Draft – Proposal – VRN Governance Overhaul and Community Council Formation

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Abstract:

• This proposal sets out to take the first steps in building out the community contribution capabilities of the Varen project. The goal of this prop is to seek authorization to review and overhaul the governance policies of YFL to suit the new Varen project direction as well as the formation of a Community Council to catalyze and organize the community contributions to the project.

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Motivation:

• As we navigate this migration and the transition to Varen it is necessary to update the governance policies and procedures to both reflect the needs of the community and how it has evolved since the early days of YFL as well as the new Tokenomics and direction of the project as it moves forward. This transition also gives us the opportunity to reimagine the impact that the community at large can have on the growth and development of the project via direct contribution, organization building and dev team support, as well as to begin building a frame work in which that impact can be realized.

I propose that this process be kicked off by authorizing three actions that should benefit the project going forward.

1. The overhaul of YFL Governance policies and procedures to better fit the new direction of Varen.

2. Formation of a 3-person Community Council to catalyze, organize and guide the efforts of the community to contribute to the advancement of the project.

3. Formation of an informal Advisory group made up of past council members and outside advisors

Benefits to the token holder:

• Improved communication between the community and devs.

• Resolution of concerns/grievances and lessening of FUD.

• Representation of general token holder interests.

• Offer a more tangible pathway to contribution for community members that are interested.

Benefits to the dev team/project/treasury:

• Development of a Bounty Program to leverage and organize community resources to perform project-wide goal-oriented tasks.

• Improve project longevity by decentralizing project’s institutional knowledge/experience.

• Insulate dev team from non-essential outside interference by acting as a buffer for FUD and other distractions.

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Specifications:

1. Governance Overhaul:

• Maintain minimal rules from YFL Governance:
  • 20% Quorum.
  • YFL Governance to continue to act as guidance until new governance approved.

• Within 1 month develop and present a rough framework for governance based on the YFL Policies to guide the project through the early post-migration process (including a more comprehensive framework for the functioning of the council and council members).
• Within 4 months develop and present for approval a fully developed Governance Policy for approval and adoption by the project and community.

2. Formation of a 3-person Community Council:

• Acting as a conduit for more organized communication between the community and the dev team by both filtering out spam and unnecessary chatter that can distract the dev team as well as giving a stronger platform for ideas, questions and concerns that the community has. This will also include a monthly blog post to be put together in collaboration with the dev team.

• Working with the dev team on outreach for listings, marketing, etc.

• Investigation and development of a Bounty program to organize community efforts.

  Community Council General Information:

  • Term: 6 months
  • Term-Limit: 2 Consecutive Terms

  Community Council Duties:

  • General Duties:

    • Advise community members on proposal procedures and governance processes as well as direct the effort to develop new governance policies.
    • Strengthen the communication between the community and the dev team.
    • Collaborate with the dev team in directing the community on outreach efforts for listings, marketing, or inter project cooperation.
    • Investigation and development of community projects that can add value to the Varen project.

  • Bi-weekly meeting/briefing with Dev team:

    • This meeting will include bringing of community ideas/input/concerns to the devs as well as giving the devs a platform to run ideas of their own past representatives of the community.

  • Monthly Project/Community Blog Post:

    • The council will be responsible for collaborating with the community and dev team to put together a monthly project wide update blog post.

Community Council Election Implementation:

• Candidacy Period:

  • The Candidacy Period shall last for 3 days. Interested candidates may make it know that they are interested in serving by notifying a designated party (this party will be announced). Community members who are not interested in serving at this time are encouraged to nominate other members who they feel would be good contributors. Candidates that have volunteered and have received at least 1 nomination will be considered official Candidates and eligible for election.

  • Voting Period:

    • The Voting period will last for 6-days. Due to the nature of Snapshot, ranked choice or multiple choice voting is not currently feasible. So the election will be performed as 3 consecutive runoff style elections. For example, during the first 48 hour period all eligible candidates will be placed on the ballot and voters will have 47 hours to vote (1 hour set aside to reset for the next day’s election). At the end of the 48 hours the candidate with the highest vote total will be added to the council. The remaining candidates will then be put onto the ballot for the next day’s election. This will be repeated 2 more times to decide the 3 members off the council. The 2nd-4th highest recipients of votes on the 3rd ballot will automatically be nominated for the next council election, should they wish to run.

    • The Voting period will last for 6-days. Due to the nature of Snapshot, ranked choice or multiple choice voting is not currently feasible. So the election will be performed as 3 consecutive runoff style elections. For example, during the first 48 hour period all eligible candidates will be placed on the ballot and voters will have 47 hours to vote (1 hour set aside to reset for the next day’s election). At the end of the 48 hours the candidate with the highest vote total will be added to the council. The remaining candidates will then be put onto the ballot for the next day’s election. This will be repeated 2 more times to decide the 3 members of the council. The 2nd-4th highest recipients of votes on the 3rd ballot will automatically be nominated for the next council election, should they wish to run.

3. Formation of an Informal Advisory Group:

• In order to draw from community and professional resources we will maintain an information group of advisors made up of professionals (business, academic, etc.) as well as former council members to act as a resource to the team, council and community.
• In order to draw from community and professional resources we will maintain an informal group of advisors made up of professionals (business, academic, etc.) as well as former council members to act as a resource to the team, council and community.

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Outcomes:

• For:

  • Establishment of a Community Council and Initiation of the Governance Overhaul Process.

• Against:

  • No change.