Finance Squad Proposal

[Ricktik6]

Hi @lee0007,

First of all, feedback is definitely a good thing and don’t worry to be critical about transparency.

I would also like to make clear that everything that I receive reward wise is decided and approved by @AlexClay, so it is not that I am allocating things randomly to myself. (Alex assigning is definitely something that I want in terms of segregation of duties, as I know that is necessary from my accounting background)

In the above mentioned proposal we elaborated the KPIs with their values (as was requested by the ESD).

The 5k core contributor reward consists of recurring work that needs to be done every month.
Here you will found the KPI’s that @AlexClay allocated to that: https://app.dework.xyz/an-dao/finance-squad-bounti?taskId=8cb057cb-575b-4453-897d-81a27c6b3665

Then there are additional KPI’s that we try to outsource as much as possible (such as attracting people for tokenomics and automated reporting). However, as discussed at the start of the Season, I can pick bounties up as well next to my recurring work (which is definitely efficient as we are starting up).

The 6k of bounties consists of:
As stated in previous report I worked in April most of my time on facilitating the payment process:

As previously stated the above mentioned KPI’s value are defined by @AlexClay, and the “restructuring of payment process reward” is valued at 5k. The work I have done (excluding all the meetings and talks that I had for alinging every guild on the process) can be found here https://app.dework.xyz/an-dao/finance-squad-bounti?taskId=6d5dcb8e-28a5-43d6-9957-d91fe63ca015

In addition, I wanted to introduce a $500 bounty for all @AlexClay’s effort in the Finance Squad.
We have multiple meetings during a week and he is at least 4+ hours a week contributing to the squad. Therefore, I would like to reward him (like every other contributor receives rewards for their efforts), $500 dollars for a month. He didn’t receive any payment in April, so I wanted to reward him as well $500 dollars for that month, which result in this months $1.000.

Financial transparency
What you are sharing was my first draft of 2 months ago.
Every guild is already working for 2 months with the official spreadsheet (which is everywhere available on the Notion page) that you can find as well on both monthly reports:

You can find the spreadsheet as well in the EOM reporting template.

[lee0007]

@Ricktik6

What you are sharing was my first draft of 2 months ago.

Is it my responsibility to find the correct link or your responsibility to provide it in the monthly report as was discussed in a meeting with you about the template? The link is the financial transparency requirement. Every team needs to provide this link, I have highlighted this in the EOM reporting template

You’re linking to Dework, which provides almost zero financial transparency? There is one price allocation plus a TEST showing $10 ANT (highlighted white) Nor does it help me understand what you consider 5k worth of recurring work that needs to be done every month. Nor was it part of the proposal so let’s return to the basis of the funding decision for this guild.

The above are in my understanding the S1 deliverables as you provided me with SMART_deliverables_Finance_Guild.xls correct? The S1 deliverables total $15,500 with items TBD. This was the basis for my supporting 5k per month over four months, NOT 5k per month plus >15,500 additional core contributor bounties. I trust you can help me figure this out using numbers. For financial transparency and to try build shared understanding here can you please provide an updated version of that .xls with a breakdown for every month showing your expected rewards. Including where possible those items shown TDB as we are now halfway through the season

[daniel-ospina]

There is a potential procedural issue I’d like us to explore:
I understand that @AlexClay is reviewing and approving the bounties to ensure they’re legitimate (e.g. that the team is not paying for fictitious work). At the same time, the team is paying @AlexClay $1,000 for supporting the team. Perhaps someone auditing the work of a team shouldn’t receive discretionary rewards from the same team?

For clarity, this is not a critique of @AlexClay or @Ricktik6 ethics. I’m just using this situation as an example to explore the complexities of what’s happening and perhaps suggest some process changes.

[lee0007]

ESD General Meeting Monday 18 April UTC 1900: a decision on the release of May funding request will roll over to the next ESD General Meeting Monday 13 June UTC 1900 or be decided async once necessary financial transparency is provided.

cc @fartunov @daniel-ospina

[Ricktik6]

Is it my responsibility to find the correct link or your responsibility to provide it in the monthly report as was discussed in a meeting with you about the template?

You are right, I should have added this link: S1 Financial Position - Google Sheets, my bad.

You ask fair questions and transparency is always #1 priority so lets elaborate on your questions regarding the budget allocation:

Please note: the compensation rates are based on @AlexClay previous Finance experience and set by Alex (except the advisory bounty), also to aim segregation of duties

Budget request overview
This is the original budget request overview from Finance Squad.

As always, priorities change, new deliverables will be added so it is good to revise the status of the recurring work and additional bounties.

Summary of the change → recurring bounties change from 5k to 4k & additional bounties are updated.

** This contains the time that is necessary to spent without a clear deliverable, like aligning Finance with other guilds, maintaining and coordinating reworked processes, conducting interviews for bounties, and take a role as Coordinape Facilitator to get a best practice for the DAO.

Just to be clear, a day is not 9 to 5 for me. I really like the work that I do for Aragon and I am really motivated to build and shape the Finance “department”. Therefore I am working approx 10-12 hours a day and even on the Saturday mornings.

The additional bounties function to attract new talent and get deliverables done. Every bounty is discussed with @AlexClay and based on his expertise he ultimately decides if we open the bounty up for new talent or that I should pick it up in terms of efficiency.

P.s. the bounty of 5k that is in May’s report is build from the work that I have done in April and May. So in my reward payout will average out in 6k a month (3k April / 9k May).

[lee0007]

Here is what was proposed and the basis of the funding agreement

Role Definitions

The finance guild will follow the proposal set out below for reward distribution.

• Core Contributor(s) – Someone who will take on a first POC within the squad. The person in core contributor role will have the ability to play activating roles within the squads.
• Pool: A reward pool to be allocated via coordinape for the completion of important and ongoing tasks
• Bounties: A pre-defined allocation towards currently undefined bounties that will allow ops to be nimble and attract talent or fund action that supports effective operations of the AN DAO

Funding Summary

S1 Finance Priorities

Agreement

Can @AlexClay @Ricktik6 please indicate if we can agree on the following points

1. @Ricktik6 is a core contributor titled Finance Coordinator Y/N
2. Finance Coordinator compensation was 5k per month, 20k S1 Y/N
3. The team presented [SMART_deliverables_Finance_Guild.xls] this is the copy I downloaded via DM (SMART_deliverables_Finance_Guild (1).xlsx - Google Sheets) as also shown in the proposal Y/N
4. Bounty funding is allocated to undefined bounties Y/N

Clarification

Q1 @AlexClay @Ricktik6 what EXACTLY did you propose the Finance Coordinator would be doing if NOT delivering on the S1 Priorities?

Justification

In order to justify the complete lack of financial transparency in this months report specific to bounty reward for May it appears you guys are now proposing ??? that the only defined function of the Core Finance Coordinator is recurring work (estimated 8 days per month) to ensure contributors are paid. And that every other S1 priority should attract additional bountu funding ???

Fairness

• You are asking 4k for 8 days (max 80 hours) of recurring work focused solely on reward payments and requisite contributor coordination and reporting. 4k the equivalent of what we pay @anukriti10 @lion917 for one month (minimum 120 hours) on the equal mission critical DAO operations.

• You indicate a season 1 Finance report should be rewarded 33% higher than the maximum 3k available to successfully funded proposal authors

Q2: @AlexClay @Ricktik6 Do you think others would agree that this role is a significantly higher value than their efforts?

Concerns

@fartunov Can you tell me just from this document what 6 bounties were paid to growth contributors in May? Because it is completely opaque to me

@Ricktik6 how much time are you spending each month explaining to people how to complete a contributor reward process that provides no financial transparency on contributor reward allocation?

These ongoing, repeated effort to align - via multiple communication methods - to understand what’s going on with Finance is not sustainable, efficient or effective. Sorry Rik I do not see you operating at a level of $500 per day that would attract USDC $50+ per hour given

• the lack of financial transparency in this month report
• lack of financial transprency here
• lack of understanding of funding allocation - just this week - #30 here here and above.

I am concerned that you do not yet understand the purpose (financial transparency & efficiency) of the finance role. I worry that you are focused on the wrong types of tasks and that @AlexClay is not providing the level of support/advice required. I understand why but as a result, it is routinely costing me hours per month to provide guidance that should come from Alex.cc @b3n

Props

I also recognise your ongoing efforts and the huge difference your help must make for @AlexClay . I trust your ability within the finance role, provided the right focus. I commend your commitment and see the great way that you operate within the DAO. We are lucky to have your talent onboard Rik.

Reporting on Deliverables Required

You deserve at least 5k per month and my recommendation as it was to @lion917 is work smarter not harder. Reduce your time on tasks proposals and in meetings that don’t help you drive your proposed deliverables.

At 5k per month we need to backpay you for April and I am happy to pay additional bounties where they were NOT defined in the S1 proposal approved for funding (based on stated deliverables)

Rather than a justification and a new proposal of how this role should be funded ESD needs a report that clarifies the status of S1 deliverables. Here’s a working example of the report we need from you which I have edited for clarity based on what I agreed to fund.

If you could complete the report STATUS for May then we have the information required to sign-off on reward payment. Report for ESD purposes should be as simple as copy pasting the proposed deliverables 1) advising status 2) additional deliverables and 3) funding requestd (total core flexible bounties w link to xls)

Priority	Deliverables	~ days	S1 Reward	Due Date	STATUS
Monthly Recurring
1	Contributor reward payments	3	$1,500	15th	Delivered
1	Income and expense report	2	$1,000	16th	Delivered
1	Restructuring reward payment processes	4	$5,000	Monthly	In Progress
1	Maintain and coordinate reworked process	1	$500	Monthly	In Progress
Projects
1	S1 report	8	$4,000	15 Aug	?
2	Payment reconciliation form	1	$500	31 May	?
2	ANT on L2 analysis	4	$2,000	30 June	Priority June
2	ANT exchanges up-to-date (CMC data)	2	$1,000	30 June	Priority June
Core Reward	Finance coordinator pro rata per month	-	$5,000	-	-
Bounties
2	Standardized payment process for Sub DAOs	TBD	TBD	TBD	?
2	Automating reports	TBD	TBD	TBD	?
3	Tokenomics	TBD	TBD	TBD	?
3	Yield / location of LP	TBD	TBD	TBD	?

Now having had to dive deeper in to finance and the S1 rewards allocated I am concerned that multiple contributors are underfunded and wonder if anyone was took responsibility to help people set realistic time boundaries and compensation S1 and who will be responsible moving forward @b3n @AlexClay We need a minimum viable income proposal to better fund and ensure equality for DAO contributors @daniel-ospina can we build on your work for this

[fartunov]

To clarify, my proposal during the ESD call was to clarify as part of the Office hours on 6th of June a @Ricktik6 is one of the regulars to attend.

The need for so much back and forth with table pasting is a clear process failure. At this point, it looks like Rick is having to spend half of his time justifying getting paid. This is happening in other guilds as well. The idea of the monthly reporting is to highlight deliverables, identify blockers and direct ESD attention. The working spaces (Notion and DeWork) would ideally be structured so that anyone can easily find what is the guild doing and how are tasks, and responsibilities progressing. TLDR - let’s talk on Monday to clarify where is the disconnect coming from and how can the process be fixed so this does not keep happening.

Speaking of marginally useful work - The monthly PDF with a commentary does not seem particularly valuable - unless it is an auto-populated template that takes you half a day to put together I suggest we improve the information discoverability and structure so the production of the report is not needed.

[Ricktik6]

Thank you for your input @fartunov !

Lets indeed re-align on the aforementioned processes.

Unfortunately I can’t make the ESD office hours Monday evening due to private reasons.

Renee and I are aligning next Wednesday 10 am UTC +2, would be great if you could join as well.

If not, we can look for another time slot within next week, I am flexible in regards of time.

[Ricktik6]

As discussed, @AlexClay will respond to your questions and remarks to outline the segregation of duty.

A new overview was asked without the amount of days as it is just an indication but not accurate.

Therefore, I added a new tab in your working example.

For transparency reasons I post the tables also below:

** This contains the time that is necessary to spent without a clear deliverable, like aligning Finance with other guilds, maintaining and coordinating reworked processes, conducting interviews for bounties, and take a role as Coordinape Facilitator to get a best practice for the DAO.

[AlexClay]

This will be crucial for the main DAO proposals to decide on who clears the KPIs as delivered going forwards. For ESD Proposals we have the ESD proposals.

Hopefully the table above provides some clarity. The assumption was that we were working on bounties and not a fixed amount each month which I think is where the confusion has come. Hope this is clear now.

As for the other points think these can be cleared up in a couple of calls.

[lee0007]

My position is 5k per month back paid for April, plus any additional bounties “currently undefined” in the original proposal. This is based on the fact that the originally funded proposal includes

• A definition of bounties in the opening statement for DAO Finance Guild that specifies bounties as “currently undefined”, a definition then applied across multiple S1 proposals
• A table showing the Finance Contributor was to be compensated 5k per month.
• S1 deliverables provided in SMART_deliverables_Finance_Guild (1).xlsx - Google Sheets
• S1 deliverables stated to be delivered within the S1

@Ricktik6

Discrete deliverables

• 15th of June (2nd payment cycle), start initiating the first payments via the Polygon chain
• 15th of August (after last payment cycle), deliver an overarching AN DAO S1 Finacne Report, which provides an overview of the financial status of AN DAO, a look back on S1 and an outlook to S2 (will be rated by the community and aim for 8/10)

I would not have agreed to fund a finance squad without an S1 Financial Report within the core remit. Had this proposal presented as 5k per month funding focused solely on contributor rewards, my decision would have been as per both the data insights and learning proposals that were denied S1 funding,

@lee0007

strongly encourage the DAOOps team @anukriti10 @lion917 to fund a S1 bounty or coordinape circle to continue work

It would be unfair and biased of me to treat this proposal any differently. @Sixto5 has been a long term, core and committed contributor to this DAO he delivered fully on his team’s S0 proposal and it was personally disappointing to have to get him that security of ongoing funding.

The absence during S1 funding process of multiple leaders is still proving itself @Ricktik6 this is absolutely no reflection of you and the clear contribution you make to this DAO, it is about fairness and my mandate to assess deliverables. I have advised as much as possible on what I assessed as deliverables

Apart from the fact, the May report is still missing the financial transparency link the rest is easy to approve funding for just NOT as you have requested. I repeat, I will agree to 7k plus bounties - any work that was undefined in the original proposal - which currently appears to be

• expense request process $500
• coordinape facilitator $ ?
• other, does not include meetings or coordination activity

@daniel-ospina and @fartunov may be willing to release funding as requested so the decision is theirs to make and will set the precedent for the remainder of the funding available under this proposal.

[Ricktik6]

Hi Renee,

Thank you for your response and the alignment session that we had yesterday.

As discussed Alex and I were not planning to bounty everything out in the beginning of the season, but this emerged due to miscommunication.

To prevent miscommunication in the future we agreed to do more often an alignment session, as this back and forward takes valuable time for us both.

As discussed yesterday, lets solve this to create more transparency.

For the remainder of the season there is a fixed 5k reward per month for @Ricktik6 as Finance Coordinator.

Additional bounties - any work that was undefined in the original proposal @AlexClay
(new bounties can be added during the season if priorities change)

I have updated the above mentioned May report (S1) as well. (see post 26th of May)
@fartunov @daniel-ospina

@Ricktik6

May Report (S1)

@lee0007 @fartunov @daniel-ospina

[lee0007]

1/3 Approved cc @fartunov @daniel-ospina

Thank you @Ricktik6 for working to find shared understanding here. You have my full support for 5k base + bounties + retroactive rewards.

@Ricktik6

Funding Request

• USCD 90% Total: $8.685,00
• ANT 10% Total: $965,00
• Amount Contributor rewards $7.000,00 (5k May + 2k back payment April)
• Amount Coordinape Rewards: $150,00
• Amount Bounty Rewards: $2.500,00 (Including back payment of providing guidance April)

Sorry to be so picky on financial details but can I request some formatting edits for precision please

Add TOTAL funding to the reported funding request = 9650 correct
Format funding request $0000 sans decimals or commas

Q: Should we expect the coordinape facilitator work to be recurring 1500 per month? Is that an ongoing bounty amount shown completed just for May? And if recurring would you expect this cost to reduce as teams become more practised in the use of coordinape?

[Ricktik6]

Fair points, adjusted the format (also on every tab in the spreadsheet)

Expect to spend less time as a Coordinape Facilitator each month, so also a reduction in the bounty each month @AlexClay

[fartunov]

2/3 Approved!

Thank you for fixing the sheets - it’s much easier to navigate now!

[Ricktik6]

Finance squad June Report (S1)

@lee0007 @daniel-ospina @fartunov

Deliverables

Monthly core contributor reward payments June (Complete / On going)
Monthly income and expense report, June (Complete / On going)
Monthly contributor reward report, June (Complete / On going)
Maintain and coordinate reworked processes (Complete / On going)
Implementing weekly bounty holder payments with DeWork (Completed / will start in July)

Additional bounties - any work that was undefined in the original proposal

Bounty info:
Link to the DeWork board: https://app.dework.xyz/an-dao/finance-squad-bounti
“Opening” bounties will be published on the DeWork Finance board, this week.

Funding Request

• Total requested $8.650
• USCD 90% Total: $7.785
• ANT 10% Total: $865
• Amount Contributor rewards $5.000
• Amount Coordinape Rewards: $150
• Amount Bounty Rewards: $3.500

For more details on the payments see: S1 Financial Position - Google Sheets

[lee0007]

1/3 approved @Ricktik6
Is the parcel bounty reward shared across how many people “Rik & the parcel team” interested to hear how the implementation lift is being split. How are people selected for the TBD roles? Open bounty, I’d like to recommend someone from llamaDAO for the DAO treasury management bounty

[Ricktik6]

The “& Parcel team” is to indicate that we collaborated with the team to implement it (not that we are doing everything by ourselves), think about getting a demo and responses on questions. It was not indicated to split @AlexClay.

Bounties will be open for everyone to apply, so also someone from llamaDAO!

[daniel-ospina]

2/3 approved @Ricktik6

[Ricktik6]

Finance squad - End of the Season Report (S1)

@lee0007 @fartunov @daniel-ospina

Initial Funding

• Deliverable Funding $20,000
• Bounty Funding of $22,000

Final Expenditure

• $20,000 Deliverable funds spent (full amount)
• $12,000 Bounty funds spent with 13 bounties
• $ 1,150 Coordinape funds spent on 2 epochs
• $ 360 In expenses
• Total: $33,510 spent of $42,000 (80%)

Original Deliverables

• 100% timeliness to compile all payments, prepare, sign and execute routine financial transactions by the 15th of the month 2100 UTC +0 - Complete - Continuous

• 100% timeliness of monthly income / expense report posted to forum by the 15th of the Month 2100 UTC +0 - Complete - Continuous

• 1st of May, define contributor reward payment and reporting process - Complete

• 1st of May, deliver visualisation of token flow to aid transparency into the grants funding rated 8/10 or higher by community polling - Complete (without the rating)

• 15th of June (2nd payment cycle), start initiating the first payments via the Polygon chain - Complete

• Prepare an overview of all contributors per guild (and their addresses) within a week after the guild is approved for funding by ESD (to get contributors paid in time) - Complete

• 1st June, Deliver the Finance notion page, that will be rated by the community on: transparency, easy to understand, helpful (aim for 8/10 at community polling) - Complete (without rating → results of DAO survey are not yet in @Fabs )

• 1 July, Initiate the necessary change in the Charter, to increase efficiency in the payment process - Complete

• 15th of August (after last payment cycle), deliver an overarching AN DAO S1 Finance Report, which provides an overview of the financial status of AN DAO, a look back on S1 and an outlook to S2 (will be rated by the community and aim for 8/10) - In progress and will be posted on the 15th

Additional deliverables

(see bounties Finance Squad | Dework)

• Implementing a new payment tool - Complete

• Wrapping BTC research - Complete

• Implementing expense request process - Complete

• Build an autonomous reporting process - Complete

Deliverables/Initiatives Not Executed

• Every Continuous & Discrete deliverable is complete

Bounties

• Advisory & Guidance (April - May - June - July) - @AlexClay - Complete

• Coordinape Facilitator (May - June - July) - @Ricktik6 - Complete

• Treasury manager (July) - @Hammad1412 - Complete

• Shadow Accounting Bounty (July) - @andrewfowl - Complete

I would like to thank the ESD for their trust and the good collaboration in S1. I also would like to thank @AlexClay for his great input during the weekly meetings. It is awesome to see that we started to expand the team at the end of the Season, and I am looking forward to collaborate more with @Hammad1412 & @andrewfowl in S2.

S1 Financial Position