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YAM Re-Org Grant-001 Application (May 2022)

1. What is your name? Pseudonyms are cool too. 🥸​

Who is the point person is for the application?

@ross, @designer

2. What is your discord/telegram handle? :speaking_head:​

Discord: Ross 🍠#2221, designer#6682

3. Project Name 🏗️​

What should we call your project?

YAM Re-Org and Upgrade May 2022 Grant - a 1 month grant to do the specific scope of work outlined in question 6.

4. Project Description :thinking: (140 words or less)​

Give a summary of the project you are proposing

This project aims to build a new framework for the YAM DAO to facilitate better transparency, accountability, and permissionless-ness. It does so by developing a new process by which projects can receive funding. It will clarify the governance process, define and limit the roles of core contributors, and provide an example structure for how funded projects can be run.

5. About You 👥​

Tell us about you and your team. What experience do you and your team have that is relevant to the project. Please provide github profiles, websites, prior work, etc

The main team consists of current YAM contributors @ross, @designer, and @chilly (chilly working under another grant). Contributions from other participants during the next month’s scope of work who are not mentioned above will be noted and added to next month’s grant proposal.

All 3 of us have been working full time at YAM for the last year. We have been part of, and learned from, prior DAO work on governance, branding, and organization, and seen first hand what has worked and what has not.

Ross original proposal to contribute: https://forum.yam.finance/t/full-time-contributor-request-for-ross/1416 Designer Original Proposal to contribute:https://forum.yam.finance/t/full-time-contributor-request-for-jim-designer/1382 Chilly's information should be reviewed on his separate grant application: https://forum.yam.finance/t/yam-design-studio/1666

Reports on the work the above contributors have done in the last few months can be reviewed here by viewing their individual compensation requests/transparency reports: https://forum.yam.finance/c/compensation-requests-go-here/24

6. Project Goals and Scope 🚀​

If the project succeeds, what goals will it achieve? How do we measure that success? Please provide specific KPIs. If you are unsure of how to do this, do the best you can and we can work it out together.

The Goals of this project are to upgrade the structure of YAM for the better. We have watched as the DAO has struggled to find its purpose and has struggled to retain mindshare and contributors. We believe that the causes of this are multi-faceted, including a lack of vision around the mission of the DAO, a lack of thought and investment in the core organizational infrastructure of the DAO, an inability to enforce accountability, and confusion around management of projects.

Solving these problems is a large task to undertake and measuring success will require long term tracking. The scope of this grant proposal is to design and implement the first stages of this process to show a proof of concept, as well as educate the wider community about the changes that we are making. Over the next few months, we will work on a number of different pieces and projects that will eventually come together to provide an a complete framework of the new model as well as an example of how the DAO can use this model in the future.

We have already been working on this project for the last few months and are now ready to transition our working structure to test out the new model. You can review the prior work done by visiting https://yam.super.site and https://yam-reorg-docs.super.site

The deliverables that we intend to prepare by June 1st, 2022 are as follows:

  • We will go through the full grant process over the next month. This application is the first step.

  • We will further refine the work started in the links above that explains the changes, outlines the process, and provides templates and expectations for creating new grant/silo proposals.

  • The work done last month focused on the theory and ideological underpinnings of the changes to the DAO. This month we will focus on refining and documenting the governance structure that is required to make the DAO and grants program run smoothly including:

  • Specifying and beginning to implement the Gov-Ops Council.

  • Documenting the roles for different stakeholders in governance

  • Begin producing in-depth documentation for different parts of the governance process as proposed.

  • Further formulate and develop the secondary elements that are impacted by governance decisions (Treasury yield distribution, potential governance upgrades, etc)

This work will be added to the DAO's living documentation for those who wish to contribute in the future.

Success should be measured by the quality of these documents and their ability to explain the value of the changes that are being made. We expect this documentation to be the foundation for further development and improvement within the DAO.

7. Milestones 🪧​

What are the steps that you plan to follow to complete this project. Is it one step or multiple? If there are multiple then please list all of them.

We plan to finish and publish deliverables by early June, 2022. We expect that they may exist in a semi-finished state and will require additional work in subsequent months. The deliverables are intended to show progress to YAM token holders.

8. YAM / Ecosystem Benefit 😊​

What value does your project add to YAM and the wider ecosystem? How do we measure that benefit?

The benefit of this work to the YAM ecosystem is that it will provide the foundation for a better functioning DAO and to then test that framework. YAM contributors have been focused on building products that will bring revenue into the treasury, but we have been doing it in a haphazard way with little structure or oversight. This has lead to delays, confusion, stagnation, and an inefficient use of treasury funds. This reorganization attempts to solve the deeper issues present in the structure of the DAO that have hampered progress so far. Additionally, In using the process proposed to do the work, we are also testing its robustness for use in attracting contributors to propose grants in the future.

9. Funding Request and Breakdown 💸​

Please include the total funding amount that you need and also include a breakdown of how the funds will be used across each part of the project.

Funding Amount Requested: Total: $15,875.00, split 70% in USDC and 30% in YAM at the 30-day TWAP price on June 1st. By Contributor:

  • Ross - 30 hrs/week = 0.75 * $10,000 full time monthly rate = $7,500
  • Designer - 30 hrs/week = 0.75 * $11,166 full time monthly rate = $8,375
  • Chillzone - Scope of work will be folded under Yam Design Studio Silo and grant.

10. Other Information ❓​

Imagine you're a YAM holder. What else do you think we should know about your application?

Existing conversations and work can be followed here: https://discord.com/channels/743654257642700911/947977215029674083

Work from the prior month can be found here: https://yam.super.site/ and here: https://yam-reorg-docs.super.site/

More work and writing on the upgrade can be found here: https://yamdao.notion.site/Organizational-ideas-b0cb9399f8824d9d8b6f2c54d79a2bce

We will continue to work in public and welcome all contributions and additions. Please reach out to one of the listed contributors if you would like to help.