Grant Council

The Optimism Grants Council was initiated in Governance Season 3. This page outlines the basic details of the Grants Council as constituted for Season 6.

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Goals

In short, the goals of the Grants Council, as outlined by the Foundation in Season 3, are to:

• create a streamlined and consistent process for grant applicants
• empower high context delegates to make high context grant decisions
• reduce the workload required of non-Council delegates so that they have more time to weigh in on high impact votes In Season 6, the Collective will aim to bring the grants program to the Superchain.

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Council Structure

The Governance Fund grants process will be managed by an elected Grants Council. The Grants Council will be comprised of a Lead and [15] Reviewers sitting across four review teams. The Council will have full decision-making authority as to which projects are named finalists for Governance Fund grants. Each team will have a clear mandate and be tied to a specific grant objective, as outlined below.

The Council consist of 4 Sub-Committees:

• Superchain Sub-Committee
• Optimism Mission Review Sub-Committee
• Milestones and Metrics Sub-Committee
• Audits and Special Missions Sub-Committee

The Grants Council structure for Season 5 has two distinctive roles. These positions are held by elected reviewers and have been appointed by the Grants Council lead.

• Communications Lead: handles the communications of the Grants Council with the Optimism community and is responsible for communicating calendar items, key updates, cycle results, and other important items to keep the community informed about the Grants Council's process. The Communications Lead for Season 5 is Katie Garcia.
• The Milestone and Metrics Lead: administers the milestone program and will develop a system of metrics for the Council, including reviewer KPIs. The Milestones and Metrics Lead for Season 5 is Jun (Pgov).

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Participants

All council members may be removed via the Representative Proposal type in the Operating Manual. All Council members will be required to disclose all anticipated conflicts of interest when applying to serve on the Council and all actual conflicts of interest if engaged in a vote affected by the conflict. Where a conflict is known to be present, a reviewer should recuse themselves or provide a written voting rationale if the reviewer believes that they can vote impartially.

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Cohorts and Election Terms

Members of the Grants Council, will be elected in the Reflection Period prior to each Season. Elected members serve for the duration of the Season and must be re-elected to serve in future Seasons.

Should the Grants Council determine that it needs more reviewer capacity for the Optimism Mission Review Team, the Grants Council may by the affirmative vote of ten reviewers (including all relevant review teams) opt to add additional reviewers. In this case, the reviewer with the next most votes (after the elected reviewer with the least votes) (Selected Reviewer) shall be provided the option to join the Optimism Mission Review Team with rewards pro-rated for the time that has elapsed in Season 6 prior to joining the Grants Council. Should the Selected Reviewer decline, the reviewer with the next highest number of votes after the declining Selected Reviewer shall become the Selected Reviewer. There shall be a limit of three additional reviewers added through this method after which the Lead must put forward a proposal for the election of any further reviewer.

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Responsibilities

The Grants Council will:

• Originate and process Mission Proposals proposed in accordance with the Council’s Internal Operating Procedures
• Review applications in regular cycles, which include a reasonable deadline for proposal submission before a review period begins
• Publish a report outlining grant finalists for each Intent within three days of the end of Season 6. The council should additionally publish a report at the end of each review period
• Use best efforts to assess whether grant recipients have met pre-defined milestones
• Ensure ongoing Council operations and performance are reasonably transparent to the community

The Council Lead will oversee the general administration of the grants program and should:

• oversee the provision and/or maintenance of external and internal information about the grants program, and any other resources needed by the Council
• facilitate coordination across Teams by scheduling and hosting regular Council meetings. It is suggested that meeting minutes or summaries be made available to the community
• not vote on Council decisions or score proposals
• prepare regular reports to communicate grant decisions at the end of each review period to be published within a reasonable timeframe of the review period’s conclusion
• exercise decision-making authority in the event that sub-committees cannot come to consensus on an administrative or operational matter

Reviewers will vote on grant proposals submitted to their Teams and should:

• have the subject matter expertise required to evaluate advanced proposals. It is recommended that at least one member of each Team have a technical background
• be accessible to grant applicants - within reason - to provide feedback, answer questions, and respond to comments. Reviewers should favor feedback on public channels but may provide direct feedback where doing so is efficient
• work with proposers to ensure proposed milestones are clear, measurable, and achievable within the specified timeframe
• maintain a participation rate >70% on Council votes and Team meetings aim to document voting rationale for each grant that receives a substantive review
• provide any information required to publish regular reports and periodic updates in a timely manner
• dedicate sufficient time on a weekly basis to accomplish the reviewers duties

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Accountability

Grants Council members will be subject to the following checks on their authority:

• All Grants Council members are subject to the Code of Conduct and the enforcement procedures outlined therein
• All Grants Council members will be subject to re-election if they wish to be a member for an additional Season
• A high degree of transparency will be required of Grants Council operations so that non-Council Token Holders are able to provide effective oversight on the Council
• The Grants Council will conduct a retrospective at the end of Season 6

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Budget

A Proposed Budget and Charter will be made by each prospective Lead and voted on by Token House according to the Governance Calendar.

The Lead may propose a budget that contains variable rewards for participation or non-participation provided that any variable component relates to discrete measures of reviewer or manager performance and those components are verified by the Milestone and Metrics Teams.

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Additional Details

While the Council must abide by the above guidelines, specific operational and administrative details are left to the Council Lead to determine with input from Reviewers. These will be outlined in an Internal Operating Procedures (to be linked once available), which may be updated periodically as determined by the Council.

The grants council will not make an explicit or implicit promotion or endorsement of the projects or their underlying products. Rather, the grants council will acknowledge which grant proposers are most suited to receive a grant given the parameters applied by the mandate of Season 6 governance. KYC and grant delivery will be managed by the Foundation for Season 6. All grants are subject to KYC review and other terms.

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Iteration

The canonical version of the approved Charter will be published to GitHub. Any material updates to the Charter will be reflected with a new version number at the top of this document, at which point the updated version will go into effect

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Season 6

The Grants Council will run for six Cycles in Season 6 as outlined further in the Council's Calendar.

The Grants Council is considered a persistent Council in the Collective, as outlined in the updated Collective Council Framework. That means the Grants Council will be assumed to be renewed in Season 6, unless a Council Dissolution proposal, outlined in the Operating Manual, is passed.

The Grants Council's decisions on final grants represent only the opinion of the Grants Council as to which projects are grantworthy. The Grants Council does not hold, issue, or distribute grants. The Foundation administers grant implementation in accordance with the Optimism Collective Operating Manual. The Grants Council does not endorse or promote any products or projects.

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Charter

Find more in the Season 6 Grants Council Charter.

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Credits: Image taken from Original Announcement on Optimism Forums and does not belong to Grant3