**POLL CLOSED** Proposal: Asia Pacific Working Group (APWG) w. BUDGET

Proposal: Asia Pacific Working Group (APWG)
Title: Proposal to establish the APAC Working Group (APWG)
Status: Voting for the ESTABLISHMENT of APWG
Former Iterations: APWG Proposal Post edited based on feedback
Decision Process: Voting as per Proposed Decision Making Process
Authors: @lee0007 @pujimak_in @lanks @tudou
Created: 30 September 2021

Summary

We propose the creation and Q4 funding of an Asia Pacific Working Group (APWG) for the three months from 1 October 2021 ending 14 January 2021. As an independent and autonomous working group, we will work with the existing WG to position APWG as a growth engine for the Asia Pacific.

Strategic Objective: Deliver quantifiable value ā‰„ 5 x APWG Requested Budget = ~$770k quantified in terms of increased awareness, net inflow, and minimised costs

1. What has been done?

Recognizing that community and working group calls serve a vital function within Index Coop (IC) in June 2021, we sought the opportunity to ā€œdevelop an APAC community and ultimately move towards establishing an APAC working groupā€.

At the time, most IC community members were (and remain) located in the US and EMEA regions. Subsequently, calls designed to keep the community up-to-date, informed, and aligned were scheduled across US/EMEA time zones, making it challenging to engage the growing number of APAC community members.

In the weeks since inception (6 July 2021), APAC community calls have shown a steady increase in the number of participants and contributors. We had 11 participants at the most recent meeting on 14 September, up from an initial five now consistently upwards of nine.

2. What Worked?

Our relatively small and agile team have collaborated to:

  • Identify and prioritise market entry points and align community members with these markets
  • Identify trading habits, key media agencies and news outlets within the APAC market
  • Support relationships with Institutional, High Networth, Venture Capital and Retail investors
  • Coordinate APAC review and feedback for Index 2.0 workshops
  • Promote IC products in key communication channels in the market.
  • Language Ops contributors set up official WeChat and Weibo channels as part of the regional content marketing strategy to boost the visibility and reputation of ICā€™s index products and serve as a funnel for talent, retail and institutional investors from Chinese-speaking regions.
  • Other language activities to further expand the global reach of Index Coop products
  • Establish a strategic direction and workflow (Notion) for delivering Q4 objectives
  • Establish performance measures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIā€™s) for the APWG in line with IC North Stars, Core KPIs and channel metrics
  • Identified responsible contributors to ensure open, transparent and cross-functional communication.

3. What Needs Improving?

3.1 Accountability: we need to establish accountability for achieving product, community and contributor growth.

3.2 Communication: we need to formalise clear and open lines of cross-functional communication and share this responsibility.

3.3 Community: we need to strengthen a sense of belonging, coordinate and leverage the wealth of talent within the APAC community.

3.4 Planning: we need to plan for future development to capture the potential growth of deFi within the APAC region.

3.5 Compensation: we need to fairly compensate APAC contributors so that they can be held accountable for progress against our proposed KPIā€™s.

4. What are you proposing?

We propose the creation and Q4 funding of an Asia Pacific Working Group (APWG) for the three months from 1 October 2021 ending January 14 2022. Key contributors will be responsible for alignment with current working groups to;

  • Ensure clear communication
  • Maintain alignment of purpose and goals
  • Minimise duplication of effort/cost

5. What is the core problem(s) you want to solve?

Index Coop is experiencing hyper-growth both in terms of AUM and the size and spread of our community. This is a positive result of the high-performance and results-orientated culture we strive for - however, growth, for any organisation, is a double-edged sword.

If growth is constrained, we will fail to achieve our mission to become the Blackrock of Crypto. On the other side, hyper-growth could become unsustainable without the leadership, systems and culture required to support forward momentum.

The formation of the APAC working group is an effort to plan and prepare for the inevitable growth opportunities we see within the APAC region. To capture market opportunity, we look to provide solutions for:

5.1 Geographic Expansion: we hope APWG might provide proof of concept (PoC) for creating multiple, geographic-specific working groups, each functioning as independent and autonomous teams. We believe this form of organisation will facilitate efficient, effective geographic expansion.

5.2 Organisation Support Structures: as APAC activity expands, responsibility and accountability will fall to APWG instead of existing IC WG leads.

5.3 Timely Decision Making: We can seize opportunities and mitigate delayed decision-making due to time-zone differences with funded autonomy.

5.4 Market Growth & Development: in line with the North Stars and Core KPIs, we work to increase awareness, influence consideration and facilitate investment for IC products.

5.5 Community & Cultural Autonomy: we seek to identify, nurture and retain talented advocates and IC contributors, to increase autonomy for APAC contributors and reward results.

5.6 Efficient Communication: we intend to formalise, streamlined cross-function communication to ensure the APAC community is up-to-date, informed and aligned with ICā€™s vision, purpose and mission.

6. Why is this worth addressing today?

A 2021 report by Messari on Asiaā€™s Crypto Landscape shows the vast market opportunity APAC presents.

Leading crypto countries, such as China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, have deep pools of liquidity, while other countries have a great potential to scale. The nature of traditional finance has played a key role in the adoption of crypto: capital controls pushed investors towards cryptocurrencies in China and South Korea, while low-yields pushed adoption in Japan. YE June 2020 Asia accounted for 43% of global cryptocurrency activity, or US $296 billion in transactions. Asia has an outsized role in the crypto markets due to a variety of reasons. Each country has its nuances, but factors include high penetration of public market investing, high-technology pedigree, the prevalence of WiFi, deep penetration of e-payments, propensity for gambling, and a high percentage of computer science graduates.

This region has substantial untapped potential in terms of both market development and the talent required to drive growth. Establishing the APWG is important to address today because;

6.1 First-Mover Advantage: as a leading DeFi Protocol in a market that accounts for upwards of 40% of global cryptocurrency activity, the first-mover advantage could be lost within months.

6.2 Geographic Expansion: bridging the gap between east and west ecosystems should be a priority for Index Coop, as we strive to make crypto easy and accessible. Our team seek to identify and foster new institutional and business development relationships in the APAC region.

6.3 Accountability for Growth: we need to formalise accountability, support growth and set clear objectives to grow the APAC market.

6.4 Decentralized Autonomy: we seek your trust signalled by granting us the autonomy to set direction in this region based on cultural alignment. We require funding to plan, coordinate and implement work and to research, identify and secure opportunities as they arise.

7. How will you address it?

Our first approach is to identify the work currently undertaken by APAC contributors and align with the strategies established by global working groups for the following functions.

  • BDWG: Build best in class investor relations and leverage major stakeholders to drive results for the Coop
  • IBWG: Progress APAC Custodian Token listing and investor resource development
  • GWG: Develop region-specific content and events to promote, educate and raise awareness of our product suite.
  • POC: Support the development of APAC contributors

To focus these efforts, we identified and prioritised metropolitan hubs to connect and engage with communities and deFi sectors.

East Asia || Primary Hub - Hong Kong, China
South-East Asia || Primary Hub - Singapore
South Asia || Primary Hub - Bombay, India

8. What impact will this project have?

8.1 Increase $Net Inflow through strategic Business Development & Institutional Business partnerships

  • [KPI] # New IB BD opportunities identified
  • [KPI] # Strategic Relationship established/progressed by IB BD team
  • [KPI] $ Growth of APAC Net Inflow

8.2 Increase $ Aggregate Trade Volume by raising awareness of Index Coop Products through regional content development and events.

  • [KPI] Increase APAC % of Trade Volume
  • [KPI] # Event participants
  • [KPI] # Impressions for content and events

8.3 Increase # unique holders & community contributor autonomy through effective coordination and alignment of peopleā€™s skills and interests.

8.3.1 People: focused on the development and retention of contributors owls through the use of APAC onboarding activities

8.3.2 Organisation: focused on supporting new contributors to develop context, depth of market and product knowledge and empowering high-impact contributors through increased autonomy

8.3.3 Community: outreach focused on crypto native audiences such as young professional and university students

  • [KPI] # Gold, Silver, Bronze level owls
  • [KPI] Target 15% representation of women/non-binary contributors (3% above industry standard 1)

9. Request For Funding

|Catergory |October|November|December|Total|
|ā€”|ā€”|ā€”|ā€”|ā€”|ā€”|ā€”|ā€”|
|Humans Resource|
|Fixed|
|Work Group Lead INDEX|200|200|200|600|
|Core Contributor INDEX|160|160|200|520|
|Working Group Lead USDC |$4,000|$4,000|$4,000|$12,000|
|Strategic Contributions|$1,760|$1,760|$1,760|$5,280|
|Variable|
|Core Contributors |$11,520|$12,672|$13,939|$38,131|
|Community Contributions |$5,600|$6,160|$6,776|$18,536|
|Contributor Job Rewards|$1,200|$1,320|$1,452|$3,972|
||
|Reward Totals|$24,080|$32,912|$34,927|$77,919 + 1120 INDEX|
||
|APAC Community|
|# Core Contributors |4|4|5|
|# Active Contributors |5|6|6|
|Expected Operationsal Costs
|Business Development USDC
|Industry Conferences & Events|$1,500|$1,500|$1,500|$4,500|
|Partnerships|$1,500|$1,500|$1,500|$4,500|
|Product Growth Marketing USDC
|Product Marketing & Promotions|$5,000|$5,000|$5,000|$15,000|
|Content Creation|$1,250|$1,250|$1,250|$3,750|
|Outreach Events|$1,000|$1,000|$1,000|$3,000|
|APAC Multi-Sig INDEX|
|Gas Fees + Initial Set Up|$2,000|$1,000|$1,000|$4,000|
|Total Operationsal Costs|$12,250|$11,250|$11,250|$34,750|
|
|TOTAL REQUEST BUDGET|$36,330|$44,162|$46,177|$112,669 + 1120 INDEX|
|

We are requesting a total budget of 112,669 + 1120 INDEX allocated in the following currencies:

  • USDC: $48,030
  • Fixed INDEX: 1120
  • INDEX at 20-day TWAP: $64,639

$77, 919 + 1120 INDEX contributor rewards to be held by the funding council and distributed to contributors as per the normal process.
$34,750 operational expense for the next 3 months ending 14 January 2022 and allocated to the APWG Multi-sig

10. Organization - How Will it Work?

As an independent and autonomous working group, APWG aims to organize and collaborate based on:-

1. Relentless focus: We will continue to ask ourselves what does/doesnā€™t work, what should we do thatā€™s new, of impact to the North Star, Core KPI, and very specific to our region.
2. Trust & Action-Orientated: trusting in one anotherā€™s ability to deliver, we work to Get Stuff Done (GSD) and interact with others on the understanding that everyone is busy driving our collective success
3. Radical Candor: As a diverse melting pot of cultures, we will apply the concept of radical candor to guide our approach when providing and receiving feedback.
4. Assume the Best of Each Other: Intent can be easily misinterpreted, especially online. Therefore we must always assume communication comes from a positive place of desire to help and connect.
5. Self-Identified Autonomy: we are taking an experimental approach to empower and build contributor autonomy by applying a framework for members to self-identify their level of autonomy in relation to six key interactions

10.1 APAC Core Contributors

@Pujimak_in will lead the APWG. Projects and subregions will be led by a core contributor with a track record of impact. The working group members will be accountable to execute APWG objectives as per a self-identified level of autonomy. The APGW Lead will decide on the performance and payment of core contributors, while APWG Lead + Core Contributors will co-decide on the performance reward of subregions/project contributors.

10.2 What will you be doing?

  • Plan, prepare and report to APAC community, and DAO calls
  • Attend associated leadership & strategy calls and workshops
  • Share IC vision & mission, goals & achievements
  • Recognise, celebrate & share wins
  • Develop forum posts and proposals for community consideration and feedback
  • Analyse, measure and refine growth performance
  • Report performance, refine, adapt or pivot as required

10.3 How will you interface with the community?

  • Weekly Standup Updates
  • Bi-weekly APAC community call
  • A representative at a majority of western weekly standup calls
  • AdHoc Community calls as required
  • Publication of all expenses and contributor rewards
  • #APAC Channel on Discord
  • APAC KPI update in Monthly and Quarterly report

11. Our Commitments

We are committed to

  • Index Coop Guiding Principles and will use them as a reference point during challenging conversations to promote constructive conflict resolution and guide purposeful decision making.
  • Service to the entire Index Coop with our work.
  • Open, rapid communication style knowing that clear, constant, public communication lifts the entire Index Coop community.
  • Sharing progress and learning with the entire community and will ensure that anything we create is accessible beyond our tenure for future generations of owls to access & build upon
  • Intellectual honesty, growth and improvement.
  • Being open to feedback and will use feedback to improve our work for the benefit of the entire Coop community.
  • Community and making Index Coop a welcoming, fun, and engaging community to work in!
Establisment for APWG ; Polling based on IIP-85
  • FOR
  • AGAINST
0 voters
16 Likes

I have been deeply impressed by the members of APWG. Every time they have contributed to BDWG they have brought a high level of professionalism and drive. We need to be aggressive when it comes to targeting international growth. Our protocol is targeting the global crypto market and APWG is a massive step in that direction.

Over the coming months it would be incredible to see more regional and language specific sub-groups develop. Specifically Africa, LATAM, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Great work team :rocket:

9 Likes

EDIT: Updated list of contributors to reflect the Core APAC Business Development team

3 Likes

EDIT : Re-edit to reflect APAC Core Contributors whom will lead respective initiatives within APWG (Operations + 3 Subregion POD Lead)

EDIT #2 : Includes budget deliberations + WGL splits of remuneration (Fixed INDEX + USDC)

3 Likes

Thank you @lee0007 the proposal is comprehensive and truly sets the standard for proposals in DAOs.

Whatā€™s Great
The clear and consistent alignment with Indexā€™s mission makes this proposal a no-brainer to me. Each region has its own needs, timezones, and established relations. An APAC group for Index would eventually grow to be a gateway for investors to get exposure into crypto without the extreme heavy lifting someone new to the space needs to put in.

Iā€™ve looked at some other proposals Index has put up and each new product is carefully built and executed professionally. This makes for a compelling argument.

Suggestions
Iā€™d like to suggest including space for strategic partnerships with people that have an established presence doing ecosystem building, education, and university outreach in the region.

When I joined the community call, I observed a strong bias for action but the team is constrained by size, commitment, and leverage. Thatā€™s normal for any new and budding team!

I spoke to @pujimak_in during my discovery call and found that there might be synergies between Tribe (where I work) and the APAC working group.

We started out as a blockchain startup accelerator 2 years ago and have been taking our startups on global demo tours. Iā€™ve kickstarted some initial conversations and weā€™re definitely interested to explore this potential strategic partnership.

6 Likes

Strategic partnering with universities at the regional and local levels is a great call.

University outreach falls within the mission and strategic objectives of business development

And Q4 Core KPIā€™s

Would love to see this work progressed for APAC FYI @Lanks @pujimak_in @BigSky7

6 Likes

Awesome, well the proposal has given me a basis to kickstart conversations on my end so Iā€™ll definitely be looking forward to sharing with you something very soon!

4 Likes

Paging @bradwmorris as wellā€¦ as this would require cross WG initiative. From onboarding to business development.

4 Likes

In the spirit of transparency;

Please find the link below a reference for my intra COID.

Cheers~

3 Likes

Hi @pujimak_in I fully support you as APWG lead and because you are listed as a core contributor on a number of other working groups can you please specify which 1) working groups and 2) provide an indication of how you are looking to split your time please across multiple responsibilities

Perhaps a ratio? APWG:POC:BDWD:CDWG: Other

And based on that split is it fair to say you will seek contributor rewards in addition to your WG Lead stipend? Is this how it works for other WGLeads?

I ask because I strongly believe how you intend to split your time should be directly reflected in the APWG proposed budget. At the moment the APWG WGL budget is close to a FTE contributor role based on 36 hours per week.

If you have the bandwidth (I know you have the commitment) to work overtime thatā€™s your call, additional transparency as to your commitments will inform the final budget to be voted on.

IMO thereā€™s limited transparency within the coop, as to how work is valued and how the contributor reward process works, which makes forecasting a reliable HR budget less like accounting and more like a guessing game.

In the spirit of fairness and transparency as stated in our guiding principles I believe leaders have the opportunity to set an example of transparency by communicating in open forum (vs limited access documents) specific cross WG commitments and especially when you expect to seek rewards in addition to the WGL fixed income.

Iā€™d be super keen to hear from the funding council on this too @anon10525910 @Pepperoni_Joe (once back from OOO) and any other working group leads as to how this currently works @BigSky7 @LemonadeAlpha @MrMadila @Matthew_Graham @Cavalier_Eth @overanalyser @mel.eth (limit 10 tags)

How many hours is it expected of leads to maintain? and at what point should people look to delegate responsibilities to other community contributors, as thereā€™s plenty of people that would love to contribute to the growth and success of the coop.

2 Likes

Iā€™m strongly in favour of this proposal

Look forward to seeing the progress and reporting

And hope to see some exciting success stories coming out of APACWG shortly!

Good luck @pujimak_in @lee0007 and all the heavy crew :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Thank you for this feedback @lee0007. Yes, I agree that transparency is key here.

When formulating how WG Lead should be rewarded; I was advised on a couple of ways to on how WG Lead can approached in his/her remuneration;

  1. a fixed sum which includes all my work time and contributions across multiple working groups.

  2. a reduced sum (which only focused on the work Iā€™m doing internally in a WG) but also claiming rewards across the other WGs when cross working happens with its respective working group.

As it stand the current budget is based the latter; where trying to split my time across multiple working groups. I understand that it is more accurate to attribute and distribute rewards from different working groups. The challenge with this option is that it is difficult to know in advance what work is required and how my time should be split.

In regards to my work as a core contributor to BDWG, the bulk of new work we are undertaking will be APAC focused however there are some engagement that are global in nature such as, Investor Relations, or Protocol Partnerships which in the crypto space, itā€™s borderless and non region specific. For this reason, I feel my BD work can be attributed to Asia Pacific thus even though Iā€™m label as a core contributor for BDWG III; my remuneration should be attributed to the APWG budget, which will open up the budget for you guys. Tagging @Mringz and @BigSky7 for this.

As to my work with POC, I agree there is a need to delegate some of the work I currently undertake primarily my Community Manager role, in order to focus on my responsibilities as APWG Lead. I expect this role will probably be delegated sometime within Q4 (as will need to coach the future replacement for Community Manager). Secondly my role in Organisational and DAO tooling (ie Digital Assets and Anatomy) even though itā€™s consider a global initiative, I donā€™t see itā€™s an issue of absorbing my contribution to APWG; thus what the cost for my current POC can also be attributed to APWG. Tagging @Pepperoni_Joe.

I have also contributed as a project manager to a number of (C)DWG projects. However, undertaking this level of combined work has seen me contributing time at levels that I can not sustain over the long term and ideally, I would like to establish some boundaries on my time to ensure my long term commitment and performance. Furthermore giving the opportunity for other Owls to step up; tagging @0x_Dev on this.

Thus it is my preference to be paid a fixed and inclusive sum representing the 45 hours per week I expect to contribute across multiple working groups, knowing that at times this may be higher but not less.

Lastly I welcome insight from existing WG Leads (especially those Iā€™ve tagged) in order to forecast a fair and realistic budget for this first iteration of the APAC working group.

I personally feel that APWG is setting a stage for other regional WGs in the near future (LATAM, MENA, EU, etc), and ironing out all of this is importantā€¦ as itā€™s structure is totally different compared to Global ā€œNicheā€ WGs. Thus the approach should be different.

Aiming to finalised this before the 6th October deadline. Thus @lee0007 will update the budget before then.

And hoping to have our vote commence latest Monday 11 October; if not earlier. Thank you.

4 Likes

FOR APWG, all members have clearly demonstrated their commitments and capabilities. Looking forward to their continued hard work driving adoption and growth across APAC. hh

4 Likes

1000% FOR! Kudos to @lee0007 @pujimak_in for spending so much time building this WG.

3 Likes

Iā€™m really excited to see what happens as we go from APAC being in and around every WG to becoming ā€˜APWGā€™. Not only does regional demand dictate that the initiative is timely, but the growth ahead of formalizing these efforts has inspired BDWG to target 3 additional regions for expansion. To say that the WG and pod leads identified here have a demonstrated track-record of performing at an extremely high-level is an understatement - despite being on the opposite side of the world my requests have been addressed in minutes and with a level of intention and care that has helped shaped my own standards. This is just such a great example of how to rally and organize toward immense impact; a true credit to all APAC contributors and leaders. I will support this new WG in every way I can and will be voting ā€˜FORā€™.

3 Likes

Edits to WG Lead stipend, proposed budget and strategic target, to reflect that the APWG lead stipend is inclusive of all rewardable COOP work based on 55 hours per week

2 Likes

@lee0007 just curious where this standard came from?

I think, adding column names like nov, dec, jan would be helpful.

1 Like

Edited. Thanks for pointing that out serā€¦ FYI Q4 starts Octoberā€¦ so its Oct/Nov/Decā€¦

For the first question, will leave @lee0007 to elaborate. :smiley:

Cheers~

1 Like

Poll added to the post. This poll is the ā€œfinal pollā€ as per IIP-85 @anon10525910. Thank you

Tagging @mel.eth for sCoop!!

4 Likes

A grouping that has been in the making for a while. Great to see it proposed and looking forward to it getting to work in a full capacity! A fab five! Go APWG!

4 Likes