ArbitrumDAO Off-site

Description

ArbitrumDAO Off-site

Non-Constitutional

This proposal is a continuation of the directional proposal for an offsite which was voted in favour with 130mn ARB in Snapshot: https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrumdao-off-site-directional-proposal/25660

IMPORTANT: Please vote based on the format selection. If you have concerns about the mechanism to define attendees or specific budget items (e.g. travel scholarships), please use a comment. Feel free to explain that any Tally approval vote would be conditional on XYZ. The vote I'm trying to focus it on the format selection.

Abstract

This proposal aims to enhance the alignment, communication, and collaboration among token holders (including delegates) and key stakeholders by organizing a dedicated off-site event. The DAO currently struggles with achieving cohesive strategies due to sporadic interactions and a lack of direct engagement among key participants. To address this, a structured event will be organized in Q4, focusing on strategic alignment and problem-solving sessions.

This proposal includes a delegates and key stakeholders outreach and sense-making process to prioritise the most important agenda items to be discussed at the evente, ensuring the meeting time is focused on discussing the topic and not on discussing what to discuss or how to approach it. The event will then include professional facilitation to advance alignment, remove blockers, ensure proper note-taking, and generate clear action items on the selected topics.

The success of this initiative will be measured quantitatively by the NPS given by participants, and qualitatively by the outcomes and outputs from the sessions.

The Problem

The DAO encounters multiple challenges, but a critical issue is the lack of effective communication and alignment among delegates and key stakeholders. This results in fragmented strategies and slow decision-making processes. Important decisions and proposals often suffer due to inadequate collaboration and understanding among the members.

Areas such as organizational design and strategic planning require not only well-crafted proposals but also thorough stakeholder engagement. We’re missing structured platforms for delegates and key stakeholders to engage deeply and collaboratively, leading to bottlenecks and slow and painful decision-making.

This proposal seeks to test a format for deliberation between key stakeholders with a clearly defined agenda. If successful, the format can be replicated to continuously address agenda items.

Proposed Solution

Recent initiatives like the Delegates Day by Entropy and GovHack in Brussels highlight the potential for focused events to catalyse progress. We want to build on these learnings to advance the ArbitrumDAO. The proposal includes:

1. Agenda prioritisation (pre-event strategic aligment)

• Project manager to engage with token holders, delegates, and key stakeholders, distilling concerns and topic suggestions, and facilitating converging on the agenda. Including snapshot vote for agenda and format.
• Careful planning of each session: aiming to share and agree on frameworks and approaches in advance, focusing IRL discussion on content and not format.
• Defining criteria for attendees in consultation with key stakeholders to ensure both a successful event and capture resistance for the DAO.

2. Facilitation & Workshop Organization:

• Either IRL event or Online workshops (to be decided by this vote)
• Structured facilitation process to ensure effective discussion, note-taking, and converging to action items.

3. Post workshop follow up

• Sharing a summary of the discussion & agreed action points
• Follow up with participants a month after the workshop to track progress on action items and liaison with Entropy, Foundation, and other parties to suggest next steps as appropriate.

Optional (see voting options):

• Travel and Accommodation:
  • Accommodation and catering for attendees and organisers.
  • Travel expenses for attendees not already funded by the DAO for travel expenses and not otherwise in the region (e.g. not attending DevCon nor DevCon side events).
  • Travel expenses “scholarship” available for attendees upon request and subject to approval by the event coordinator.

Timeline:

• September: proposal approval and then logistics planning and preparation.
• Event to take place during Q4, exact date depending on the snapshot vote (see below)
• Before end of Q4: Post-event reporting and follow-up.

What Does Success Look Like?

• High-quality outcomes and actionable strategies from workshops.
• Increased engagement and satisfaction among participants.
• Positive feedback and a strong desire to continue similar initiatives.

KPIs:

• 50%+ participation rate among engaged (35%+ on-chain voting rate) Top50 delegates, foundation, and off-chain labs.
• NPS of 50 or more (-100 to 100 range, 0 considered average)
• A similar initiative is organised again.

Options

3 options are proposed. Please vote for the preferred one.

IMPORTANT: the costs are not finalised but are here as an indicative so the best option can e selected. Once an option is selected we'll review the costs before moving to Tally. If you have any feedback on the costs, please share it with Daniel (@mrjackalop on Telegram) so it can be taken into account before the final onchain proposal.

Option 1: IRL version next to a major event:

• Next to DevCon Thailand, November 8th-10th.
• 2-day event: day 1 arrival and facilitated dinner light discussion. Day 2 workshops. Day 3 breakfast and departure.
• Including setup for hybrid participation (online participants supported with 360 cameras, moderator, and tech support)
• Includes 20k travel scholarships for those not already in the region

around $116k + 10k contingency

Option 2: IRL version separate from major event:

• In the most travel-friendly location for participants
• During December 2024
• 2-day event (same as above)
• Including setup for hybrid participation (same as above)
• Includes $50k travel for those not already in the region

around $156k + 10k contingency

Option 3: Online Event:

• 3-4 online sessions (half-day sessions) over 1-2 months. With the possibility of input and feedback before/after event to ensure even those not attending can participate effectively.
• During October-December 2024 (November likely skipped)

around $35k + 5k contingency.

Detailed breakdown and comparison here

Notes on budget:

• high-level calculations. The budget will be revised in more detail (by requesting a quote from providers, etc.) after a successful Snapshot vote.
• Any funds unspent will be returned to the DAO.
• Funds will be denominated in ARB for tally vote

Additional Notes

Facilitation

The opportunity cost of this meeting is easily 10x its budget, given the limited time availability of delegates and few occasions a year when they converge. As such, good facilitation makes a critical difference in ensuring the meeting is effective. The facilitation includes designing the workshops and moderating the conversation, AND thinking through how to create a strategic process for a DAO. Costs of Online facilitation might be lower than IRL. We'll confirm this before the onchain proposal, for now costs are indicative to select a direction.

Agenda

We’ve already started the process of setting the agenda. We ran a survey, answered by 29 delegates with 86mn+ ARB represented. And then ran SimScore (a collective intelligence algorithm) to cluster responses and identify the key topics. The results are presented below to encourage further discussion.

Pre-selection of topics (to be refined and prioritised after the format is defined):

• Defining strategic priorities for the DAO (vision and strategy)
• DAO Budget (how much should the DAO be spending)
• Org Design
• ARB token utility
• Conflict Of Interest
• Grant programs (RPGF, what should be the focus, outcomes, etc.)

Additional work to be done to define the agenda:

• 2 workshops and async discussion to identify root causes (root topics) and prioritise.
• The final agenda will be defined via a subsequent Snapshot vote facilitated by the project manager.

Hybrid Participation for IRL events

We’ve successfully run a company retreat with hybrid participation (online+IRL). The setup works through using 360 cameras (equipped with a special mic, they cost about $600) and having an assistant with a laptop who can also support online participants in being heard (getting a turn to speak) and managing technical difficulties. The online setup is of course less good than being IRL but it is still viable to contribute to sessions (anyone leading a session does need to be IRL but, for input in the discussion, online works).

Attendees

• Focused on high-context, expert, and senior participants. I.e. not an onboarding event.
• Open to Top-50 delegates, off-chain labs, foundation members, and top 100 ARB token holders (both in Arbitrum One and Ethereum).
• Additional attendees based on at least 20 million ARB endorsements (holders/delegates can endorse as many participants as desired).

Voting OPTIONS

Format: ranked choice

Options (due to Snapshots constraints the actual options available are shortened):

1. RL event next to major conference (with travel scholarships for those not in the region)
2. IRL event separate from major conference (with travel scholarships for those not in the region)
3. IRL event next to major conference (NO travel scholarships) IRL event separate from major conference (NO travel scholarships)
4. Online event(s)
5. I believe we shouldI drop this and dedicate attention somewhere else
6. Abstain