This is great Konrad!! I’d be happy to offer up my own learnings as well:
- The Mission Guild should have been implemented and executed. The original council created a Mission Guild for the purpose of assisting CIPs through governance while keeping them reasonably “mission-aligned”. The charter did a nice job of spelling out key functions of the Mission Guild. Unfortunately, it was never implemented, and many of its original members left the DAO entirely - in some cases as soon as their council comp had been paid out or in the weeks thereafter. In other cases, members of that original mission guild decided to focus on their own external projects and interests, and in some cases, have led proposals where money has been requested to be removed from the citydao ecosystem entirely - with no strings attached, no commitments, and an expectation that CityDAO should bear all risks associated with their external proposals. Some of these proposers who were Mission Guild members have gone so far as to argue that they should be given money without even needing a legal entity or basic grant agreement. So it seems that the Mission Guild was a great idea, but the people chosen to implement it were likely not the best fit, and as a result, the Mission Guild failed to consummate.
Solution: Reinstate Mission Guild (or its functions anyway), make it an elected position, and require real accountability. You could even bridge it and use the same group as the multisig (which should also be elected anyway). It could be comprised solely of individuals who do not want to run projects or accept grants and can commit to mission-focused role only - CityDAO big-picture focused contributors who would be elected and have clear guidelines/responsibilities.
- In Person > Virtual. We need more irl time. Relationships are not built over keyboards, and trust is not built on Discord. To an extent, one major concept underpinning web3 is trustlessness - but the reality is that the teams around CityDAO have never worked as efficiently or effectively as they could have - had there been more irl time (or any at all). Anyone who has met irl through web3 knows how powerful it is for learning about one another and getting to a community-focused mindset. Its also just far too easy to be a keyboard warrior or to adopt a “troll” mindset on Discord, or to otherwise be unwilling to humanize the other party in a conversation appropriately solely through digital communications. Voice calls help but clearly do not solve for this either.
Solution: More CityDAO sponsored IRL spaces & events.
- We need to align as a community on how the next chapter of CityDAO will look. This one seems pretty self-evident but CityDAO is suffering from a disparity of opinions on what projects to pursue and how to best use DAO resources. The “what” is the MISSION and the “how” is the CORE GOVERNANCE FUNCTIONS that Konrad alluded to… As Konrad astutely pointed out above:
Solution: Convene at an event (IRL + Virtual) to align on (i) mission statement/goals/criteria for CityDAO in the big picture, and (ii) core governance issues (including CIP template and process, announcement standardization, and clarity around votes/quorum/all other key governance considerations, etc.).
No - I do not think fixing CityDAO will be “easy” - but there is nothing worth accomplishing that has ever been easy. We set out to use the resources that CityDAO pooled to make the world a better place and we are slightly off that track now. Lets get back on the right path, lets align on how the next chapter of CityDAO should be written. Lets find a path to less risky treasury sustainability than investments. If we are a grant-giving organization - lets align on the projects and manner in which grants are given, and then standardize it like Gitcoin did. If projects need to be internal and public-good building focused - lets get back to that! If CityDAO is now the startup fund for everyone’s external pet project - lets get together and agree that’s what this is… Either way - Lets get together, agree on the next chapter, and ideally, get back to using this technology and our collective energy to benefit the world, instead of bickering through keyboards! 