Regarding @epineph’s [Rocket Pool Sabbatical] grant.
General feeling is that this is very cool, and I support longer-term funding going to members of the community that have shown they can be trusted to achieve results.
I like the fact that there are no strict requirements, milestones or deadlines. I strongly believe that when motivated and honest individuals are supported unconditionally you get the best and most exciting outputs.
However, my strong recommendation here is that this should be written up in the form of an RPIP rather than a grant. Here’s my reasoning:
- The honorariums are voted by the pDAO. You require pDAO buy-in for this to work, and its worth getting this upfront. In a world where the pDAO disagrees with this concept, the outcome is every honorarium being denied, and wasting everyone’s time and cohesion.
- The pDAO’s attention is limited, its arguably a bad precedent to set that committees can generate regular votes (ie attention work for the pDAO) absent prior agreement of the pDAO through an RPIP. Admittedly a yearly vote isn’t much, but still, it would be a recurring cost that was imposed without input.
- There are lots of process and rule details written up in the grant application that should be recorded in a more durable, binding and accessible fashion (ie, an RPIP.)
- Distributing funding can still be handled by the GMC, but potentially this should be called out as a separate line-item for clarity in pDAO expenses.
- Given these are fairly significant amounts, especially if RPL price appreciates significantly, it makes some sense to give the budgetary power explicitly to the pDAO. If this grant is approved, the power to modify the scope implicitly lies with the GMC, which has the potential to cause drama if adjusted in the future… And if you’re having a vote to avoid drama, it should be defined as an RPIP.
- Defining these sorts of votes is basically what the VOP framework is designed to solve, but that only really works if they are present in RPIP form.
I really want to reiterate that I think this is a cool idea though. I’m happy to help write up or review an RPIP if you do decide to go down that route.
Other random feedback:
- Titles as a concept are cool. We should come up with something more fun than the professor / university theme though, imo. Who wants to be a ‘Full Professor’ when you can be ‘Grand Poobah of all Such and Such.’