Governance Process for Community-Initiated Projects

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Initiating the Process

Any member of the Forefront Community who holds 100 $FF may initiate the governance process by submitting a Project Pitch in the Discord #governance channel.

For large-scale projects, a minimum of three (3) active project members must be signed on to the Project Pitch. Only one of the team members needs to hold the 100 $FF.

At this early stage, the Project Pitch need only be a concise one-pager that sets

General Scope of the project idea
The sponsoring team member(s), with larger-scale projects requiring three active members
The relevant expertise / experience of the sponsoring team
Brief description of how/why the project will further a specific existing DAO Strategic Priority. (Current DAO Strategic Priorities may be seen here.)
Rough estimation of budget, including major cost components and estimated total requested

Access the Initial Project Pitch Template here.

1st Stage Review

Once a draft Proposal for a community initiated project is submitted, it will be reviewed by the Core Team to confirm a clear alignment to an existing DAO Strategic Priority.

If an alignment is confirmed, the proposal will move to Pathway 1. If unconfirmed, the Core Team may recommend that the project sponsors seek funding from Pathway 2 or Pathway 3 (tbd).

Pathway 1 - Alignment with Existing DAO Priorities

Next, the proposal will be assessed on whether the further development of a budget is straightforward. Does the instigating sponsor/team have the needed expertise and/or context to scope a reasonably accurate, comprehensive budget?

If the budget development is straightforward, the proposal will continue on to Governance Process (A).

If budget development is unclear, the proposal will continue on to Governance Process (B).

Governance Process A: Budget Development is Straightforward

To qualify for Governance Process (A), a clear budget has already been established or its development is straightforward. (For instance, the DAO or the sponsoring team has developed similar projects in the past and thus the budget costs may be reasonably estimated based on past experience.)

Next, the sponsors will be asked to draft a fleshed out Proposal containing all information below.

Proposal Requirements

A reasonably accurate, comprehensive budget is scoped.
A “Global” compensation number for all Team members, with the distribution up to the Team to manage.
- When possible, payment shall be disbursed in increments, ie, per product or per month.
- In each payment instance: 50% shall be paid upfront, and the remaining disbursed upon delivery of approved work product.
Project has a clear value proposition.
Project has a clear value-flow relationship to Forefront, ie, the proposal makes clear how FF will recoup its investment
Project has a clear Go-to-Market strategy
Proposed team has leadership, expertise and where applicable, community support to execute.
Proposal has defined, incremental OKRs that roll up into existing Season 2 OKRs for DAO Circles or Working Groups.
- Continued funding will generally be dependent on meeting these incremental milestones (with exceptions to be determined at the discretion of Core Team).
- Continued funding is also contingent upon the team’s transparent, regular reporting to DAO.
If the requested funding is needed for a time-sensitive event, the complete Proposal should be submitted for review at least 14 days prior to the time-sensitive event.

Governance & Voting Framework

The governance & voting framework will differ depending on the total amount of funds being requested.

Community Projects requesting less than $5000

Core Team Review. There will be an initial review of the final proposal by a Core Team member or Circle Coordinator.
a. In the future, this initial review will be progressively decentralized to a dedicated Committee or Working Group.
Phase 1 Discord Voting. After passing the initial review, the proposal will then be shared with the DAO community.
a. There will be a 3-day voting period on Discord, with the polling happening in a dedicated and token-gated #governance channel.
b. DAO community members must hold 100 $FF to have access to the polling channel and to vote. Each member can either vote Yes or No.
i. Members who vote “No” are encouraged to share their feedback in the proposal feedback channel.
c. The proposal passes if objections do not surpass 10% of total $FF tokenholders, with tokenholders defined as Forefront Discord members holding at least 100 $FF.
d. If a Proposal does not pass, it may be revised and resubmitted for governance approval up to two (2) additional times within a Season. Re-submissions must go through the entire governance process again, starting with Core Team review.

Community Projects requesting more than $5000

Core Team Review. There will be an initial review of the final proposal by a Core Team member or Circle Coordinator.
Phase 1 Discord Voting. After passing the initial review, the proposal will then be shared with the DAO community.
e. There will be a 3-day voting period on Discord, with the polling happening in a dedicated and token-gated #governance channel.
f. DAO community members must hold 100 $FF to have access to the polling channel and to vote. Each member can either vote Yes or No.
i. Members who vote “No” are encouraged to share their feedback in the proposal feedback channel.
g. The proposal passes if objections do not surpass 10% of total $FF tokenholders, with tokenholders defined as Forefront Discord members holding at least 100 $FF.
h. If a Proposal does not pass, it may be revised and resubmitted for governance approval up to two (2) additional times within a Season. Re-submissions must go through the entire governance process again, starting with Core Team review.
Phase 2 Snapshot Voting. After passing Phase 1 Voting, the proposal will then go onto Snapshot for a vote.
a. Quorum: Minimum 5% of all currently circulating $FF must vote, and
b. Threshold: 65% or more of voting members must vote YES.

Post-Approval Work Process

The community-initiated projects shall aim to work autonomously to the furthest degree possible. Participating team members are not formal FF contributors.

The project must meet or exceed monthly targets (Key Results) to continue to receive funding.

Team KRs can be modified only with Core Team sync. If KRs need to be continually modified, this indicates a level of uncertainty/risk that may necessitate moving the Project to the Wraith Works Pathway (Pathway 3, tbd). Alternatively, the DAO may discontinue funding.

Reporting obligations must be met on a monthly basis, at minimum. The Team Steward/Lead is responsible for submitting a monthly report that tracks progress and activities against the metrics (Key Results) listed in the Project Proposal.

There will be no Reflection Epoch/bonus for Community-initiated Project teams.

Possible outcomes

The possible outcomes for a Community-initiated project team:

a. Team becomes a sub-DAO.
b. Team becomes a formal DAO Working Group.
c. The Project is discontinued.

Governance Process B: Budget Unknown

If a community-initiated proposal does not have a clearly defined budget, it will go through the following Governance Process.

Proposal Requirements

First, the Sponsoring team must draft a fleshed out proposal that contains all the information below:

A “Global” compensation number for all Team members, with the distribution up to the Team to manage.
- When possible, payment shall be disbursed in increments, ie, per product or per month.
- In each payment instance: 50% shall be paid upfront, and the remaining disbursed upon delivery of approved work product.
Project has a clear value proposition.
Project has a clear value-flow relationship to Forefront, ie, the proposal makes clear how FF will recoup its investment
Project has a clear Go-to-Market strategy
Proposed team has leadership, expertise and where applicable, community support to execute.
Proposal has defined, incremental OKRs that roll up into existing Season 2 OKRs for DAO Circles or Working Groups.
- Continued funding will generally be dependent on meeting these incremental milestones (with exceptions to be determined at the discretion of Core Team).
- Continued funding is also contingent upon the team’s transparent, regular reporting to DAO.
If the requested funding is needed for a time-sensitive event, the complete Proposal should be submitted for review at least 14 days prior to the time-sensitive event.

Core Team - Review Draft Proposal

The Core Team will review the draft proposal.

If the project concept is not validated by the Core Team, the Core Team may recommend that the project sponsors seek funding from Pathway 3 or 4.

If the concept is validated, the proposal will move on to the next step below.

Core Team assists sponsoring team with budget development.

The Core Team can provide some assistance/counsel, but given constraints on resources/time, the sponsoring team may need to actively source additional needed expertise to develop a well-defined budget.

If the sponsoring team is unable to do this, the Proposal cannot be funded by the DAO under Pathway 1.

Once a well-defined budget has been committed to the Proposal, it may move on to the next step below.