LONDON (Bywire News) - In their second meeting, the new set of chief delegates seem keen to strike a different tone – certainly in terms of production values. There were Hollywood style credits and even a funky intro for this week’s meeting video as they sat down to discuss how to implement the new bylaws. However, it’s proving to be slightly more difficult than they imagined.
Individual updates
Brock Pierce took his turn to chair. He’s been spending his first-week crowdsourcing ideas from the community about how his allocation of funds could be used to improve Eden – as well as thinking more about what Eden is and how they, as chief delegates, can leave it in a better place than they found it.
That question of identity has also been exercising Michael O'Sullivan. As well as doing an interview on Nova Crypto he also raised questions about what Eden is, where it is going, and how they can all bring value.
For the other three, the bylaws have been front and centre of their thoughts – namely how the chief delegates can go about putting them into action. This question would take up the bulk of the meeting.
Edgar Fernandez is concerned about the code level implications of any changes they choose to make. Any change in the bylaws could mean a change in the code which could in turn create bugs that could upset the UI.
“We have software which works, if we want to change it, we don’t have software which works and we don’t have anyone supporting it,” he says. “So number one why are we making a change…..? Two, what is the technical debt that we are creating by making this change and what is the cost of doing this, and three what is the cost of that and who are we going to hire?"
Chuck MacDonald is concerned about funding.
“We have the mandate to implement what we’re going to ratify and spend whatever needs to be spent to improve our system because we’re all elected on that,” he says. “No elected member should be expected to fund bylaw changes. This has to come from Eden treasury.”
Aside from that he has been speaking locally and has linked up to a growing network of people. He plans to do a talk every week.
Gracie agreed that funds should not come from the chief delegates' funding, largely because she did not believe the funds would be sufficient.
“Our budget is not enough for funding these changes,” she said. “The code is really complicated and if we want to change something big, our budgets are not enough for the funding of the development.”
She also added that she is working on ways to improve communication and collaboration between East and West.
Bylaws: to ratify or not to ratify
These concerns, and others, brought them to the first big question of their tenure – should they, as promised during their elections, ratify the set of bylaws proposed by the previous set of chief delegates.
This had been expected to be a quick process, but concerns appear to be growing not so much about the bylaws themselves but how they can be implemented.
“If we ratify these bylaws we need to make sure all these things can be done,” said Gracie. “Even if there are some people who are willing to make these changes, I’m not sure they can be done in this time period.”
When proposing the bylaws, the first set of chief delegates had planned to approach the ENF for further funding to implement the changes. The consensus of the meeting is that this would be difficult to do if they do not have a clear idea of how much funding will be needed and what they expect it to achieve.
The decision is made to ‘kick the can down the road’ and postponed ratification of the bylaws until next week. In the meantime, they will have a chance to consider the practical and financial requirements of ratification.
Nomination of roles
The second item on the agenda was to nominate a few roles.
Brock Pierce proposed Chris Barnes act as Secretary for the meetings. He will follow recordings and keep notes. As one of the previous chief delegates, he will bring some continuity of knowledge into the process and maybe on hand to answer any questions the current group have.
Michael O'Sullivan, meanwhile, was voted in as Treasurer and Press Secretary. Among his tasks will be to manage the transfer of social media profiles for Eden to the new group.
The purpose of Eden
Despite being into its second term there is still a sense that Eden is finding its purpose. That purpose could become a constantly shifting entity with each new set of chief delegates putting their own stamp on the community.
Two main modes of thought appear to dominate.
Michael O'Sullivan and Brock Pierce appear to be most bullish on taking an active leadership role in the community – even extending to taking votes on key issues within the EOS community, such as the ENF’s spending plan or any other key developments. These votes would not come with any firm commitments but would be a symbolic action demonstrating the delegates’ willingness to use their democratically awarded mandate.
Edgar Fernandez is more practical and wants to focus on making Eden more attractive to developers. One way this could happen is by providing them with tools to help them do their jobs. For example, Eden could use bulk licensing to provide people with access to software such as Adobe as part of their membership.
This would give people an incentive to come to Eden which would boost membership and give them a stronger voice in the community.
With the team determined to keep the length of meetings strictly to an hour, that was all for this week, with a few items including the Eden accounting standard proposal moved to next week.
To see the full meeting click here.
(Writing by Tom Cropper, editing by Klaudia Fior)