Houses of SAND + Community Council

[PickaxeMaster]

Hello SandFam,

For context, this SIP Idea was born under the debate regarding the Community Council, see here: 🤝🏽 SIP Establishing a "Community Council" of Self-Nominated and Community-Elected SandFam - #78 by PickaxeMaster

While discussing nominations, compensations, responsabilties and structure of the Community Council, a new train of thought emerged, needing it’s own place and more food for though, so the idea could mature and eventually be a foundation for the years to come.

I’ll try my best to explain the concept and why it’s needed.

This is a general board, that I’ll dive in details below.

In my perspective, the current Advisory Board has failed to the community, while it’s made of talented individuals, the TSB DAO needs a daily presence that supports and help the community in bringing quality SIP’s to life.

Starting point:

• Disolve current Advisory Board and replace with a Community Council to operate side by side with the Special Council.
• Current Advisory Board responsabilities delegated to the new Community Council.
• Create 5 Houses of SAND, that help both the Community and the Community Council: Player House, Game Maker House, VoxEdit House, LAND/SAND House, Content Creator House.

Edit: I’ve replaced the concept of “Houses” back again to avoid confusions.

All of us here in the DAO, come from a different background, some of us resonate more with the VoxEdit background, Player background, Game Maker background, etc. It’s only logical that the feedback one can produce, will have more impact and value on his field of expertise.

Therefore the need of having dedicated Houses in the most impactful areas of the Sandbox. These Houses of SAND would be constituted by 5 members each and would be nominated yearly.

The Houses of SAND would act as a working group that advises the Community Council, while helping the community to produce quality SIP’s.
On an optimal world, they would have a channel of communication with the Product Development team, so the SIP’s could be aligned with the Road Map’s, ensuring that the SIP’s created have indeed space and time to be materialized.

The Houses of SAND would also be responsible for secretary duties, as documentating and producing reports for the Community Council.

After 1 year of mandate of each House of SAND, the House of SAND before going again to nominations/elections, would nominate 1 Member to be part of the Community Council for the following year. This would allow continuity in the DAO, making sure the new Community Council would pass along values, expertise and continuity to the newly formed House of SAND.

Edit: The current Advisory Board doesn’t weight on the DAO expenditures.

The proposal of this SIP is to fund the work of 30 Members.

That would give X amount of SAND / Month:

• X amount SAND for Community Council = Y amount of SAND / Month / Member
• X amount for Houses of SAND = Y amount / Month / Member

This is going to be a lot of work for any individual involved in this process, as we want to steer up the DAO boat into producing quality and meaningful SIP’s that would enhance overall the global ecosystem of the Sandbox.

This is the general idea, I want to invite everyone to participate on this SIP, there is so much to be improved, to be debated and by any means I’ll consider this a Pickaxe Master SIP, so there is no need to ask me for permission to change. As long it’s consensual to the Community, anything could and should be changed in this SIP idea.

Let’s build this together

[Lanzer]

PLEASE CALL IT HOUSE OF SAND! Oh my gosh we have the opportunity of a lifetime here

[KCL]

@PickaxeMaster, thank you for starting this. No comment yet on the set-up but there seems to be a confusion between the Advisory Board and the Special Counsil of the DAO as the AB has 7 people not paid and SC are 5 people paid 110kSAND/year each. So i guess you meant replacing the SC by your 5 small Advisory boards (Houses)

[rocksymiguel]

I have been waiting for this idea for years (or rather since yesterday).

---

Here are some questions
What would be the basis for those 3K for the CC and 1K for the Advisory Board, imagining that it is not only to occupy that 550K Budget.

Speaking of that Budget I think you should keep in mind that it is not the actual Advisory Board Budget, but rather the Special Council Budget, since the Advisory Board👇

@theKuntaMC

The AB does NOT receive any compensation

Also, as is known, the CC was originally intended to be created without any remuneration, and what was most suggested was something close to 1K. Do these new values have any specific reason?

I believe this new Advisory Board would form what has been discussed these past days regarding the HOUSES. Apart from the search for more SIP authors, which is something needed, what other responsibilities would the AB have?

[theKuntaMC]

Way to put in the work to get this started, @PickaxeMaster!

I will refrain from comments on the structure or function until more community gets the chance to chime in more.

But, it will NOT be easy to dissolve the current Advisory Board. It will require a constitutional SIP, which has an 80M VP quorum.

But that’s also just semantics, which name you choose.

I love the “House of SAND” – lol – nice, one Lanzer

But whatever name you wanna propose is fine, of course.

For now, however, calling it Advisory Board will be very confusing.

[Lanzer]

PSA

SIP-1 has the Constitution (bylaws). It lists compensation for the SC and AB on page 6 & 7

SIP-2 has both the Articles of Association & Memorandum of Association.

Memo has legal stuff and Articles have roles & responsibilities.

[theKuntaMC]

@rocksymiguel

the CC was originally intended to be created without any remuneration, and what was most suggested was something close to 1K. Do these new values have any specific reason?

1K SAND per month was just the suggestion someone made to get the conversation started.

However, the new CC SIP version (posted tomorrow) will not include remuneration for the CC

The community may advance a separate SIP for remuneration of the CC if/when they find value in their services and can gauge what level of compensation is most appropriate for whatever form the position takes.

[PickaxeMaster]

@theKuntaMC

For now, however, calling it Advisory Board will be very confusing.

That’s why I started calling them Houses to avoid confusions, I’ve edited the whole original post and images back to the original House naming convention.

@Lanzer

PLEASE CALL IT HOUSE OF SAND! Oh my gosh we have the opportunity of a lifetime here

But there’s so many Houses, which one would get that title? LAND/SAND House? The Community Council? The 5 Houses are the House of SAND?

@theKuntaMC

But, it will NOT be easy to dissolve the current Advisory Board. It will require a constitutional SIP, which has an 80M VP quorum.

Thanks for clarifying @theKuntaMC

@KCL

@PickaxeMaster, thank you for starting this. No comment yet on the set-up but there seems to be a confusion between the Advisory Board and the Special Counsil of the DAO as the AB has 7 people not paid and SC are 5 people paid 110kSAND/year each. So i guess you meant replacing the SC by your 5 small Advisory boards (Houses)

At present time, since the DAO is already set up, we’d need to know more what are the responsabilities of both DAO Admin Team, Special Council and Advisory Board. It feels like the DAO Admin Team is carrying all the operations for now.

@rocksymiguel

Here are some questions
What would be the basis for those 3K for the CC and 1K for the Advisory Board, imagining that it is not only to occupy that 550K Budget.

I’d see that budget to be used for:

Houses of SAND:

• Help the community to elaborate SIP’s.
• Propose SIP’s.
• Discuss the SIP proposals among House members.
• Produce reports on Community needs.
• Meetings with DAO team.

Community Council:

• Curate SIP’s.
• Review SIP’s.
• Host SIP debates.
• Propose SIP’s
• Meet and discuss with House of SAND members.
• Produce reports on House needs.
• Meetings with DAO team.

There’s many other responsabilities that could fall in both categories, please do help me to add them.

For the budget, the goal was not to override the current budget for something else, but to highlight how it could be distributed in a different structure. Compensations is what everyone finds the most fair, this was merely as an example.

[DAO]

I’d like to weigh in on 2 aspects here.

1. Keep the model simple for now and have a staggered rollout of the House system, perhaps over a span of 3 years. We want to onboard a vast majority of the community to the DAO, and the most straightforward thing to do is to keep it simple. Once we’ve achieved saturation, we can consider adding more layers to the system.

How will I define simple? Explain it once to a community member and he/she gets it right away.

Complexity in navigation will push regular people away just as a complicated game will push regular players away.

2. Removing the Advisory Board is not a good idea. Advisory Boards typically serve as external expertise that bring high level external industry info to the DAO, and is more likely than not a background work in our case. While we don’t see much of them, it isn’t a concern to me because 1. They aren’t remunerated and 2. They are taking on an advisory(duh) role, not operational. And as what @theKuntaMC has mentioned, 80m VP. That will be a hurdle.

[DAO]

This is quoted from the Sandbox DAO SIP to define the roles of:

Special Council
In accordance with the Constitution, The Sandbox DAO Special Council is hereby established to review and advise on SIPs in alignment with The Sandbox DAO’s vision and values, and Code of Conduct.

Advisory Board
In accordance with the Constitution, The Sandbox DAO Advisory Board is hereby established to serve as cultural ambassadors and strategic advisors to and on behalf of the DAO, leveraging their expertise and networks to guide the DAO towards achieving its vision of a decentralized, vibrant metaverse.

As for Admin Team, I believe they cover everything that encompasses the DAO’s daily operations.

[wahpaks1]

Now this SIP would be awesome and would surely empower the community more. Would really feel everyone is included in the dao. The 5 houses are a great idea as well.

[theKuntaMC]

@DAO

Keep the model simple for now and have a staggered rollout of the House system,

This makes a lot of sense to me.
What do others think?
What would a “staggered rollout” look like?

@DAO

How will I define simple? Explain it once to a community member and he/she gets it right away.

Complexity in navigation will push regular people away just as a complicated game will push regular players away.

we have an American acronym, K.I.S.S.
“Keep it Simple Stupid”
as a reminder that complexity deters participation

[DAO]

My opinion is that in the first 6 months, we introduce a basic hierarchy, where the Community Council members lead the House, and we give them the autonomy to run their show as they see fit (Within the confines of a Code of Conduct).

Whether the Houses are led by themes (Voxel Artists/Game makers/Players) or are just members inclining towards their favourite person, doesn’t matter. The key theme is onboarding, whatever it takes. Most potential CC members, I reckon, wear multiple hats, so Houses don’t necessarily have to be a singular disciplinary.

Have the regular meetings with them(CC members) to find out how everything is going, whether a structure is in place and whether it’s working out for them.

At the end of 6 months we should get a rough, or ideally, a good idea, what works for different Houses. Any Houses that’re struggling, we brainstorm and share ideas.

Expansion of House models can then be discussed once we start to see actual numbers participate in said Houses.

In the meantime, Delegates can work with a single or multiple CC members to give/take feedback and provide the firepower(VP) needed for voting.

This is how I see the synchrony of CC, Delegates and Houses play out.

P.s In Asia we call KISS Keep It Short and Simple. I guess we are more polite

[theKuntaMC]

@DAO

P.s In Asia we call KISS Keep It Short and Simple. I guess we are more polite

This is certainly true, LoL
Asians are generally much more polite than Americans.
I love the different cultural interpretations…

Also, great remarks above.
The CC will have to come back in here and copy some of these great suggestions into a Google doc for project management.

[theKuntaMC]

lowest priority comment here, lol

but how about “castles” instead of “houses”

that way the whole body can be referred to as the “SAND Castles” and each castle can be like a guild, working group, caucus, or whatever form it evolves into as this idea grows… @PickaxeMaster @Lanzer : )

[Lanzer]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh my gosh I hadn’t even thought of that.

I daresay The Sand Castle makes us sound like children…but I can’t deny the utter brand consistency with it

@DAO

P.s In Asia we call KISS Keep It Short and Simple

Yeah I agree. I’m just letting @PickaxeMaster 's full SIP Idea stew in my brain while I think through all the details versus what I imagined House of SAND to be. I don’t think I disagree with his approach, it’s just more complex to think through and it’s taking me time to figure it out

[DAO]

@theKuntaMC

but how about “castles” instead of “houses”

UHH nooo…

I get where this is coming from but I fear the optics from external organisations

I checked for synonyms to Houses and got:
Clan, Guild, Chamber, Senate, Tribe, Band, Crew, Faction, Gang, Fratenity.

But pls not castles sorry @theKuntaMC

[hishmad]

Hello @PickaxeMaster

I find the proposed concept of ‘5 houses of sand’ to be promising, however, I would appreciate clarification on the methodology for KPI measurement.

I value your time.

[PickaxeMaster]

So far, the general idea I get from this presentation is that the idea is good, but too early for the stage we’re in, which is completely understandable.

I appreciate everyone’s feedback and contributions so far, I’d love for everyone to keep going in depth on the structure of the idea, as it doesnt need to be implemented by tomorrow, but could be a WIP for the right time to implement it.

@hishmad

I find the proposed concept of ‘5 houses of sand’ to be promising, however, I would appreciate clarification on the methodology for KPI measurement.

That’s where the reputation system would work well, the community would earn KPI by their contributions.

[theKuntaMC]

@PickaxeMaster

I’d love for everyone to keep going in depth on the structure of the idea, as it doesnt need to be implemented by tomorrow, but could be a WIP for the right time to implement it.

absolutely,
Keep the conversation going.
Figure out what will work best.
Strategize and simplify.
No rush to bring this to vote.
Great things take time.