⚖️SpiritDAO Governance
The purpose of the SpiritDAO Governance Proposal Process ("the SDGP process") is to provide a structured process for making changes to the shared resources of the SpiritDAO Network. For these shared resources, governance processes are needed to grant or deny access and approve or reject proposed changes.
Governance Bodies
The following bodies will form part of the SDGP process and are collectively called the SpiritDAO Network, composed of a Primary DAO and Pods. Pods are customizable coordination structures where we can encode specific governance rules into the smart contracts enabling them. We leverage Hats Protocol to support the formation of Pods. For more details on how to organize pods, see this documentation.
Primary DAO
Votes to validate the community’s sentiment and then schedule for on-chain execution, enabling SpiritDAO Members to exercise direct democracy (directly propose and approve proposals of any kind) and elect members to new or existing Pods.
Primary DAO votes are considered community-wide proposals and will typically involve the strategic direction of our DAO/non-profit efforts, major financial decisions, and meta-governance proposals.
For Primary DAO votes, the Executive Pod holds the right to organize proposals as Optimistic, meaning that any individual not voting is counted as a "Yes" vote.
Pods
Pods are controlled by the Primary DAO but may operate within custom frameworks of governance. See Pod Agreements for more details about existing Pods.
Executive Director
In compliance with the legal requirements associated with operating a 501c3 Nonprofit in the United States, SpiritDAO has a formal Executive Director. This section details the responsibilities and roles of an Executive Director at SpiritDAO.
1. Position Title
Executive Director Held by: Ron Rivers as of 4/1/24
2. Membership in the Executive Pod
The Executive Director shall be a member of the Executive Pod. This membership is essential for ensuring that the Executive Director is fully integrated and aligned with the strategic direction and governance model of the DAO.
3. Appointment
The Executive Director serves at the privilege and discretion of the Executive Pod. Appointment to this role is contingent upon the consent and approval of the Executive Pod members, as outlined in the DAO's governance framework.
4. Role and Responsibilities
The Executive Director serves primarily as a figurehead for the DAO. The responsibilities of the Executive Director include, but are not limited to:
Representing the DAO in external engagements and communications, ensuring a consistent and professional presentation of the DAO's objectives and achievements.
Implementing the decisions and directions determined by the Executive Pod and the broader DAO membership.
Facilitating communication between the Executive Pod and other components of the DAO structure, ensuring that all parts of the organization are informed and aligned with the overall strategic direction.
Ensuring that the operations of the DAO comply with applicable laws and regulations pertinent to 501(c)(3) organizations.
5. Nature of the Role
The role of the Executive Director is primarily symbolic and does not entail autonomous decision-making powers. The Executive Director is expected to act in accordance with the decisions and policies established by the Executive Pod and is accountable to the Pod for carrying out the collective will of the DAO.
6. Accountability and Review
The performance of the Executive Director shall be reviewed periodically by the Executive Pod, in accordance with the DAO's standard procedures for performance assessment. This review will focus on the effectiveness of the Executive Director in fulfilling the role as a representative and facilitator within the DAO's governance structure.
Separation of Powers
Members may not be elected to leadership positions in multiple pods simultaneously.
Formation of new Pods
The Primary DAO can deploy a new Pods, be given control over an already deployed Pod, dissolve an existing Pod, or spin off a Pod as an independent DAO at any point in time.
Each Pod shall have its own operating agreement outlining, at a minimum, the responsibilities of its members, which shall be listed as an Appendix to the SpiritDAO Network Charter.
In case of conflict between agreements, the SpiritDAO Network Agreement shall prevail over any Pod operating agreement.
Pod Proposal Templates may be found within our Collaboration Hub.
Treasuries & Permissions
Community Vault: The reserve treasury of SpiritDAO. Used to fund Pods and/or to obtain yield.
Any SpiritDAO Token Holder can make proposals for Financial Proposals as described in the Financial Proposals section of this SDGP process document.
The Executive Pod is responsible for the responsible delegation of Community Vault funds to other Pods. A Primary DAO vote must approve any yield/vesting arrangements.
Community Vault: 0xF3c47077C406FeA33daD4BE498fDf03Cb5d4537f
Operations Vault: A central treasury of the SpiritDAO Network. Used to fund general operations and make strategic funding.
Any SpiritDAO Token Holder can make proposals for Financial Proposals as described in the Financial Proposals section of this SDGP process document.
And any wallet with permissions for the Executive Pod (i.e., any member of the Executive Pod) can program and delete Financial Actions in the Executive Pod as per the Executive Pod operating agreement.
Additional Treasuries:
Pods create additional treasuries under the exclusive control of the Pod (but not entirely outside the control of the Primary DAO). Pods use a lightweight permissions layer around a Gnosis Safe multi-sig wallet to create more flexible and composable working units.
Both the Primary DAO and Pods may create additional treasuries through a majority vote of SpiritDAO Token Holders (Primary) or Pod Members (Pods)
Example: SpiritDAO will provide virtual and physical utility for holders, and therefore, the operations vault may require sub-vaults in future moments.
Proposals
Note: For a abridged visual representation of the Proposal Process see How to Contribute.
Any Verified SpiritDAO Member can create a Proposal in the Primary DAO. Members may visit our Collaboration Center to view our available proposal templates and guides.
Any Pod may remove a scheduled proposal at any time (e.g., Veto right) should they have the power to do so as per their operating agreement and this Charter.
All proposals must comply with the Requirements for Proposals & the specific format and process for the type of proposal as follows:
The Requirements for Proposals:
Public deliberation: all proposals must be shared during the public deliberation phase in the SpiritDAO Forum located in our Collaboration Center and linked in the SpiritDAO Discord Server unless these services are unavailable.
Voting period: the vote must be at least 7 days.
Scheduling: once approved, proposals are executed by the Executive Pod.
Types of Proposals:
Charter Improvement Proposals: proposals focusing on the amendment or enhancement of the SpiritDAO charter.
Funding Proposals: proposals that require the transfer of funds, typically to compensate for work completed/committed to be completed.
Meta Governance Proposals: proposals that change the governance processes, parameters, or tooling of SpiritDAO.
Elections Proposals: proposals where an election has already been agreed by the community (in the SpiritDAO Charter or in a previous proposal), and the proposal aims to source the candidates/options and then launch a vote to decide between them.
Pod Proposals: proposals to fund new/existing pod operations and efforts.
Text Improvement Proposals: proposals to add new, remove, or edit content within Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis.
Other Proposals: any other type of proposal.
Process for Financial Proposals and/or Other Proposals (sequential order):
Public deliberation phase: A post with the draft of the proposal is posted in the SpiritDAO Forum for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 14 days and must follow the appropriate format. Proposals must follow the appropriate format depending on the type.
Voting: the proposal (or a revised version incorporating the community’s feedback) is posted for a vote.
For calculating voting power:
Primary DAO: 1 Membership Token = 1 Vote
Pod Voting: Voting power per membership token may in relation to merit earned.
Approval: a proposal is deemed approved and scheduled for execution if the following conditions are reached:
Support: The vote shall be deemed as “passed,” with a simple majority (>50%) of the participating SpiritDAO Token holders having voted in favor.
Primary DAO proposals intend to leverage Optimistic Governance to overcome voter apathy and organizational impasse. Any vote not cast in a specific direction (yes/no) out of the total possible votes is considered a "Yes" vote. The scope of total votes may vary for specific pods, but the Primary DAO always considers all possible votes.
Pods may also choose to leverage Optimistic Governance or require specific quorums (minimum vote amounts) for votes to pass.
When a proposal includes a code submission, the Dev Pod has up to 14 days to decide and communicate via a post in SpiritDAO Forum whether a proposal will be:
Accepted and incorporated.
Submitted to a 3rd party audit to determine its safety (conditional on the Operations Vault having the necessary funds).
Rejected as malicious, technically infeasible, or economically infeasible (if an audit is required and the Operations Vault lacks the necessary funds to cover the costs of the audit).
Process for Elections (sequential order):
Public deliberation phase: A post with the draft of the proposal is posted in the SpiritDAO forum for a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 30 days with the format:
Title of Proposal (in the format “Election Gov Proposal: [Proposal Title]”)
Description of the Action (including what permissions will be given/removed for which Pod and/or Primary DAO)
If the election is proposed before the stipulated in the agreements of the Pod, add a description of why an advanced election is needed
Optional but ideal: ETH Wallet address of the author(s) and/or other identifiers.
Sourcing Candidates: Candidates can be proposed (and/or propose themselves) by replying to the Forum post (only one candidate per post reply) in the following format:
Identifier: ETH wallet address, name, discord handle, and optional twitter handle / other identifiers
Rationale: description of why they are an ideal candidate for the position
Voting: top 10 candidates with the highest number of upvotes in the SpiritDAO Forum will be put forward to a vote.
If the election is proposed before the frequency stipulated in the operating agreement of a specific Pod (if any), the vote must also include the option to keep the current permissions even if the current wallets were not amongst the top 10 candidates.
Approval & Execution:
In the exceptional case that two proposed users gain the same number of votes, the winner will be the candidate who reaches the tied number of votes first.
Example: Candidate A and B both tied at 7 votes, Candidate A wins because it reached 7 votes a day before Candidate B. If votes are submitted in the same block, repeat the vote.
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