MEETING MINUTES
21 APRIL 2022 - VIDEO LINK
ATTENDEES
Present: Gracie Lau, Michael O'Sullivan, Chuck MacDonald, Brock Pierce, Edgar Fernandez
Not Present: None
Meeting Chair: Brock
MOTIONED ITEMS
Michael O'Sullivan as Treasurer and Press Secretary/Comms. Seconded by Edgar.
All were in favour.
Chris Barnes as Secretary. Seconded by Chuck.
All were in favour.
ACTION ITEMS
Micheal: Will talk to EOS Support for guidance on how to go about having the genesis.eden account Active permissions transferred to the current Eden CDs.
Michael: Will investigate if Eden has a LinkedIn account, and if not make one.
Everyone: Identify potential nominees from the community to take the role of Technical Committee Chair/Lead.
If you're reading this and are interested in the role, reach out to your favourite Chief Delegate!
AGENDA
with Notes
Review individual updates as per CD election commitments: (2 mins each, 10 mins total)
Brock: Two formal commitments. 1, to crowdsource from the community how to spend his CD EOS. 2, to engage with the EOS Bees community. A conversation on both fronts is planned for later today. Generally focused on what is the role, what is Eden for? How do CDs during their 3 month tenure leave this org better than we found it.
Michael: Done a couple of interviews (look out for one with Patrick from Nova Crypto). Lots of time spent figuring out what Eden is going to be. Time reading, making notes, and thinking through the potentials of Eden, and what value-add the CDs can bring.
Edgar: Spent time on understanding the bylaws. Why do we need them? What value-add does each change have for EOS, devs, and founders? If these changes are deemed necessary, then what impact will these changes have on the code? Would changes lead to needing support/funding for this? Will bugs be produced with changes? What will the cost of this be, and who will maintain it? Previous CDs didn’t provide scoping of the work needed, amount of effort required, and how its funded.
Chuck: Agrees with previous comments. Justifications for bylaw changes could be a bit more explicit. Recognizes that the previous CDs hoped the required code changes via the newly proposed bylaws were limited in scope to basic variables vs a complete overhaul. From the funding view, the CDs have a mandate to spend whatever needs to be spent in CapEx to make the changes, and improve the org. The funds should come from the Eden treasury. Started speaking locally and linked up with a network who are onboarding. Every week he will do a talk and start recording them with everyone.
Gracie: Read through the bylaws. Doesn’t feel that CD budgets should fund the bylaw changes. The EdenOS code looks somewhat complicated. Larger changes will be quite expensive..all the CD budgets would be enough. The CDs budget should go to what they promised during the election, to make Eden and EOS better. Would prefer the bylaws were not indivisible as one single document, and could be individually accepted or rejected. This creates unnecessary pressure on voting no. Did some AMA this week to the Chinese community to figure out what benefit can be brought to Eden. How can the East and West EOS community work together. Need to figure out a way to work more together more efficiently.
Review and vote to ratify bylaw proposal from the previous Chief Delegates: (20 mins if discussion is required)
Ratifying Proposed Bylaws: Brock: we should ratify them as-is, and spend the next 2.5 months to figure out what changes we would like to see made to hand to the next group. This could still be pushed off another week. It doesn't have to happen today. Edgar: When bylaws are requested that require funding, they should come with a recommendation on how to fund it, or a cost estimate. Concerned about what bugs could get introduced when changes are made. It was suggested from the previous CDs that the Fractally team could be hired to do this work...are they open to do this, considering they've moved on to Fractally? How much will this cost, has an estimate been made? It is recommended on the Miro from the previous CDs that the current CDs could go to the ENF for more funding for upgrades. All this sets a precedent for a prior administration creating proposals that the next guys have to pay for. This with no scope, estimated budget, vendor, or funding. Brock: to ratify and to implement are two separate things. Michael: Two elements, the principal, and the action. These two clashing elements can be problematic. Brock: We may need a new role, a CTO for the Eden group, this beyond the roles discussed last week. Chuck: Agree with no rush to ratify before a full discussion on implementation. One of Eden's principles is that no government can hand a liability to the next government. These bylaws are a recommendation. Might be worthwhile to have a roundtable of developers to help with this, a technical committee might indeed be the first one that should be established. Gracie: If we ratify these bylaws, we need to make sure it can all be done. Even if the people who can do the code changes, can they be done in time? If the bylaws aren’t done before the next election then the bylaws won’t make sense. Michael: A suggestion, they could reject the bylaws, put in new bylaws, carry out the actions and then hold a snap election to actually implement them. So they would put forward a new set of bylaws that are more achievable to then carry forward. Brock: Should a motion go forward to put a vote on record? They can wait another week, or put a vote in. They are being responsible by talking through this. There is an issue with continuity of knowledge between previous boards. Chris Barnes is willing to be their secretary so can take notes and answer questions from the prior group while in these meetings. Michael: Having the 12 week election period is really important. So he would like to err on the side of caution and not vote today. Brock: Let’s hold off on voting, we don’t need to vote today. One thing to cover is the issue of term, and staggering elections. Edgar: Nothing in the bylaws indicate a time of execution. Would be open to vote and ratify, to put pressure on the group to figure this out and implement changes. Concerned about not ratifying, and try to implement them in practice but not in reality, but not on the hook for them. Noted that the previous CDs didn’t ratify these and hand them to the current CDs. They are now choosing to ratify and accept these responsibilities. Could ratify, make a concerted effort, on a dev committee to look at this to get confirmation on costs and feasibility. Want to ratify and do, not ratify and inaction. Michael: Say we ratify and delay implementation, how will this affect the election timeline. Edgar: It will, some are currently signed up for an election in October. Also need to implement the fee change. Need to not cause any dependencies or breakage in the code. Don’t want to approve something that he doesn’t know what it costs, don’t want to go do the ENF to ask for more money to do this. Brock: Lets move our attempt to ratify next week. Hopefully they get some answers to these questions. Does feel they need a lot more money from the ENF. When they go ask for money they want to show they are able to create and add value. Chuck: ENF is watching the CDs. An explicit appeal may not be required, they will notice that Eden needs more money. Feels as though the ENF would top up the Eden treasury, and wants Eden to act boldly. Brock: Eden CDs are basically the elected governors of Eden on EOS. The ENF is the treasury. As the executive branch, to come up with good ideas on how to deploy that capital. Lets think big and not operate from a place of scarcity. Need big bold events that makes Eden an institution for the long term, not for this blockchain but also for others.
Review if members would like to put themselves forward for the roles of secretary, treasurer, chair, and vice-chair as permanent roles: (10 mins)
Chris Barnes has volunteered to be a secretary for this group, and is willing to sit in on these calls to take notes live, or he can just review the recordings and do them after the meeting.
Nominating Roles: Brock: Is anyone else interested in being the secretary. Having Chris Barnes allows them to feed 2 birds with one scone. Having a prior CD will help if they have any questions during their call. Anyone else looking for the other roles. Edgar: Their mandate is shortened to 3 months. Some of these roles to be executed well require longer term roles. It was suggested maybe the CD board nominates and approves a management that is more longer term, that can be changed by future CDs. Doing this now by nominating a non-CD to be the secretary. The next CDs then have the option to potentially have this continuity of using the same folks for these additional roles. Corporate governance is very much like this. This is different than what they thought on the last call, but maybe this is the way to do it. Brock: Agrees and knowing that continuity is needed and Chris is willing as a volunteer to do the secretary role it makes sense. Michael: Agrees with this. First anyone else can be put through as a nomination, and if there is a conflict then they vote. Chris is perfect for the secretary but he shouldn’t attend the meetings to potentially break the flow of their debate. Brock: Anyone want to nominate themselves? Michael: Willing to do treasurer and anything around communications. Edgar: Will second Michael. Chuck: Happy to have Chris as secretary. Brock: sounds like Micheal will be Treasurer and Press Secretary, and Chris Barnes for Secretary. All voted in favour of these motions. Edgar: Confirming Chris will review this meetings, and if required we could ask him to attend these meetings. Brock: Secretary's role is to review these meetings and summarize meeting highlight and notes.
Propose new bylaws for next set of CDs:
If the next election is 3 months after the most recent, then it will be on Saturday July 9th. Therefore, proposed new Bylaws would need to be completed and submitted to the Eden community by 9am EST Saturday June 25th.
New Bylaws: Brock: Doesn't need to do this today, but is one of the missions of the CDs. Ask what is the purpose of Eden today. They were handed a set of bylaws from the previous CDs. Need to consider what is handed to the next set.
Who is going to follow up with the Clarion/Fractally/EOS Support team on getting the eden.genesis Active account permissions transferred to the Current Chief Delegates: https://www.bloks.io/account/genesis.eden
Technical Support: Brock: Someone needs to figure out the costs to all what we've spoken about, and getting the Eden Active permissions transferred to the CDs. Might be the role of the treasurer. Micheal: Will talk to EOS Support. Edgar: Feel free to include in these discussions on what is the scope, level of effort and costs with these changes. Michael: Just looking at the account permission changes, might be better for Gracie or Edgar to look at the broader code changes.
Transition of Eden Social Media Accounts
Socials: Brock: would be a good fit for Michael. Would need an appropriate title. Edgar: Does Eden have a LinkedIn? Take advantage of their larger networks and get this out there. Michael: Will check it out. If it doesn't he'll make one, its a great idea. Brock: Lets make a little noise. What is being done is mundane but has profound implications for the future.
What is the larger purpose of Eden?
Eden's Purpose: Edgar: What is the larger purpose of Eden, and how can the influence more of the ecosystem? Micheal: Thinks Eden could be the governance layer for EOS, the democratic governance layer. They should start holding votes on how the ecosystem works. Even if the votes are symbolic, they should happen. Could vote to ratify the spending plan of the ENF, or vote to decide if certain BPs should be looked at. Could vote to implement changes to the network, and ratify key individuals into key positions. Even having a symbolic vote would demonstrate something of value to those actually in power. This would also be something for the other chains like BTC and ETH to look towards. Brock: Agrees. That's what is lacking, leadership, and the idea of a democratically elected executive branch of governance. Whether you have actual authority or not, take a position and lead. Weekly meetings allow for regular review of what is going on in the chain in real time. What kind of governance do they want in the future? Lead for all blockchains on what governance can look like. This sets a precedent on how governance should function. Building that framework for themselves and others. Chuck: Agrees Eden has the opportunity to become a governance layer, but first needs to be more attractive for people to use. Get more people in Eden, to get more clout. Eden could provide tools to its members. IE Adobe CS through an org can get bulk licensing, or people who need a cell phone to do work. Provide a bonus as a membership in Eden. Draw in more functional people to bubble to the top to be elected. More tools. Brock: Would love to know the total EOS tokens that the Eden community represents...as the voting block within EOS governance. This is a number that should be understood and grown. This is how the EOS governance system currently works. Edgar: Move a couple points from the agenda to the next meeting (Eden account standar proposal). Eden is technology that allows for self-governance. EOS is the first implementation. Real consensus is set by BPs. CDs should vote with the genesis.eden account. We have 215k EOS in that account voting for zero. It should be voting on chain. Agreed that as an executive branch they have checks and balances. So they have checks on them, so should they check on others. Is it Eden's role to check on the ENF. They are an elected body, being funded by an appointed body, appointed by 21 BPs. Open questions to be discussed. Gracie: Eden will be the governance of EOS, and maybe one day governance for all blockchain. Eden needs to guide people in the community to work on the things that benefit the community and Eden. Eden can run as an organization on its own, and doesn't need to ask for funding. Projects that are supported can have income, and can grow Eden. If we don't have the weapon, we should make one or grab one. New users can come through Eden. Need to find a way to make that happen so they can then have the people/power to govern the whole network. Brock: For the first 2 meetings they've been working through the inherited technical debt and are being responsible. Chuck will chair the next meeting with first name alphabetically. Chuck will collect agenda items, and ideally send that out to the group 24hrs in advance. Hopefully future meetings will be more focused on the present and future, and less on inherited responsibilities. Michael: From the chat, Chuck mentioned the need for a technical committee chair or working group. Brock: Start with a technical lead first. That person's first objective is to define the role, and to determine the cost, scope and timeline, for implementing the bylaws. Edgar: Hopefully others viewing this will consider this, and the CDs can consider nominations for that role. Michael: Agrees with that.
Eden Account Standard Proposal Review
Edgar: Moved to the next meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
Making Progress: Need to be more bold.
NEXT WEEK’S MEETING
Chuck will be leading the next meeting.