This RFC replaces the now deprecated RFC about the same topic.
Abstract
This proposed CGP describes the scope, engagement, and compensation of Community Leaders who are tasked with providing necessary support functions for the Connext community in an effort to keep community operations running and to monitor the completion of projects and tasks.
Motivation
With the NEXT token having launched, we propose an updated compensation structure for Community Leaders. Before the token launch, Community Leaders were compensated by Proxima Labs (formerly Connext Labs Inc.) via USDC Superfluid stream. This proposal is designed to shift the compensation into the hands of the Connext DAO as a decentralized, community-governed entity in the ecosystem.
Rationale
Community Leaders are Core Contributors to the Connext ecosystem as per the DAO Docs and focus on the areas of community management, education, user support, and marketing. As such, Community Leaders provide essential functionalities for developing and growing the Connext ecosystem. This CGP provides Community Leaders with the funds necessary to help meaningfully grow the Connext ecosystem.
Key Terms
The term “Community Leader” is an umbrella term for individuals who exercise certain roles and provide different functionalities within the Connext ecosystem. The following outlines the different roles that the umbrella term encompasses and their functions, responsibilities, and tasks.
- Community Administrators: Community members with the highest administrative power. As such, Community Administrators (CAs) provide key functions to the Connext ecosystem, such as engaging in outreach campaigns, conducting marketing initiatives, exercising community programs, ensuring the security of community outlets (such as Discord and Telegram), monitoring the performance of moderators, moderating discussions, as well as on/offboarding of other community leaders.
- Community Moderators: Community members who function as moderators are responsible for moderating community discussions and addressing support-related ticket inquiries. Additionally, moderators manage local communities.
- Community Ambassadors: Community members acting as ambassadors are responsible for creating outreach campaigns that target the sustainable growth of the Connext ecosystem and increase the reach of Connext. Some ambassadors may also engage in activities outlined for moderators.
Community Leaders have closely collaborated with Proxima Labs in building the Connext ecosystem over the last 3 years. Its members have built critical community infrastructure, played a key role in promoting Connext, handled community support, and are actively involved as multisig signers of different Connext DAO-related entities such as the security council.
The Community Admin Committee members are Andy, Grraarrgghh, Stefan, and Tommy. The group has been contributing to the Connext ecosystem as Community Leaders for more than 2 years now and has placed a strong emphasis on growth as well as building a healthy and engaged community.
Community Leaders Sub-DAO mission.
The mission of the Community Leaders as a sub-DAO within the Connext ecosystem is as follows:
- Empower highly engaged and dedicated community members to assume leadership positions in the ecosystem (as administrators, moderators, and ambassadors).
- Foster the healthy and sustainable growth of the Connext community
- Help the different entities in the ecosystem to realize the vision of Connext (building a network for secure applications that are universally accessible from any chain).
- Effectively allocate resources to initiatives and individuals that are committed to growing the Connext network.
Specifications
This CGP proposes a compensation structure that is based on the role of a Community Leader and their compensation tier. To ensure fairness and transparency, this proposal maintains the same compensation structure that was previously used by Connext Labs Inc. for incentivizing community contributors.
- Community Administrators: $400 / week
- Community Moderators: $200 / week
- Community Ambassadors: $200 / week
Incidental Contributors: Negotiable COD
Organizational Changes
At present, the fixed payment Community Leader team consists of:
- 6 Community Administrators
- 6 Community Moderators
- 1 Ambassadors
The full Community Leader team (incentivized and non-incentivized) consists of:
- 6 Community Administrators
- 18 Community Moderators
- 15 Ambassadors
We are planning to reduce the number of team members of both the incentivized as well as the non incentivized cohort based on activity levels.
After the enactment of this proposal, we expect the fixed payment Community Leader team to consist of:
- 4 Community Administrators
- 4 Community Moderators
- 2 Ambassadors
Additional Ambassadorship opportunities will be based on an Incentivized model, to be paid via the Community Treasury.
KPIs
Engagement of administrators, moderators, ambassadors, and other contributors is regularly evaluated based on a set of KPIs. The following provides an overview of what each group of Community Leaders is doing on a regular, day-to-day basis.
The following provides an excerpt of the KPIs that are used:
- Activity KPIs: Number of posts, number of replied/solved tickets (on both Discord and Intercom), amount of content written. Forum and governance voting activity.
- Engagement KPIs: Number of views, comments, replies on Twitter/Reddit/etc.
- Lead KPIs: Number of generated leads, converted leads.
- Intangibles: Contribution to internal initiatives, etc.
Objectives
The following provides an overview of the objectives of the Community Leaders for the upcoming quarter:
Maintenance
- Ensuring Discord server is moderated 24/7. Thread response time: 15 minutes.
- Maintaining and increasing server security. Reduction of spam accounts that pass filters by 25%.
- Maintaining fast ticket response times. Target ticket response time: 15 minutes.
Growth
- Increasing server activity. Targets:
– Increase percentage of new members who talk on the server by 100% (presently 1%).
– Maintain percentage of new members who visit 3+ channels above the 15% benchmark.
– Increase 1 week retention of new members to benchmark of 20% (presently 4%).
– Maintain message activity of members above 10 posts/member benchmark. - Developing and implementing new community initiatives. Target: 1 large-scale community initiative per quarter.
- Identifying and onboarding new key contributors. Target: onboarding 2-4 key contributors per year.
- Effectively utilizing growth channels and opportunities to expand the connext ecosystem. Example: Drive engagement through Connext Intern account on X, use YouTube account for providing visual guides/tutorials, overhaul Connext Academy to be a key resource for community education.
- Engaging with external contributors to produce educational content for the connext community. Target: increasing production of educational content, produce 2-4 content pieces per quarter.
- Driving awareness of Connext through marketing, events, and media opportunities, etc.
- Fostering regional connext communities, hosting local workshops and discussions.
- Expanding the resources available in Connext Academy.
Budget
The Community Administrator Committee produces budgets which shall include details for the following:
- Community Administrator compensation
- Community Moderator compensation
- Ambassador compensation
The DAO budget shall subsequently be submitted to the Connext DAO as a request for funding. The Committee shall produce underpinning justification for the budget to the Connext DAO.
Payment Schedule
CL compensation will be distributed via SuperFluid on an ongoing basis, and adjusted monthly to rebalance based on market conditions.
Multi-Signature Approvals
The Community Admin Committee is in charge of the funds and their distribution. All CL multi-signature approvals will be conducted with a minimum of three (3) signatures, and the Community Admin Committee (Andy, Grraarrgghh, Stefan, and Tommy) will have hardware wallets used only for the purposes of this multisig.
Steps to Implement
This proposal follows the recommended structure outlined in the DAO Docs. Initially, we are looking for comments about the proposal from the community. If necessary, changes to the proposal will be implemented.
Timeline
The RFC phase will be followed by the vote. After the RFC phase, the multisig funding transaction will be included in the Snapshot vote making this an executable proposal.
Overall Cost
This proposal requests a quarterly budget of 295,000 NEXT tokens and a one time retroactive compensation of 147,522 NEXT, totaling 442,522 NEXT. Administrators, moderators, and ambassadors will not receive a higher monthly compensation than their agreed monthly compensation.
Important note: At the end of each quarter, unspent NEXT will be rolled over to the next quarter. The DAO can also vote to request that unspent NEXT be returned. Under no circumstances will unspent NEXT be distributed among Community Leaders.
Quarterly Calculation
The ask is that the Connext DAO covers the funding below:
| Item | Funding (NEXT) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Base Compensation | 120,000 | Quarterly base compensation available for CAs & Mods |
| Buffer | 50,000 | Buffer for adjustments based on price fluctuations |
| Community Treasury | 125,000 | Incentivized payment purse for Ambassadorship projects and events |
| Total | 295,000 | Total costs |
The monthly compensation breaks down to 5,714.28 NEXT per Community Administrator and 2,857.14 NEXT per Community Moderator/Ambassador, totalling 40,000 NEXT per month. Fixed compensation for the entire quarter therefore is 120,000 NEXT (assuming NEXT price remains at $0.30). Fixed compensation will be revisited every month and adjusted as necessary.
Additionally, the Buffer and Community Treasury funds may be used to cover Community Leadership operational expenses (such as software licenses).
Methodology
On the first day of each month, we will calculate the # NEXT to be distributed, using the average closing price of NEXT from the previous 7 days, as listed on Coingecko.
Incentives
Tokens not used for fixed compensation, specifically the 125,000 NEXT in the Community Treasury, will be used to incentivize Ambassadorship projects and events.
One-Time Retroactive Payment
In light of the token launch, Connext Labs Inc. (now Proxima Labs) stopped the compensation streams as of the 24th of September, however many of the community contributors continued with their operations and provided value to Connext as usual. For this reason, we are proposing a one-time, retroactive payment covering the compensation for the missed time (2 months for former members, 3 months for the rest) to all incentivized members of the Community Leader team that are still active in the community. This includes:
- 6 Community Administrators
- 6 Community Moderators
- 1 Ambassadors
The ask is that the Connext DAO covers the costs below:
| Item | Funding (NEXT) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Community Administrator | 92,571 | One-time, retroactive compensation of CAs |
| Community Moderator | 46,285 | One-time, retroactive compensation of Moderators |
| Ambassador | 8,667 | One-time, retroactive compensation of Ambassadors |
| Total | 147,523 | Total costs = compensation + gas costs |
On- and off-boarding
Community Administrators will oversee the process of onboarding and offboarding administrators, moderators, and ambassadors. As such, Community Administrators identify suitable individuals and assist them in performing their role in the Connext ecosystem.