AADAO Oversight Elections
Update: 24/02: Applications are now closed!
Hello Cosmonauts,
As part of our desire to be more aligned with the Cosmos Hub Community, we at AADAO are happy to open up the elections for the Third Oversight Member to join the Oversight Committee.
Please note that this election process is still in an experimentation phase so delays or issues may occur along the way. Thank you.
The post below will explain everything from what the role is and what is expected, what is NOT part of the role, how to apply, and the next steps after applying.
What is the Oversight Committee?
Reporting directly to Cosmos Hub public governance, the Oversight Committee works across all AADAO Committees, ensuring compliance and integrity. It has the authority to VETO new grants, discontinue existing grants, and initiate the termination of any Contributors within AADAO in case of serious misconduct.
The Oversight Committee is a team of 2 within AADAO whose main role is to ensure all AADAO members act in the best interests of the ATOM community. It also acts as a counter-power to the Strategy Committee in a classic check and balance system. The Oversight responsibilities are as follows:
- Interface with the community on key topics
- Ensure full disclosure of conflicts of interest and ensure the right policies are in place;
- Maintain robust internal controls & fraud prevention mechanisms;
- Exercise veto power over new grants and discontinuation of existing grants when not in line with expectations;
- Sign-off on contributors’ performance assessments;
- Publish periodic transparency reports.
The Current Oversight Committee
Currently, the Oversight Committee has 2 members, the Coordinators and the Internal Auditor/Controller. The roles and responsibilities of the current members of the Oversight are as follows:
Oversight Coordinator:
- To oversee the grant making committee functions, including overseeing the ratings of applications and voting logs, as well as joining meetings where grants are discussed and voting is occuring to ensure that the review committee members have not acted with any malfeasance or corrupt behavior.
- To oversee the grantee management function, including gathering KPIs on the progress of each grant relative to its milestones from the lead reviewer who is managing the relationship (for clarity: the Oversight team member is not actually being present in the relationships with each grantee, as this grantee mgmt function is being transitioned to grant making team).
- To prepare and post the transparency, program activities, and KPIs report in a timely manner, as well as interfacing with the community as questions come up .
- To act as back-up Secretary on the Reviewer Committee weekly meetings to record minutes.
- Co-lead the writing of the annual report on AADAO Phase 2.
- Assistance on internal processes as well as treasury aspects together with the Controller.
- To draft, implement and improve internal policies for the AADAO.
- Aid the Controller with HR Policies and Processes.
Internal Auditor/Controller role:
- To keep a ledger of transactions characterizing the full activities of the grant program based on on-chain records.
- To assess each payment file which includes funds distribution to grantees and operational expenses, ensuring its accuracy, legitimacy, and proper authorization, while keeping secure backups for future reference (audit trail).
- To reconcile each on-chain transaction against the payment files, to ensure their accuracy and completeness as well as to detect any non-authorized payment.
- To implement and communicate all important policies (e.g. conflict of interest, KYC, travel expenses) and procedures while enforcing compliance by all the team members.
- Prepare the Financial Statements, Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Management report for inclusion in the Transparency Report prepared by the Coordinator.
- Ensure internal controls are in place to mitigate operational and fraud risks, as well as ensure resources are used in the best interest of the community.
- To address all internal process gaps and look for opportunities to enhance efficiency through process automation.
- To contribute to the relevant financial sections of the end-of-mandate report.
- Overseeing treasury operations to ensure sufficient liquidity for AADAO obligations.
- Based on best practices to develop HR processes around hiring and termination, as well as performance evaluation. Ensure legal aspects are addressed with the support of legal consultants to mitigate the risk of litigations.
The role of the Community Elected Oversight Member:
We are looking for a new member to join our Oversight Team to ensure proper representation of the $ATOM community. The elected member would be working alongside the Oversight Coordinator and the Internal Auditor and Controller.
The role is a Part-Time (PT) role with max. 35% FTE.
The duties and responsibilities of the community-elected member are as follows:
- To oversee the overall community sentiment, to interface, alongside the Coordinator, with the community, and to address community concerns.
- Attend internal AADAO meetings (strategy committee, grant committee) and share outputs with the community on the relevant channels whenever needed.
- Providing feedback on internal protocols for AADAO, and ensuring AADAO adheres to its protocols.
- Signing off on grantee payment TXs with best faith (2 out of 3 oversight members).
- To support the Coordinator with the content to be included in all Transparency Reports, ensuring all relevant aspects are disclosed.
What is NOT part of the role and therefore out of scope:
- Under the defined roles within the Oversight Committee, it is understood that all areas of responsibility designated for Oversight Committee #1 (Coordinator) and Oversight Committee #2 (Internal Auditor/Controller) are expressly excluded from the scope of responsibilities for Oversight Member #3.
- Payment processing.
- HR-related topics such as, but not limited to hiring and termination.
- Internal processes implementation given this falls under the Internal Auditor role. Suggestions on process improvements will be discussed among the 3 members, while their supervision is assigned to the Internal Auditor.
The Ideal Candidate
We at AADAO seek a candidate with the following values:
- Integrity
- Objective
- Forward Thinking
- Excellent communication
- Deeply knowledgeable of AADAOs mission / mandate
Compensation
The compensation for this role is within the following bracket: $45 - $65 per hour.
The Timeline:
Interest signalling 5th - 23rd February: Prospective candidates will have 2 weeks to signal their desire to join the AADAO from the publishing date of this post.
Ranking and Campaign Feb 23rd - March 8th: After those 2 weeks, those candidates that ranked the highest will have another two weeks to engage with the community to garner support through a series of Twitter Spaces. The official AADAO Twitter page will also share a summary of the applicants.
Voting period 9th - 23rd March: After this process, the final step is the Governance votes where it will take another 2 weeks for the candidate to be voted in.
The Process:
The first step for the applicants would be to send an email to damien@atomaccelerator.com with their names, social media handles, and CVs. Once an applicant sends an email to the Oversight email address, they will receive confirmation of their application with further instructions.
Applicants will have until the 23rd of February to signal their interest via email and send all the relevant details.
The Elections:
The applicants will have 2 weeks from posting their pitch to garner as much community support as they can.
Since this election process will yield multiple candidates, and in an attempt to not overwhelm Cosmos Governance with a plethora of proposals, we are currently deliberating the following for screening and voting:
Screening Method
An objective look at an applicant’s CV and experience would help further whittle down the list of eligible applicants. The Oversight Committee will then publish the list and a ranking system to score applicants.
The Top 3 candidates with the highest scores will be contacted and the elections can move on to the on-chain proposals.
Voting Method
Three proposals would be put up on the Cosmos Hub to represent the 3 applicants that scored the highest. After the on-chain voting period has elapsed, once again our Oversight Committee will collate the data. The proposal that received the most amount of Yes votes would be declared the official third member of the Oversight Committee.
FAQ
Why a Third-Oversight Member?
Our work at the AADAO has been expanding and in an attempt to align more closely with the ATOM community and reduce the workload on the current Oversight committee, we opted for the hire of a new member.
Who will pay for the deposit?
The AADAO is prepared to handle the deposit and funding of the governance proposals.
Is there a cap on applicants?
No, this election process is open to everyone.
Can I still run for the election if I have yet to send an email to the provided email address?
No, we make it a point that all applicants must adhere to all the rules and terms set forth above. If you do not submit your application to the provided email address you will be considered ineligible.
Why must the applications be closed for me to share my pitch?
We have opted for a fair process for all applicants. Those who apply at the very beginning have no advantage over those who apply at the very end.
What do you mean by an experimentational election process?
This form of Elections at this scale has yet to be done. We at the AADAO are happy to be leading this very exciting experiment of decentralised governance. However, we are also aware of all the intricacies that are at play when it comes to Cosmos Hub proposals. We are reviewing the process carefully to ensure that the entire election runs smoothly, both off and on-chain.
