GD- Constitution Update Squad
Facilitator
Date
Feb 24, 2023
Attendance
Note Taker
Attendace w/o tags
Files & media
Kanban Card
Questions To Try To Answer Today:
1. What form should the Constitution take?
Should the Constitution include high-level mission, vision, values, guiding principles only, and be accompanied by appended with an ‘operational spec’ that is more easily updated? Updates to the two sections would be subject to different levels of consensus.
Or
Should the Constitution include every rule that we consider important to document? e.g. criteria and procedures for Treasury multi-sig signers.
Or
Should the constitution follow a simple constitution template?
A thought on Q1: One of the things it says at https://constitutions.metagov.org/guide is: “The constitution should be short and focused. Do not over specify definitions, rules, and processes. As a rule of thumb, imagine a document that more than 50% of your community would actually read. That might be three tweets, or it might be a page. It is not a 30-page legal document.” “Brevity prevents over-theorizing and is crucial for constitutions to be in active use. Constitutions, whether from nation-states to neighborhood associations, have historically focused more on describing institutions than prescribing rules for direct behavior.”
2. What is the first step in this process?
Should we update the current Constitution to include numbering and change existing sections into articles, which would also include the addition of some articles as placeholders for text?
Or
Should we re-write the entire document and present it to the DAO as a revised Constitution? Would this new document aim to capture the way things ARE or would we include new processes/ parameters?
Ernest: Difference between manifesto, Constitution, and handbook - first step should be to write (format) it as a Constitution so that we can involve the community in the iterative process of improvement.
Suggests C and a policy table - which has sections for various aspects and can be changed pretty much at sentence level.
links: The idea that C is iterative is great - we should try to make some decisions but defend those to the DAO. This group should have an opinion and should set the tone for what happens next. In favor of keeping it lean - linking it out to other places.
Mina: The structure is there and something we can work with but no clarity - lots of sections need help with language. We should start by identifying what we don’t like and needs improvement.
Hiro: sounds like rewrite is off the table - understand the iterative approach and the numbering but so much of the C is currently inaccurate and it seems like a lot to have to do it piecemeal.
Ernest: DAOs are one type of cooperative - the Collab doc is a good example of a coop doc.
A place for everything and everything in its place!
Hiro: constitution small founding doc that is barely touched and a handbook to operationalize.
Ernest: we focus on the shiny thing but we need to focus on how to work - we are in a complex systems environment and people need to know how all the parts work together.
daolexa: C should not talk about values - not too philosophical but also should not be too specific - should give guidance on the values. Umbrella doc that lays groundwork, then policies focus on details. C says when and how that can be changed. It should say how a guild, project, dept is created - what the process is.
links: mission, vision, values = purpose - this should be in a guiding doc.
Mina: C’s are usually inspired by centralized orgs - bDAO mainly seems influenced by U.S. Constitution whereas Euro C’s are more detailed. The bDAO C should cover ‘why bDAO’.
links: Aragon has rules - quorum, pass rate, and then separate practices.
E: Describe domains of decision making. maybe we need to call it a social agreement.
T: lot of agreement “ how to pin down next step”
social agreement not longer than it has to be, clarity and the why , the what and the how. what to do next feels overwhelming. how to lead/self organize forward
hiro - how do we want to work - top to bottom thru the doc and decide what needs to be done.
This video does a great job at explaining what goes into social agreements.
How to Work?
Prioritize:
biweekly
identify things not clear
identify gaps
identify ????? add what you want to identify
| priority | workstream | who | sync |
| High | Constitution & Community Handbook Improvement Workstream? | mina, hiro, trew, daolexa (ernest back up note taker) | 9pm utc friday |
| Med | Manifesto workstream? | add your name | ㅤ |
| Low | Handbook | add your name | ㅤ |
NEXT STEPS
- Let’s work on this document async - add thoughts about the formatting to this doc
‣
Also write down own thoughts in own doc to bring to the meeting about places that need clarifying, gaps in content.
- Meet next week 3 March - same day but one hour later (8pm UTC). Mina will adjust the sesh event.