Summary

The Ambassador Program defines a collection of people appointed to be Ambassadors and perform outreach on behalf of the DAO.

Relevance to Strategic Plan

This proposal addresses the Seasonal Goal 0.1: Increase Community Size.

Motivation

We’d like to recruit Ambassadors who are well connected in 4 communities: web3, academic/medical research, biohacking, and venture — especially connections local to their geographical regions.

However, because we are a decentralized organization, we want to minimize unnecessary gatekeeping. We’ll only have a vetting process to ensure that the candidate is fit to represent the DAO. Payments are done retroactively on a bounty basis, through Ambassador activities, so anyone regardless of credentials can have the opportunity to prove themselves.

Specification

Project Leads: Cat & Gavin Team Members: @Shift @jengajojo

Criteria to be an Ambassador

General criteria

• “Pass” a screening call where we verify that they are who they say they are
• Conservational level of English (don’t have to be good, but they have to be able to communicate with us)
• Able to submit a credible-looking plan for their Ambassador activities (will talk to these communities, will talk about VitaDAO at these events, etc.)
• Pass a “training” (could be recorded videos or a notion page) on VitaDAO programs

Things we especially look for

• Local connections to 1 or more of these communities: web3, academic / medical research, biohacking, venture

Payment and reimbursement

• We generally don’t reimburse Ambassadors to go to events, but we do make exceptions on a case by case basis (only for experienced Ambassadors with a track record)
• The first 3 events by an Ambassador, we will only approve a grant for expenses to host the event (no extra payment)
• The 4th event or later by an Ambassador, we provide a payment bounty -- $100 - $200 USD min. with a sliding bonus based on views and attendees -- Might also add a “referral” and commission mechanism in the future
• In the future, we will add bounties for “conversions” (e.g. new regular contributors, project application…)

Event Approval Process

Events will only qualify for reimbursements and/or payment if pre-approved by VitaDAO. VitaDAO approves events based on the DAO’s budget, strategic and community needs, the event proposal, and the Ambassador’s track records.

Implementation

Success Metrics

Intermediate metrics: number of ambassadors, number of events organized

Terminal metrics: number of active contributors gained from ambassador activities

Budget and Timeline

We propose to allocate a budget of $20k to the Ambassador program in Season 0.

$5k will be spent on the operation of the program, which includes:

• Creating an ambassador application process
• Promotion for the initial ambassadors
• Finding ambassadors in Discord and local communities, talking with them to evolve the program design to make it more attractive
• Creating presentation kits, brochures, email templates, posters, and other materials to support ambassador’s outreach and presentation efforts
• Operationalizing program activities: ambassador onboarding, meetups,…

$15k will be spent on expenses and payments to Ambassadors. This will allow us to facilitate hosting 5-8 in-person events worldwide, and facilitate digital outreach to ~30 communities.