Authors: @mans9841, @parallacs
Summary: In order to adjust the protocol demand post-flight academy and token launch, we propose a new community management structure to suit the protocol’s short to medium-term needs as well as backpay the prior community management members post token launch until February 15, 2022.
Motivation:
The community management (18) was built around the Flight Academy in September 2021 to meet the heightened demands after the number of new members increased in discord from 5k to 40k+ in a matter of days. The jumbo community management structure was developed to meet the rising needs of keeping discord spam-free as well as welcoming the new-comers.
After token launch on January 11, 2022, the previous Community Admin, Community Managers, and Contributors held internal elections to select community management members in two categories - “Admins” and “Moderators”.
However, the new structure was dissolved on Feb 15, 2022, in mutual agreement with previous community management members. Not that the elected Admins and Moderators were inefficient, but the large structure seemed unnecessary. Discord messages decreased from many 1000s per day to a few 100s per day. Spam has gone down considerably, and community participation in quality discussions and proposals has gradually improved.
Therefore, we, mans9841 and parallacs, are motivated to present a new community management proposal to the community as well as backpay for previous community management members.
Specification & Requirements:
Key Requirements
- Optimal community management structure that is aligned to the new protocol needs of high-level community management, governance, answering technical questions re the protocol and global debt capital markets, reporting, among others.
- Backpay to previous community management members starting from the token launch event i.e. January 11, 2022, until February 15, 2022.
Specification
Estimated Stats of Community (as of 02/15/2022)
Discord Members: 44k+
Twitter Followers: 46k+
| Language | Discord | Telegram |
|---|---|---|
| Russian | 13.5k+ | 2.5k+ |
| Ukrainian | 7.2k+ | 47 |
| Korean | 1k+ | 57 |
| Japanese | 1k+ | 30 |
| Turkish | <1k | 42 |
Other language channels in discord or telegram have low participation to count
New Community Management
We propose the following roles based on the statistics above as well as our interactions with community members, including members from Warbler Labs. Each role has an owner, a set of duties and responsibilities, and expected hours. Members of the new community management structure are required to engage in asynchronous communication in Discord and meet every two weeks to casually discuss topics to community management.
Roles:
- Community Manager
- Community Moderator
- Community Ambassador (language-specific)
- Governance Champion
Community Manager (2)
Owners: parallacs, RP
Estimated hours per week each: 15
Responsibilities:
- Manage discord server, bots, channels, etc. as necessary;
- Welcome new community members in the #introduce-yourself channel;
- Manage local language ambassadors but influence without authority;
- Establish KPIs for local segments in close cooperation with Community Ambassadors (language-specific);
- Once KPIs are established, monitor and report monthly stats to the Goldfinch community;
- Work on miscellaneous community tasks, as necessary.
Community Moderator (2)
Owners: mans9841, mcegor13
Estimated hours per week each: 20
Responsibilities:
- Make sure all questions asked by the community are answered in the discord server, not limited to protocol and debt markets;
- Provide excellent community support in support channels;
- Provide support in language-specific channels when necessary;
- Work closely with Community Lead and Community Managers;
- Escalate any tough or technical queries/issues to the Warbler team;
- Work on miscellaneous community tasks, as necessary.
Governance Champion (1)
Owner: nisa
Estimated hours per week: 10
Responsibilities:
- Maintain a dashboard of governance updates;
- Announce any new governance updates in the #proposal-announcements channel;
- Facilitate proposal authors on creating snapshot voting, if necessary;
- Make sure the discourse is spam-free;
- Guide community members who are not aware of how to write a proposal;
- Number and archive proposals, as necessary;
- Suggest changes/improvements in the governance process and procedures, as necessary;
- Work closely with the community at large, including Warbler Labs;
- Work on miscellaneous community tasks, as necessary.
Community Ambassador (6)
Russian Ambassador: Eloquent, salova (10 hours per week each)
Ukrainian Ambassador: Metatron (10 hours per week)
Korean Ambassador: ky (5 hours per week)
Japanese Ambassador: Takeshi_TGAL (5 hours per week)
Turkish Ambassador: Cevinne (5 hours per week)
Responsibilities:
- Answer community questions in language-specific Discord or Telegram channels;
- Keep the Discord and Telegram spam-free;
- Translate any new Discord announcements and share them with the local community in Discord and local Telegram channels;
- Escalate any tough issues to Community Managers;
- Work closely with Community Managers to establish KPIs;
- Work on miscellaneous community tasks, as necessary.
Compensation:
Compensation for new community management members
The compensation of each member has two components - USDC + GFI. Each member has a base USDC hourly pay. To make things simple and also give community management members exposure to GFI and potentially participate in governance, the compensation of GFI is set at 25% of the monthly USDC base taking the GFI value of $3.72 (30-day trailing average as of 02-23-2021).
We propose the following USDC hourly rate - $35 for community admin, $30 for community moderator, $30 for governance champion, and $20 for community ambassador. The bonus amount of GFI is adjusted proportionally to the estimated monthly wage. The number, hours, and wage is decided based on the current community stats as mentioned above as well as discussion with community members. We are also influenced by guidelines from two protocols, namely, DXdao and Sushiswap. The proposed wage structure for each role is detailed in the sheet below:
For compensating members of new community management, we request a quarterly budget of 45,900 USDC (15,300 * 3) and 3,300 GFI (1100 * 3) to be transferred from protocol reserves/treasury to community management multisig. We propose the following members in the 3-of-5 multisig - @mans9841, @parallacs, @RP2743, @andrew, @paz. All of the members are already active in the protocol and known by the community at large. We will make an update about multisig address later and also propose to count the starting date of community management from March 1 until May 31, if the community approves the proposal. Also, to note, since February 15, some of the previous community management members have been volunteering without any pay.
We propose to make the payment twice, 50% within the first one-two weeks of the beginning of the 3-months term and the remaining 50% one-two weeks before the term ends, a condition that the proposal passes successfully. And the second payment is only to be done if responsibilities are adequately fulfilled, as determined by the members in the multisig. We also believe that renewal of community management mandate should be made possible, but the community management most likely coming up with another proposal before the end of the 3-months term, justifying the case for renewal and with or without changes as necessary.
Backpay for previous community management members
The proposed number of community management members is reduced from 18 to 11. This is a very hard thing to assess, but we believe there will be many other ways to participate in the protocol, besides community management. Also, the grants program is expected to launch within the next six months as observed in the recently posted roadmap.
The backpay has two things - base pay + variable pay. Anyone who had the status of Community Admin or Community Manager before has a base pay of 800 USDC. Others have a base pay of 300 USDC.
Variable pay depends on the number of support messages typed in the discord server and/or telegram channel as well as direct messages in discord and/or telegram. We propose to pay ~1.8 USDC + ~0.13 GFI per message discord server and/or telegram. And in order to account for direct messages, we propose a simple approach - 10% additional bonus messages to discord messages and 20% additional bonus messages to telegram messages. And to obtain total variable pay for each, multiplying the total number of messages including bonus messages at the rate of ~1.8 USDC + ~0.13 GFI. More is detailed in the sheet below:
For compensating previous members with backpay post-token launch i.e. January 11, 2022, until February 15, 2022, we request a budget of 18,861 USDC and 1,346 GFI to be transferred from protocol reserves/treasury to community management multisig as mentioned above.
Estimated Gas fees
The gas fees are estimated as of February 25, 2022. This may vary with Ethereum (ETH) price and the network effects. And so, we also propose a 25% buffer to cover up. Because of the limited liquidity of the GFI/ETH pair in Uniswap, we request USDC instead of GFI in order to swap with less slippage.
Safe/Multisig Creation: 1 time
Estimated transaction cost: $70 in ETH
USDC to ETH Swap in Uniswap: 1 time
Estimated transaction cost: $30 in ETH
Approx number of ERC-20 transfers in a 3-months term, including backpay: 81 times
Estimated cost of ERC-20 transfer: $10 in ETH
Estimated total cost: $910 in ETH
Estimated total cost + 25% buffer = $1,137 in ETH
Budget Summary
New community management compensation: 45,900 USDC + 3,300 GFI
Backpay: 18,861 USDC + 1,346 GFI
Estimated gas fees: $1,137 (to be converted to ETH)
Total to transfer to multisig: 65,898 USDC + 4,646 GFI
Benefits and Success Metrics:
Benefits
- Community members receive constant support, mentor, or guidance
- Community members remain updated about protocol statistics
- Community members remain aware of governance updates
- Community members are encouraged to collaborate and participate in governance
- Community culture of writing high-quality governance proposals
- Community members those who contributed previously are paid for the effort
How to measure success?
Measurable success metrics
- Increase in community messages in #proposal-ideas and #tradfi-lounge Discord channels (quality over quantity)
- Increase in the number of quality governance proposals by the community, besides Warbler Labs
- Increase in snapshot voting
“As-is” success metrics
- Increase in community sentiment and goodwill of the protocol, especially among TradFi mass
- Improvement of Goldfinch brand globally
Drawbacks and Risks:
We see no drawbacks in having an optimal community management structure and paying previous community management members for the deserved effort.
About Community Management Members:
parallacs - This is Ian. I have been participating in the Goldfinch project for a long time, most notable being Community Manager during and after Flight Academy. Also, I have experience in many projects as a person being engaged in helping the community to organize and develop itself. I have a master’s degree in economics and, of course, the aim of the Goldfinch project is very interesting for me from a professional point of view.
RP2743 - This is Robert. Serving as Community Manager in the very best interests of the community, I have been involved in the GoldFinch Protocol since the Flight Academy. I also have real-life experience and a proven track record in finance and general management. I have always been exposed to other cultures and diversity either through learning new languages or through traveling and working across the globe.
mans9841 - This is Manish. I have been one of the early community members of Goldfinch and also very actively participated in Flight Academy as a community admin. I have professional experience working in Nepal, UAE, and Portugal.
mcegor13 - This is Egor. I started actively participating in the Goldfinch protocol in September 2021 during the Flight Academy. While participating in the Flight Academy, I was able not only to understand the mechanics of the protocol but also actively helped manage the community as a Contributor. My interests also include research, investment, and active participation in DeFi and Web 3.0 related projects.
nisa - This is Nisa - I’m a crypto enthusiast, a strong believer in web3 and what it is trying to achieve with decentralization. I work in the IT field in my day job and learn/contribute to web3 during nights/weekends. I’m one of the early contributors to help with Flight Academy. I’m an active participant in governance discussions.
salova - I’ve been in the crypto sphere long enough, and last year I completely switched to admin and community manager functions, where I’m trying to develop further. During the first Flight Academy, I was non-stop helping users with various questions, as well as checking memes and video content, giving feedback and advice on what could be changed for the better. I also helped with translations of the whitepaper, announcements, and watched the order in the chat.
Eloquent - I’m an economist involved in research in fields of strategic management and marketing, advised brands on media planning during the last 3 years. I’ve been in Goldfinch since the beginning of Flight Academy, which I’m lucky enough to be a contributor and help a lot of great participants figure out how to work on this project. During my time at Goldfinch, I’ve studied the protocol and needs of our community, so I know where to begin to build a truly international and professional community. Will be glad to continue my work with you!
Metatron - I started studying crypto about 2 years ago. I am interested in DeFi and Metaverse. I have a banking background. I worked hard during Flight Academy contributing to community development and was lucky enough to become a contributor at GoldFinch. Together we will build a world-class community.
ky - I am Korean. I am interested in blockchain since 2017. The reason why I am interested and persistent in the Goldfinch is that I majored in economics during my university, so the conceptual idea is very cool to me. I worked hard to give community participants have deep knowledge of the world issues in finance based on translating announcements and posts from the Goldfinch. Many materials are posted in my internet café so that community members can access easily find their concerns.
Takeshi_TGAL - After working as a human resources manager at a business company, I became independent forex and stock trader. I have been a community member of Goldfinch for a long time even before the start of Flight Academy. I’ve consistently shared information and announcements of Goldfinch in the Japanese community, not limited to how to participate in the protocol and educational content within the local community.
Cevine - After graduating from art school, I moved to Turkey, where I began to study marketing. After that, I worked in a travel agency in the marketing department. For the last 10 years, I was advertising and marketing manager in one of the luxury hotels in Turkey. After getting married, I quit my job and started studying interior design and cryptocurrency for my pleasure. Since June 2021, I have been following the Goldfinch project and was happy to join the Flight Academy program which was an interesting challenge for me. At the same time, I helped with translating and moderating the Turkish community channel.
Voting:
“Yes” - Approve the new community management mandate and backpay.
“No” - Don’t approve.
Resources :
Year 2021 in retroactive (discord announcement link)
. As you could see, a high-level breakdown is also provided in “Budget Summary” if that helps. Cheers!
! This is parallacs - Community Admin.