inputs / Synchronized Outputs
    • Operational requests are fielded via a call-and-response function within the governance forum. While the requests are ad-hoc, the vote posting and awareness schedules are fixed. So the all-in time to coordinate, edit, post a vote, and drive awareness might be 4 hours; however, this is spread over a minimum of 5 days and requires about 32 touch-points.
    • Being a GovRep is a high-context EXTREMELY high-trust position that is not rewarded as such.
      • GovReps require admin access to discord, the governance forum, and snapshot.

Thanks for bearing with us!

How are we doing?

Please drop feedback below; but here’s our take at the 1mo+ mark:

  • Feedback in the forum has been better, procedures are clearer but need to be refined into user-guides.
  • The DAO has not requested any specific reporting from the WG; however, there have been ongoing analytical and risk-related efforts that will be hitting the forum soon for context and discussion. We’re young but moving intentionally in these areas; stay tuned!
  • We are finding that a visible IIP-tracker, one of the primary big-reach goals at the formation of this WG, has proven challenging but significant progress has been made and automating the system in notion is on the roadmap. The prototype can be found here.
  • Increased global coordination has helped move things along, but again, the non-async nature of a voting-schedule coupled with the 24/7 nature of DAO operation has allowed for some efficiencies to be gained.

A Nested Future

While it has been particularly challenging to ‘form’ with an eye toward a DAO-wide reformation, GovOps has focused on improving the operational aspects that are least likely to see significant change, while building context and preparing in areas that are likely to see an increased need for visible group consensus (e.g. within nests and pods). A good bit of robust preparation.

The core team wants to especially thank @jackiepoo @mrvls_brkfst @Zeb @StepvhenH and @puncar for efforts during this period, as well as @Figue for being such a gracious partner during these interesting times.

What excites us as we look forward?

(don’t panic, we know GovOps isn’t a testbed for innovation, but we’re thinking about and working through these things in the background; some teasers)

  • :chains: Multi-chain governance
  • :calendar: Dedicated Governance Calendar
  • :robot: GovBot
  • :globe_with_meridians: Dedicated Twitter
  • :ballot_box: Rewarding Governance Participation
  • :1234: Differentiation of proposal process further by type (operations|budget|strategy|etc)
  • :handshake: Strategic Advisory and Partnerships
  • :framed_picture: NFT Voting
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