[BIP-348] Ecosystem ONsite Proposal Q4 2023

PR with Payload

https://github.com/BalancerMaxis/multisig-ops/pull/308

Hello Balancer Community!

Historically Orb has included the cost of our ONsites into its funding requests. We’ve decided to change that and request a separate, standalone proposal for these events starting with the one we are hoping to have in Q4 of this year. I know it might seem super early to start planning for this, but fear not, we are right on time. We need to get started on location selection because hotel blocks for groups of our size fill up many months in advance.

We are requesting 93,750 USDC to pay for 25 attendees:

• Maxis: 7
• Beethoven: 3
• Integrations (Orbies): 3
• Grants: 1
• Foundation: 2
• OpCo: 5
• Other Ecosystem Contributors: 4

Balancer Labs will pay for the costs of its attendees.

As a reminder, the goals of our ecosystem ONsites are to facilitate 1) in-person brainstorms and collaboration meetings and 2) team bonding. We have found the optimal cadence for in-person gatherings to be twice per year. Gathering the ecosystem together in person to discuss, debate and learn from things that went well and didn’t go well over the last six months has proven to be super valuable.

The agenda for each ONsite includes a Retrospective Meeting to review the last 6 months of work across the ecosystem), a Funding Meeting to plan the roadmap of projects that the ecosystem will work on in the next 6 months, and meetings that are reflective on what’s timely at the time of the event (ie, KPIs, marketing, regulatory, technical vision, mission/vision/values). Having the space and time to hold these meetings in person has been significantly more impactful for our team than having them virtually. In-person meetings allow more fluid conversations and attendees are more likely to build positive relationships through them. Contributors are also able to collaboratively brainstorm easier in person rather than virtually.

Here is some feedback that we received in our follow-up survey after our Q4 2022 ONsite:

• “ONsites are a must for remote-first companies.” - BLabs contributor
• “Getting to know everyone personally [was my favorite part]. It created an even better feeling when doing video calls now.” - BLabs contributor
• “Being able to meet the smart contracts team and ask them some questions [was my favorite part].” - OpCo contributor
• “The organization was great overall and I’ve really enjoyed the experience and getting to know my co-contributors in person :)” - BLabs contributor
• “We were reasonably frugal.” - BLabs contributor
• “It was an amazing experience.” - Orb contributor
• “I found that just a sole opportunity to meet the team and exchange ideas was very valuable.” - BLabs contributor

We are asking for funding based on our best estimate of what the total ecosystem headcount will be in Q4. If we have more attendees than what we budgeted for, we will need to request additional funding. If we have less, we will return excess funds to the OpCo. It’s worth noting that if that additional funding is not approved we won’t be able to invite new ecosystem members to this ONsite.

We are estimating that each attendee will cost 3,750 USDC for our five day/four night event. Breakdown of this cost:

• Travel (Flights/Airport Transfers): 1,229 USDC/person
• Overnight Accommodations: 928 USDC/person
• Meeting Room Rentals: 82 USDC/person
• Meals: 594 USDC/person
• Activities: 332 USDC/person
• Misc Expenses (ie, covid tests, meeting supplies, etc): 27 USDC/person
• Canvas Meetings organizer fee: 399 USDC/person
  • Includes sourcing, contracting, pre-planning, budget management, food & beverage management, vendor and all event logistics management.
• ONsite event coordinator: 159 USDC/person
  • Includes 24/7 dedication to our group ensuring everything goes smoothly from start to finish of the event. They monitor and assist with incoming and outgoing travel and make sure that all meetings, meals and activities are set up correctly and go on without a hitch.

When planning these events we are always looking for ways to achieve our goals with a cost conscious lens on. Examples of this are not covering costs for flight upgrades and a mix of per diem meals and shared meals versus all shared meals. The Q4 event will be no different. For any funds that aren’t used for this event, we will keep those in our ONsite account and apply it to the next one.

Edit:

This a capped budget and funds will flow directly through OpCo and OpCo’s wallet. Unused funds can be returned to Treasury. With Orb sunsetting, organization will be handled by Maxis together with OpCo for logistics and BLabs for their own contributors.

If approved, DAO Treasury 0x10a19e7ee7d7f8a52822f6817de8ea18204f2e4f will transfer 93,750 USD to OpCo's wallet 0x3B8910F378034FD6E103Df958863e5c684072693 to cover ONsite expenses

OpCo’s multisig to receive funds: 0x3B8910F378034FD6E103Df958863e5c684072693