Term 5 Meta-governance Working Group Special Election

DAO-Wide
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Status Active Voting
Voting Live on Snapshot

Background

Following the resignation of Alex Van de Sande (avsa.eth) from his position as Meta-governance steward, and in accordance with Working Group Rules Section 7.3, we are initiating a special election process to fill the vacant steward position.

Timeline

The special election process will proceed as follows:

Nomination Window:

  • Start: November 2, 2024 at 09:00 UTC
  • End: November 5, 2024 at 09:00 UTC (72 hours)

Voting Period:

  • Start: November 5, 2024 at 09:00 UTC
  • End: November 10, 2024 at 09:00 UTC (120 hours)

Transition:

  • The elected steward will assume responsibilities on November 11, 2024 at 09:00 UTC (16:00 Bangkok time)

Term Duration

While this special election occurs close to our regular December election cycle, the Working Group Rules require us to fill this vacancy. The elected steward will serve for the remainder of the current term, which ends December 31, 2024. They are welcome to nominate themselves for the upcoming regular election if they wish to continue serving.

Nomination Process

Step 1: Forum Post

Reply to this post with the following information:

  • Link to Snapshot: (fill this in after Step 2)
  • Preferred Name and/or ENS name:
  • Forum username:
  • Twitter profile link (optional):
  • Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?
  • Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

Step 2: Snapshot Creation

Create a Snapshot vote in the ENS WG Steward Nomination space HERE. Select “New Proposal” and use the following template:

Title Format: [Meta-Governance] Nominate [your preferred name or ENS name]

Body: Copy and paste your forum reply from Step 1

Vote Timing:

  • Start: November 2, 2024 at 09:00 UTC
  • End: November 5, 2024 at 09:00 UTC

Note: Snapshot will use your current timezone. Please convert 9am UTC to your local time when creating your proposal.
For reference: 9am UTC = 5am ET / 2am PT / 10am BST / 11am CEST

Step 3: Gather Support

You must receive 10,000 votes supporting your nomination on Snapshot during the nomination window (November 2-5) to be eligible for the election ballot. This process serves mostly as a sybil defense mechanism.
*All delegates should seek to endorse any known nominees.

Technical Requirements

Forum Access

You must have write-access to all categories in the governance forum to submit your nomination. If you need access, you can submit the Participant Request form. For access issues, contact 5pence.eth on Twitter or open a ticket in the ensdomains discord.

*With such a short timeline, please reach out quickly for any needed access to any known DAO member or steward. We’ll be watching all channels and we’ll ensure we act quickly.

Compensation

As per the ENS DAO Steward Compensation structure, Term 5 Meta-governance stewards receive a base compensation of $3,000 USD per month plus $1,000 USD per month from the working group’s discretionary allocation, for a total of $4,000 USD per month. For this special election, the position will run through December 31, 2024, covering approximately two months of service (November-December 2024, prorated for November based on start date).

Next Steps

  1. Submit your nomination following the steps above
  2. Gather support (10,000 signed votes) before November 5, 2024 at 09:00 UTC
  3. Be prepared to answer questions from the community
  4. If elected, plan to transition into the role on November 11, 2024

Questions and Support

If you need help with any part of the nomination process or have questions about the special election, please comment below or contact 5pence.eth on Twitter or open a ticket in the ensdomains discord.

Operational Note

During this transition period (November 1st-11th), the Meta-governance Working Group will endeavor to defer any non-critical decisions or transactions until the new steward is seated. This aligns with our commitment to full working group participation in governance decisions. Any urgent matters that arise during this period will be transparently communicated to the DAO.

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Hey @5pence.eth, thanks for the post and leading the MG stewards through this transition.

Overall I think it’s tricky timing and my first thought would be; can the MetaGov working group operate without a third steward for the remainder of this term? Given @AvsA post and the commitment of “I will attend metagov calls as only a listener unless I am asked otherwise” and “I do not wish to risk any issues with the Metagov multisig not having enough signatures so I will make myself available to sign transactions” I wonder if @5pence.eth and @estmcmxci would be able to lead metagov without a third seat. Primarily because of the timing going into Devcon followed by the holiday season, I wonder if any new MetaGov steward will be able to onboard and start contributing meaningfully before the term is finished?

I know there are DAO and working group rules that state a interim election should take place but considering the timing, I wonder if it makes sense to forgoe this stipulation?

As an alternative to the MetaGov WG stewards continuing with one human down, I’m also happy to nominate myself as a steward. I’m planning to nominate myself as a MG steward in the next term so happy to put my name forward now to contribute if we think it’s beneficial for the DAO!

EDIT: After seeing @nick.eth’s post and proposal we’ve decided to not continue through to the next stage of our nomination, and instead vote for Nick.

FireEyes and I fully support Nick in this transitionary period for the MetaGov stewards.

During next term’s election, FireEyes is incredibly excited to participate and look forward to making a clear case for our (and my) role as a MetaGov Steward for 2025! :seedling:

Link to Snapshot: N/A see above
Preferred Name and/or ENS name James.eth
Forum username: James
Twitter profile link (optional) x.com

Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?

After participating in the DAO since launch as a delegate and contributor, this Working Group role represents a continued effort to further ENS. By joining as a Steward I will be focusing on a number of key action points:

  • Ensure that the spending & budgeting from all working groups, service providers, labs, the DAO and the endowment are reasonable and have consistent reporting.
  • Promote a focus on DAO service providers that are high impact, empowering continuous contribution and innovation from ENS.
  • Examine the current endowment structure and fee model.
  • General focus on the MetaGovernance of ENS - ensuring that we’re making the best decisions possible!
  • Bringing in wider FireEyes contributors to act as a resource to the MetaGov WG in whatever ways possible!

Any other information you wish to share with Delegates (e.g. potential conflicts or existing engagements)

FireEyes is a delegate for ENS but has no other conflicts or existing engagements.

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Thank you for your leadership here @5pence.eth and for respecting the rules that govern the DAO.

Your swift reaction to the situation demonstrates your commitment to the ENS DAO and decentralized governance at large. We appreciate you!

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Thanks @katherine.eth

@James - I appreciate the pragmatic suggestion regarding timing - it’s not illogical. But I think in this case we should follow the rule text for a couple reasons:

  • The Working Group Rules are explicit about filling vacancies, and maintaining strict adherence to these rules, even when inconvenient, sets important precedents for the future of the DAO.

  • While avsa has graciously offered continued support, having a properly elected steward with full legitimacy and responsibility is important for governance integrity.

Which leads me to mention: we’ve been considering putting forth a list of amendments to the working group rules for consideration. Nothing major, just small operational things that have come up over the last year. If we want to re-write the response to resignations for future terms, we could include that for discussion.

I’d love to have your, or any of the delegates’, participation in that amendment process. We can open that discussion as soon as this election closes.

Regarding the immediate timeline and onboarding - we recognize these challenges and will work to ensure smooth knowledge transfer even with the holiday season approaching.

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  • Link to Snapshot: Link
  • Preferred Name and/or ENS name: nick.eth
  • Forum username: nick.eth
  • Twitter profile link (optional): @nicksdjohnson

Why do you want to be a Steward of this Working Group?

I have previously served as a Meta-Gov working group steward from inception up until the beginning of the current term, when I stepped down. I would be glad to step up and take responsibility for filling this seat until the end of the current term, in order to facilitate the smooth operation of the DAO.

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[Meta-Governance] Nominate by SpikeWatanabe.eth

Snapshot endorsement link

:green_circle: Preferred Name: SpikeWatanabe.eth

:green_circle: Forum username: SpikeWatanabe.eth

:green_circle: Twitter Profile: @spikewatanabe

Why do you want to be a Steward of this working group?

I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into building my reputation within ENS community as honest and hardworking person. Moreover I have necessary qualifications to excel as MetaGov steward. This is a very exciting opportunity and I’m taking it very seriously. To me this work has many angles - it is a very interesting challenge, opportunity to make an impact and do something meaningful, learn a lot in the process and build the cornerstone infrastructure project within universe of blockchain. Having worked at Avantgarde finance as DAO relations manager I had an opportunity to observe some of the best governance practices around. I will be looking to apply those lessons to ENS governance to build better more efficient DAO.

I intend to apply for MG Steward position during the upcoming annual elections, in the meantime I will be happy to support the team to ensure governance continuity.

Please consider my candidacy. I’m available to discuss any questions on twitter or forum and will be happy to talk you through any points.

Credentials

  • Top tier Economics education - University College London

  • Experienced investment banker - worked in a number roles in auditing, private equity and financial consulting companies (combined value of projects where I participated in execution exceeds 1bn USD)

  • Completed year of study in coding School 42 to better understand development process

  • Wrote regular column in major news agency, notable publications including interview with Gavin Wood and coverage of Devcon 4

  • OG Blockchain markets - began my early mining experiments in 2016

  • 2018-2020 built investment fund focused on blockchain assets – conducted in depth research into protocols, nature of consensus and tokenomics // designed pitchbook and marketed fund to investors

ENS highlights

  • ENS OG, first .eth name registered in 2018

  • Volunteer support pre token issuance in discord chat for 6 months July 2021 – Dec 2021

  • Delegate with 11K voting power 100% of which was acquired organically from small token holders appreciating my help as support volunteer. Initially during token issuance event my voting power stood at 60K, gradually decaying over time as people were selling their tokens. 11K is a very “dry” measure of support provided to me by over 1000 users (Tally profile)

What I’m looking to bring to the table

  • Strong work ethics – as investment banker I was trained to be diligent, pay extreme attention to detail and be committed to the task no matter the hours and effort required

  • Integrity – I hold myself to high ethical standards: during my previous line of work as someone who was regularly given access to sensitive information it is naturally a basic requirement to be a person of integrity. I demonstrated to ENS community that I’m an honest person during my six months tenure as support volunteer

  • I’m “blockchain finance savvy” and will have no problem building working relationship with Karpatkey. I was interviewed by KK in the past, they grilled me intensively via interviews and case study

  • Project management – running extremely complicated projects under a very tight constrains both time and human resources wise taught me how to execute workflow efficiently

  • Intersection of expertise – I’m uniquely positioned to be a useful MetaGov steward as I’m situated at the intersection of “fiat” and “blockchain” worlds. Even though I’m not a lawyer by training, but bankers are also required to be able to align “economic” substance with legal documents. Proof reading share purchase agreements, making sure that contracts do not contradict broad legal framework are just some of the tasks I had to face. In that capacity I will able to assist in building DAO Bylaws

Global goal

:bulb: Ideally what I would like to see is to transform ENS DAO into something similar to public company in terms of disclosure, efficiency and audit practices. I can clearly see that the intent to do this is present, because there is a lot of disclosure already available. The problem is that it’s scattered all over the place and it is relatively difficult for an “outsider” to put it all together. The goal here is build an annual report, which would be similar to what public companies do.

This document will not carry any legal repercussions with it, as blockchain space is largely unregulated, however there is nothing stopping ENS DAO from self imposing highest standards of accountability. This work will increase transparency and add credibility to ENS DAO in the long run as well as set precedent for other DAOs.

We are looking to onboard several billions of people, for that to happen they need to understand what ENS is. I’m ideally positioned to execute this vision as in my previous line of work I would usually be situated at the intersection of all aspects of project be it legal, financial or managerial.

Thank you!

Spike

:v:

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I was considering nominating for this election, but after seeing Nick’s post, I prefer to support him. It’s not ideal to run and compete for one seat in a two-month term.

Anyway, I’m excited to nominate as a metagov steward in the election for next term.

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This special election is now live on Snapshot at this link.