Speaker 1
0:00 – 0:00
Awesome. So welcome, everyone, to Medigap seminar. We are Medigap. We're a governance research collective, and we host these seminar presentations every week on Wednesdays, noon Eastern Standard Time. They're an opportunity for fellow governance researchers to present on their work, to the community. The calls are recorded and posted online to the Internet Archive, so you can watch them later if you're not able to join us here live. But today, we're super excited, to have the Link Trust team join us for a seminar. So seminars are about a twenty ish minute long presentation followed by a nice discussion about a twenty minute q and a. So while the presenters are sharing, feel free to post your questions in the chat so that we can get to them and start accumulating them throughout. Or you can type the word stack, and then we'll add you to the stack, which means that you'll unmute yourself when it's your turn to ask your question IRL if you you know, if it's something that's, like, long and you don't wanna, type out the whole question. So, yeah, please please wait your turn to ask your question, and we'll have a really great discussion by the end of it. I think that's everything. Can I announce our yeah? Okay. Cool. So today, we have Ketonga, Miriam, or I'm gonna butcher these names. And Amos, as well as Golda joining us from Link Trust to present on, their project, which is a public benefit corporation with a commitment to sharing equity and governance. They'll discuss their experience participating in shared governance using a rotating steering committee selected in random work weighted way to make tough decisions about team proposals and spending profits. So that's just a brief intro. We're super excited to have Linked Trust here. Thank you all for joining, and I'll give you the floor. So take it away.
Speaker 2
0:15 – 0:15
Thank you so much. My name is Gitonga Miriam, and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to speak to introduce myself because it's my first time here. And I'm the project manager for your interest. And just question it's just introduction, or should I speak and my experience first and let others introduce themselves?
Speaker 1
0:30 – 0:30
Up to you. And, yeah, you have twenty minutes to
Speaker 3
0:45 – 0:45
share Okay then. Okay. Let me let me just do
Speaker 2
1:00 – 1:00
it and then and then leave it there. Okay. So sorry. My name is Gitonga Miriam. I'm the project manager for Link Trust. And having worked in a decentralized system to bring credibility and trust in the field of in the in the in the field of tech, and I'll I'll I'll see my experience. One thing I am very moved with the shared governance and equity coming from a cooperative side of view and getting a chance to work globally because I'm in Kenya, not in The United States. So this is something different for me, and it is inclusive. It doesn't it doesn't cut on where I come from or who I or what I do. Because when when when I contributed when I started in Linktruz, because it was, like, four years back, I started and participated in because of that time, we were volunteering. So when we volunteer, we used to got we used to get those cooks cooks on our system. And then at that time, it was it was at that time, we never knew they will have some weight. Because right now, when it comes to the steering committee, as as as such now, I'm sitting in on the steering committee and helping review proposal, allocate funding on the on the on the on the proposals, and approve them because of work with equity. The equity that I earned those times is what I'm using now to help me get a chance to be able to sit at the steering committee and make such decision when it comes to the company. And I feel for me that is inclusive because having when you're in the corporate world, you know how corporate works, systems come from up to bottom. So maybe I will have left the can't the the company with with never getting a chance to even review something, yeah, at that point. But in even in this company, it's giving me that chance. It's giving me that opportunity because with what I'm working for and I'm earning, I'm able to be able to make decisions. I'm able to think aloud and suggest opinions because of the work the work that I've put into consideration. Something else I want to point across is the equity and how it is distributed. Our task tracker, it's it's it's able to distribute evenly. So you cannot be able to allocate when it's when your task is the range of 10 cooks, you cannot be able to put 200 cooks for yourself. It it has a and it has a timing. So there's no way others can come and just get more cooks than you. So it is fair to everyone, cutting across each and every person in the company and putting us on a fair and equal ground when it comes to work, when it comes to make decisions on the company, when it comes to to voting, maybe we are voting for our CEO, it puts us on the same same ground because all of us, when we work, we get equity. And it is it runs across the company. So for me, that that stands out and sets me apart. And having that system and governance and how we run the company, it it it's everything for me. That is what I'll just say for now, and I'll leave for Kenneth to take over from that. I'll add something later on. Thank you.
Speaker 4
1:15 – 1:15
Okay. Good evening, everybody. My name is Ojie Nene Chuku. You can call me Kene. I'm from Nigeria. I work at LinkTrust. I work as a developer at LinkTrust working on the pipeline and getting in data into LinkTrust. So permit me to share my screen. Yep. I don't know. Can you guys see my screen?
Speaker 2
1:30 – 1:30
Yes. We can go to see your screen.
Speaker 4
1:45 – 1:45
Great. Yeah. So what LinkTrust? So LinkTrust is a platform that build the socialite trust among people all over the world. We close the gap in trust. We use social graphs to build this and okay. That's that's an interest you could check. This is an example of that. So let's go to how we we make governance transparent and all inclusive. So in interest, we our aim is to make sure everybody is in the decision making of what is going on there. So what do we do? We create a steering committee. Now in this steering committee, comprises of three people. Now these three people are randomly chosen, and how are they chosen? They are chosen from neutral bodies in the organization. So how are they chosen? There's something called cooks. You end cooks. So while working working on projects makes you end cooks, and these cooks are you accumulate these cooks. And when peep when committees wants to to be choosing, these cooks are are put on on an Excel sheet. When they are put on Excel sheets with each members of the committee, then they accumulated and random numbers range of between the the lower bound to the upper bound are selected. And whoever it falls into becomes a committee member. So this this is this is done three times to select three people for the committee. So now how do do we ensure correctness? So first of all, when this is randomly selected, people that make it into the committee cannot submit proposals. So proposals are supposed to be submitted by the head of each head of each team, and each each team lead has been trusted by their team members to be the head of the team. Now everybody could see each proposal submitted to the committee. Why is the committee built? The committee is built because for every month, there's always a speculated amount to spend, and the committee reviews each proposals because to be doing a system of let everybody vote for a proposal. We we are more than we are a lot working in this complaint. And before you do a voting system round, it will take a lot of time to make decisions. So these committees come together and look at the proposals and try to trim them into the funds for each month. So the project lead sent their proposals, and everybody in the team sent this in a general channel where everybody could review it, could say what they feel about the proposals, and they go on to create a tracking they go on to create they go on to put it on the tracking system, the tax tracking system, which we use Tiger, for example. Now everybody could see that, okay. This is what this is what, these guys are working on. This is their developments. This is where they are. So it makes everybody make decision. So in in each of the proposals, everybody in the team is able to say what they want about the proposals. Now the committee is made to to make sure the proposals are trimmed to the particular funding they are supposed to be, but every other person in the organization could speak and obviously on the proposal. And this makes everybody inclusive in and know what everybody is doing. So on the governance, it's not one person telling this person to do this. It's not one person telling this person to do this. There's a combination of people in the team, team leads, and even from different from different teams looking at this proposal and seeing, okay. What if this proposal can be done like this? What if this proposal can be like this? Now on submission, it's also submitted to the general channel and able to look and say, okay. These guys are working on this, and these guys are working on this. So this helps in making stronger decision in in the system whereby everybody hands on. Personally, I've been on the committee. I was on the committee, I think, for this month, but I we have to step down. But the being on the committee helps you when you when you review the proposals, you come back, give suggestion, and the project lead could either accept the proposal or accept the proposal and say, okay. This proposal, I could work with this or could say, okay. Can I trim this down this proposal to a part where, okay, the funding for this proposal, it's not enough for what I'm supposed to do? I could trim it down and make this. And, also, it helps in getting the importance of what the company wants to work in. So there are a lot of things this system is actually doing. I'm making sure everybody's inclusive, both the team leads, both the workers, and both the committees, and every other person in the team. Okay. I turn there. Let's carry on. So, yeah, this is attack tracking. So to prevent conflicts so I said it before, committees are not meant to submit proposal so that you won't be able to accept your own proposal. So this also prevents a lot prevents conflicts of interest and stuff. So inclusive I'm fine everybody. Every members have a voice in the governance process. Promotes inclusiveness. The committee ensures that the monthly budget does not exceed, and the system empowers all members, giving them a say and the direction of the company where it's moving to. So in conclusion, so, linked trust governance mode more, model is built on practical inclusive and and governance. So how you end it is working and getting cooks. And through these cooks, you can come up to your committee whereby you'll be able to also say yes to a proposal and also allocate proposal, which doesn't give you, like, a supreme power over everybody, but just allow you to trim the proposal towards the direction of the company's company's interest, then everybody in the company is able to obviously on this proposal. I don't know. Then I have any questions and get in touch. You can't view any interest and stuff. So that's thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. I think Ava should have something to say. Some people are raising up their hands.
Speaker 1
2:00 – 2:00
Yeah.
Speaker 3
2:15 – 2:15
Do any yeah. Amos, do you have anything to add to the presentation before we get into questions?
Speaker 5
2:30 – 2:30
Yeah. Hello, everybody. Actually, I'll just speak a little bit because most has been saying, Jagitonga and also by. So I'll do just a bit of a brief introduction of that myself. My name is Amos Nwodi. I come from Kenya. Erodi. I'm a graphic designer and also a web scrapper. So I've been working in the interest project. I've been the lead designer in how the UI and view of how the interest looks like. Also, I've posted on the scriptings. So data that you've been that you're going to see in pictures, that's both me and Kimi that you've been working on it. So I'll just talk quickly a little bit about material experience and how we're doing our things or how we're managing the system. So I kinda feel that what we do already stands there because as you've heard, it may it may surprise that we are having run on selections for people who are going to monitor how the how the proposal are going to be. So this is really great because it brings the sense that each and everybody has some variety of the AI for what we are trying to to review or manage. Everybody everybody's idea is is valid in the in the group. So I really, really feel good about it. And, yeah, I think that's just a little bit related because most like I said, most most like I said, most of the reason it has already been said. So thank you.
Speaker 1
2:45 – 2:45
Well, thanks very much.
Speaker 6
3:00 – 3:00
I just I just wanna mention that Amos has is co leading the largest proposals for the last two months because he actually is the team lead or one of the co team leads on the biggest project that we have. So he's had a lot of experience with it from the proposer side.
Speaker 5
3:15 – 3:15
Yeah. Yeah. Correct.
Speaker 3
3:30 – 3:30
Oh, what are those projects?
Speaker 5
3:45 – 3:45
So yeah. So the two projects that I'll be working on was the designing of the UI UX and also managing the whole team, the content and also the back end. So we really, really have a big team there. And we are really trying to make it look really, really great. That's potentially user who's going to interact with the application is going to aim to to the is going to have an easy time with it and also getting direct data into the system. So we all have good perfection. I can say all love perfection is here. So, you know, it's great. It's been great. It's been great.
Speaker 3
4:00 – 4:00
Awesome. Armand, I think you were first to raise your hand, so please unmute and feel free to ask a question.
Speaker 7
4:15 – 4:15
Yeah. Sure. Thanks for presenting your project. I appreciate it. I got a quick question for you. Maybe if you have, like, a a GitHub repository or any documentation to maybe answer my question, I'll I'll I'll just take a look. I'll just review it. But, yeah, maybe I can start with so, like, I I'm I'm having a hard time to understand, like, how the you your your, like, decentralized process is made while the you you're you're saying that the proposal is made by the project leader. Right? So I just, like, don't understand how, like, if it's, like is this, like, always the project leader who is deploying, like, a a propose proposal? And are they on chain, or it's just like a a a voting allocation process where each each voter has a delegator, basically. Well, I'm sure if you guys work with delegator or just straight up to the point vault. So but I got a quick few question. I don't wanna take too much of your time. But, yeah, around that that that process, maybe the decentralized process in a general matter. Maybe if you got documentation about it, it could be great to read it. Like, do you got a public database to basically, you're saying that you you list the allocation towards Excel sheet. So you have like something that basically is is public that that the people can can kind of audit, like, almost like the, you know, errors errors scan chain or who who maintain, you know, that that database? Because I'm just wondering about the kind of the security aspect of the the smart contract if you got one. So who basically who make the distribution of the funds and who who got who is the the ownership of the account if if there's any? Or if Do
Speaker 6
4:30 – 4:30
you guys wanna me to answer that? Because I think I implement back into that. Yeah. So the thing is, I'm a they are technically focused because we're on Fairmont, which does a contract safe over rolling safe. It's tokenized safe, which is an agreement over future equity. But what you really have to be aware here is we're not like a DAO that somebody gave a bunch of money and we spend all our time sitting around making decisions and voting. We don't have time for that stuff. A lot of people have never bothered to get wallets. A lot of there's some that I in Bangladesh can't even get one legally. So we mostly really operate on trust. We know each other. Everybody can see the cooks allocated on Taiga, and I do have some scripts to pull them off Taiga. Sometimes we adapt them because some people forget to put cooks and do a lot of work, and some people did put a little too much. So we actually can adapt them a little bit. So we're really not a system where we have a ton of money and there's a bunch of people like, oh, how much money did I get? We're mostly really busy working. So that's why it's actually spreadsheet first, but there are bylaws that say it would fall back to the cooks. And if and if people with enough percentage objected, they could bring a legal challenge. They could bring a legal vote and a majority vote. It never happened because we're really busy working together in a very tight and verbal way. And and mostly what's happening in the proposal and what's been most important about them is the transparency where people actually can have these discussions. So while there is the voting, it's not like we spend a lot of time on formalized voting, and I think that's what's really unique about this versus some things that may become here as kind of planned ahead heavyweight voting processes. This emerged to be very lightweight. Like they said, it's like everybody won't have time to think about this. It's not this formal delegation. It's like, bam. We gotta pick somebody this month. I'm gonna roll the dice, you know, show the chart, get a witness. You know, I pick somebody. I video up when if I'm picking somebody because I only gonna have one person come up as a witness because everybody's busy. And so they see you know, so they pick the random number. We witness who's being selected. And then, okay. You're on the committee, and then, okay. You're on the committee, and then, then okay, we got to get the proposals on the fifteenth. It doesn't have to be the team leads, I tend to encourage the team leads, people tend to listen to me because I'm a founder, but they don't have to. I tell them over and over, you don't have to listen to me, But I suggest that a team lead make a proposal, and then they do. And I also suggest that other people make smaller proposals, which they haven't been, but they could. So anybody could make a proposal.
Speaker 7
4:45 – 4:45
Okay. That's great. Thank you for your answer. My my point was really to raise the attention over the security side of thing and maybe to kinda avoid, you know, maybe evasion technique in the future. But, like, it's really, like, just a suggestion. You guys could use maybe a a a Nasus safe, but, like, you can just throw your phone into
Speaker 6
5:00 – 5:00
the app. Have a Nasus safe, but we don't use it because it's more time consuming and people don't really use wallets. I think if we have $13, then we'd need to do that. And we have the mechanisms in place, but we have, like, a thousand dollars, you know, $2,000
Speaker 7
5:15 – 5:15
Oh, okay. Okay.
Speaker 6
5:30 – 5:30
Working. So so we don't have a whole bunch of formal mechanisms, And we have a bunch of code, I'll send you.
Speaker 7
5:45 – 5:45
Yeah. Because I think eventually, it might be a great idea if the funds allocation can scale up potentially to to Mhmm. Higher limits with, you know, a diversified partner or different, Grand Strand with with with different ecosystem. I believe that's that's gonna be a concern for other people at this point. But, again, it's just a suggestion to secure you know, help you secure your your network. Has my my my one of my main area of working is in the has a cybersecurity expert. So I I I I always think that, you know, you know, cybersecurity security first ends.
Speaker 6
6:00 – 6:00
Yeah. Yeah. We actually did a token drop thing through Bacalal that pulls from Taiga and does a token drop and records it on the Ceramic Network. We have all good stuff, and I'll share that with you. You know?
Speaker 7
6:15 – 6:15
Oh, that's that's lovely. I I like I like your concept, how you explain it based on trust. I I I I I I I I really like it as well. I just think that trust as well is there's, like, part with zero trust, you know, and there's part with trust. But but I really like it. I I believe that that voting, it's like it's not something that currently working. So it actually save a lot of time by doing what you're you're doing because I think voting is mostly influenced by other people, influence at this point. And most of the time, people doesn't really pay attention who did they delegated vote to, and they don't really take it seriously. So at the end, it doesn't it's not really useful.
Speaker 1
6:30 – 6:30
Thank you, Arman. Thank you for that. Let's move on to the next question. I see Steve had a question, and then someone else shared Steve's question. So Steve asked about the chance to be on the committee if it's proportional to the number of cooks that you earn per month. Can you speak to the link between getting on the committee versus earning cooks?
Speaker 2
6:45 – 6:45
Okay. I'll I'll go I'll answer that. So when it comes to earning, it is not proportional. Let me just say that. And sitting on the commute on the on the on the committee is work weight. Like, work weight. The the the the input you've put in the company, it's what sets you aside in terms of being on the committee. But it doesn't limit you to because you cannot sit on the committee twice to avoid biasness and create fairness. So it'll start maybe for the people who are who have uncooked me for a long time and then as as it trickles down towards the others. So it is not proportional to it. I hope I've answered the question.
Speaker 1
7:00 – 7:00
Steve, did you wanna unmute and follow-up?
Speaker 4
7:15 – 7:15
Okay. Let me
Speaker 8
7:30 – 7:30
see if I understand you. So what you're saying is that it is randomly assigned, and you have a bigger chance if you have more cooks. But once you've been assigned once, you won't be assigned again.
Speaker 2
7:45 – 7:45
Yeah. You cannot sit on the committee twice.
Speaker 6
8:00 – 8:00
Yeah. I mean, at least for some period. You you would get assigned again after you skip another
Speaker 2
8:15 – 8:15
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 8
8:30 – 8:30
But but the number of cooks you it might not be proportional, but it does come into play
Speaker 6
8:45 – 8:45
as Well, it's a different yeah. It's proportional to your chance. Exactly. I mean, you're rolling a dice against the spreadsheet, and it lands in the spreadsheet.
Speaker 2
9:00 – 9:00
It it it has to come to play because of of of you of the work we in terms of the work and the and the and the effort you put in the company. Because you cannot, like, join the company now, like, maybe a month, and then you expect to be on the committee. So it has to be work with, and it has to be proportional to it. Even if not generally, but it has to carry some weight.
Speaker 8
9:15 – 9:15
Right. But then if a majority of the Cook tokens veto a budget, they also have that ability. So
Speaker 3
9:30 – 9:30
that's
Speaker 8
9:45 – 9:45
the second way Cook Cook tokens play into this. Correct?
Speaker 6
10:00 – 10:00
Well, let let me let me maybe share my screen
Speaker 4
10:15 – 10:15
a little bit.
Speaker 6
10:30 – 10:30
This is oh, this was actually oh, no. This is actually a a a this was actually a vote we took a long time ago on something important where we did a a work weighted actual vote. Oops. Sorry. I think I shared the wrong screen. I'm sorry. Let me go back to that. This was an actual work weighted vote. I jumped off the screen.
Speaker 8
10:45 – 10:45
So you have positive votes as well as negative votes that are work weighted?
Speaker 6
11:00 – 11:00
So so there have been there was an actual work weighted vote on big things, like on a CEO or on, you know, how we basically setting the burn rate. We actually had a big meeting and had an overall work weighted vote. But the
Speaker 8
11:15 – 11:15
I'm sorry to interrupt
Speaker 4
11:30 – 11:30
you, Gauta. Could you just zoom in a little bit so that we can see the sheet a little more there?
Speaker 6
11:45 – 11:45
This actually wasn't the one I wanted to share, though, because this is not the part that I'm really talking about. Now this was a while back in 2021. We did an actual work weighted vote. I I thought I had the right one up. What Katanga is saying is that that we actually bring up well, here's, like, the total sum of cooked, and this is for everybody. And we actually some of them have e wallets. Most of them don't. We actually have a really big team. But what we have is we have one with a running total. And I I'm not finding the running total one, but we have one where we have a column with a running total. And then we actually visually, in a video recorded meeting with somebody watching, we roll the dice and we get a number. That's what Kenny was explaining to you in the running total column. So it's exactly work weighted by the number of cooks to get on the committee. And that's the but once they're on the committee, the committee's a three person and they're just voting one person, one vote on the committee once you're on it. And then there's an opportunity to object that's in our bylaws, which is basically just there as a safety. If somebody ever tried to take over the company, anybody with more than 5% can object, and then there has to be a full work weighted vote of the whole company. That's never happened.
Speaker 1
12:00 – 12:00
Yeah. On that, I guess, I I I'll move to Lydia's question, which is about conflict resolution. I would love to hear, a bit about how you've
Speaker 8
12:15 – 12:15
I I would like to hear more about the actual process that they're using the committee uses to decide the different proportions. They're just selecting from one of the submissions and or are they deciding between the submissions and shading between them as well? Just a follow-up question.
Speaker 2
12:30 – 12:30
Okay. Let me when it comes to the committee deciding on the proposal, I have seated on the on the on the committee. It starts from urgency and priority. Remember, we don't have, like, a bunch of money. We are working on budgets, and it comes because of the profits we earn from the projects that you are working on. So the project the profits are not so big. So we we start with the with the urgency. Like, what do we really need as a company to grow us? So fasting fast. When you say you want to do scraping for data, maybe you want to do design, maybe you want to create the pipeline, maybe you want to do the back end. Now which one comes first? That is if if if right now we decide we don't want scraping of data, how will it affect our productivity as a company? Will will will it make us not go forward? Will it will it make us not come and present again? That's why we have to now when when we put everything on a graph, we see that we're supposed to work on the front end because we can we can we can work without the data the data scraping, but we cannot work without the front end working. So that's how we do our proposal with urgency, with priority list, and that's how the grading system works. Thank you if I've answered your question.
Speaker 3
12:45 – 12:45
And and I don't know if you can I can add an input? And I've also been on the committee. And one reason for the committee is to streamline the fundings proposed by the team leads to the company fundings for the month. So that's also one of their duty. They are not there to do a better power or, like, make decision of the proposal. They suggest which proposal is going to be better due to the vision of the company at that particular time.
Speaker 1
13:00 – 13:00
So Cool. Thank you for that. Yeah. That was super clear. I think it kind of covers Lydia's question about conflicts, about people disagreeing and versus, like, what happens. But I am curious a little bit more on that because it's one thing to have, you know, priorities kind of laid out, urgency and, and, like, budgeting. But I'm curious if you even still, with those priorities, still come across conflicts and how you would resolve those conflicts.
Speaker 2
13:15 – 13:15
Yeah. Sometimes we agree to disagree when it comes to making decisions. And when I say priority, it's not that we have a list of priorities. No. It's the sum of the proposal that are here. So assuming you have, like, four proposal, five proposal, because you are working on small budget. Assuming maybe we are having 1,200, 1,000 for that month for budgeting. We cannot go to have bigger budgets or something that maybe we might need it in the in in three to four months other than deal with this, like, revamping our our our platform and making it unique other as as at that moment. And remember, when we revamp it revamp it, it's going to really, like we can we can be able to go and present and get and be able to get other projects. So we really, really need to in terms of the we we always check-in detail and review part by part. Like, have meetings with review the proposals. We check if we if if we approve this proposal, what is the benefit? If we disapprove it, if we maybe slash the budget, what are we going to reap out of this proposal? And those are some of the things that usually help us in terms of when we are having a conflict. Sometimes, we can say that we are we want to scrape data and to add data into the system, and we also want to work on the UI of the system. So we decide we need both of them at the same time. So what we can do is allocate more to the UI and also scraping. We won't we won't leave it behind. We'll maybe slash the budget into half and have them passed. But now the budget for for for for scraping will be a bit down. That's now what we do sometimes when it's when the the the case is needed. Like, we cannot be able to really, like, put them, have one, and leave one. Any other question?
Speaker 1
13:30 – 13:30
It looks like there are some more questions in the chat, but many of them are getting addressed here. I guess there's a question about cooks over time, and it it can you speak more Golda to what to your answer to this question about how the cooks accumulate over time and how they translate into the Fairmont system?
Speaker 6
13:45 – 13:45
Yeah. Sure. So the cooks just accumulate. They don't decay. You earn them. You have them. They're actually tokens on the Ethereum network if you get them. So we keep track of them in a spreadsheet. There's actually a script that pulls them out of Taiga, and we have a manual step right now to track them in a spreadsheet. And then one of the administrators actually can issue them from the Fairmint system, but we only do that about quarterly, and only, like, a handful of people have bothered to put them in their wallets. So the really effective place that they're being tracked right now is really the spreadsheet. But you can see in the Taiga task tracker how somebody earned them. Like, if you're like, why does this person have all these cooks? You can see, oh, they did that. They did that. They did that. They did that if you wanna go research it. There might be some adjustments that were made also in the process. But they just accumulate over time, and you earn them, you keep them, and you have them. They would get diluted by more people earning, but they don't decay.
Speaker 1
14:00 – 14:00
Got it. That makes sense. Awesome. And then Brian's question, what about proposals? So do like, if a proposal doesn't go through in one cycle, does it need to be reproposed in the next cycle, or can you recycle a proposal for a later time?
Speaker 6
14:15 – 14:15
I would let Kenny write that.
Speaker 5
14:30 – 14:30
Yeah. Okay. So, actually, I'll talk about that because I've done three three proposals so far. So how we do it about the proposal, I'll start from the beginning to the end, and, hopefully, I'll answer the question that has been asked. So as a group leader, I get to check the task that we need to do. Okay? So I'll get, for example, maybe we need to revamp the link trust, the way it looks like. So I'll get members for the front end and members for the back end, and then you're going to have a meeting with them. Okay? Then you're going to discuss the budget that you're you have been allocated, and then you see how we're going to split that money among ourselves. Okay? So assuming maybe a group has five five people. So yeah. And then this one doesn't have to be dis to be distributed. Okay? So you can share it equally among ourselves. Okay? So say maybe everybody gets $200. Okay? So that's how how we are doing it. So, yeah, that's the first step making the proposal. The second step, it's how the committee, they are going to review the proposal. Okay? So assuming maybe we have three proposals. Okay? So one would be for revamping the link trust, the way it is. The second one would be for web scrapping. Then that one, maybe somebody has a different proposal. How can call it proposal x. Okay? So the steering committee are going to review these three proposal with the budgeted amount that there is. Okay? So mostly, we usually have, say, like, 1,500 or so maybe something more more or less, but it's on the range, it's usually 1,500 US dollars. So the steering committee is going to check which which proposal is really, really urgent just as Gitanga said. So assuming maybe the revamping of UI is important and revamping and also web scraping is important. So they are going to look at check. So we have 1,500. So how are we going to to to split this? And, also, if and I go to the first part. Maybe in the in the designing, maybe we put for self 1,000. And for sorry. Web scrapping, they put for themselves maybe $600. So you see the total amount for these two proposal, it adds up to 1,600, but the allocated amount, it's 1,500. So the steering committee is going to reevaluate the amount that each and every proposal has been shared. So maybe they're going to review and see maybe for the web scraping. Maybe how many team how many team members are you there? Is it maybe two or five peoples over there? How is the money going to be to be to be distributed, and they're going to review it. So maybe they need to slash the amount. Maybe they're going to slash the amount in web scraping. So they're going to tell the web scraping proposal. We have scrap we have slashed 100 from you so that it may fit the budget of 1,500 US dollars that was allocated there. So that's the second step. For that step, it's so we we always make our proposal each and every month. Okay? So each and every new month, we have new proposal. So assuming our proposal that we did last month, maybe for scrapping, it's not yet completed. So as you're approaching the new month, we are going to, to ask for an extension of time. Okay? Because once you're given a once you take a proposal, you need to complete it by the set date that you have said. K? So, yeah, basically, that's the general view and the more detailed view of how you're doing the proposals. But if at all there's any question, please feel free to ask, and I'll be able to answer you.
Speaker 3
14:45 – 14:45
Thank you, Amos.
Speaker 2
15:00 – 15:00
To add sorry. Thank you. To add something on what Emma said, we don't usually recycle proposal. When there's some changes that need to be made, you you just write a new proposal. Thank you.
Speaker 3
15:15 – 15:15
Just to check part part of my question was also about, like, excuse me, if a proposal takes more than a month, is it possible to propose things that take more than a month? And I also like the idea of what happens if somebody takes longer than I expected, but I think they most answered that one actually. So
Speaker 5
15:30 – 15:30
Yeah. Actually, no problem. I can also repeat answer that. So I'll give an example with web scraping. So in the month of June, was it June? Yeah. On the month of June, we made a proposal about it, and then we said, we're coming sorry. This was on April. My apologies. So you said on May, it's when our when our proposal is going to be reviewed, we're going to start working. So we've submitted our proposal for May. Okay? So we are supposed to finish by next month, June. So our first first our proposal is usually made by fifteenth of every month. So by the fifteenth of the next month, we should have already completed the task. So if at all you've not yet completed the task, we are going to ask for extended time to complete the work. But in this extended time, you're not going to receive more amount of money. Okay? You're you're just going to work on the budget that you've already you already made on the proposal. So assuming maybe for web scrapping, you are allocated $600. So if you ask for extension of time, there'll be no additional funds. It will just be until you guys complete the task that you've done. So, yeah, you need yeah. If at all, you've not yet completed your task, you just ask for extension of training. Yeah.
Speaker 3
15:45 – 15:45
Awesome. Thank you very much. I think it would
Speaker 1
16:00 – 16:00
be to hear a little bit about, like, the size of projects or size of teams that get to work. Like, your spreadsheet, it looked like there were you said, like, maybe a 100 entries or a 100, like, different people that are earning Cooks. So, yeah, can you speak to, like, the size of different projects or how many people have been a part of this project and and for how long you've been working on it?
Speaker 5
16:15 – 16:15
Yeah. Actually, I'll talk about you're asking about the team members in each and every proposal. Right? Mhmm. Okay. So so in, like, in web scrapping, we're just doing two two people. We're working, me and Kenny. So when it comes to UI for revamp for interest, like in last month, we had a total of, like, eight people. We had two people in the back two people in the front end, two people in the back end, and then two designers. And then there are other two people who are interns who are just participating both in back end and also on the front end. So that's why in the proposal six in the in the interest. So in this new proposal that we're making this time, we are only two people in the front end, one person in the back end, and then two people in the design. So we're just. So it tends to vary with the amount of the number of people who are going to be in the proposal. It depends with the amount of funds going to be allocated and the size of how the work it is. So I'm assuming maybe you have a lot of work, then you're going to request for more for more funds, and also you're going to have a big team members.
Speaker 3
16:30 – 16:30
Yeah. So yeah. To add to that, and if people couldn't get funds, they could also be assigned cooks. So it's also a way to end in order to increase your cooks. So, yeah, that's that's it.
Speaker 1
16:45 – 16:45
But so then over time, that's for, like, one proposal for one project. But how about over time the project on the whole? Like, how many proposals have gone through? How many projects have you worked on? And how many people have earned Cooks over the scope of the whole entire Link Trust lifetime?
Speaker 6
17:00 – 17:00
So so I just wanna point out, we only started doing proposals about, was it, three, four months ago? But we've been a company doing yes. We've been we've been doing a company that earns Cook since 2020. Basically, we originally started with a different thesis and have switched over. We started with slicing pie. We went to Fairmont. So we've been refining the process. So it it hasn't all gone through the proposal process. But, yeah, there there is about a 100 and some people who have contributed to the company over time, and I think there's 40 some active members of the Slack right now. We have a lot of sometimes people invite their friends, and they're like, hey. You can learn on a team and get recommendations and earn equity. And so we get people inviting their friends, and the team grows.
Speaker 1
17:15 – 17:15
Very cool. Yeah. I know some freelancer groups that I feel like this model could work really well for. Collectives of freelancers who work on project based stuff, putting together teams to work on different projects for different clients. But then over time, like, thinking about how those projects might be part of a bigger umbrella of this organization that they're building. I know Alex thinks a lot about stuff like this too, so it's really cool to hear, yeah, how it's evolved over time and how, these different, like, teams come together to build link trust as a whole. Any other questions in the Slack? Let's see. Sorry. I've lost track of the Slack, but it sounds looks like it's been popping off. Oh, from slicing pie to Fairmin. Yeah. I'm I'm interested in that as well. What what is the difference between those models?
Speaker 6
17:30 – 17:30
Slicing pie, both of them have a similar thing where the pie grows and you're essentially earning something which is, you know, slices or cooks or equity. I mean, the pie is growing. So you're being diluted, but the value is growing is the idea. SlicingPie, basically, it just you know, it's it's basically tracking on a spreadsheet for you in a hosted mechanism where you pay $16 a month and you can host it and everybody has transparency into it, but it's a centralized system. And then Fairmont is similar, but it's it's in the same pool with investors. So Boomer Beta actually purchased $50,000 of our cooks. And if we ever get to the point of having a secondary market where enough people have purchased, people will be able to sell their cooks, and that's why our bylaws actually bifurcate them into a team cook that sticks forever for governance and the cooks, which are actually agreements over future equity, which you could sell to investors. So it's it's technically could be quite complicated. Right now, we only have three investors including me, so it's not enough to have a secondary market. But once we we have more, I'm hoping that in some point, they will be sellable, and then everyone's gonna go ahead and actually put them in their wallet because they'll be able to sell them.
Speaker 1
17:45 – 17:45
Cool. Yeah. Steve, I actually saw you had a question in here that I I might have missed, which was a cook's proportional to hours completing tasks. I don't know if that's the question that you're raising your hand for, but I am curious about that as well. Like, when you say it's proportional to work, how how is work tracked? Is it hours wise or, yeah, task wise, some other way?
Speaker 6
18:00 – 18:00
It's it's a little arbitrary, but it is it is all transparent. The leads can basically say, hey. Put so many cooks on it. Do you wanna speak up, Kenny? I saw you leaning forward on that.
Speaker 3
18:15 – 18:15
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly what you're saying. It's it's not, like, decided decided I get asked. It could be on outfits. It could be on us and work. There's a work that take a lot of energies and a lot of time you put in. There's a work that, like it's depending on the it's depending on the work you do. Less less work would take lesser cooks. Why greater work would take greater cooks so that if there could be, like, an equality when it comes to works, vary with cooks. So that's
Speaker 6
18:30 – 18:30
It it's a little bit arbitrary. You know, we'll put five, ten, 50, a 100. It's sort of like but the tasks are all pretty granular. And what we do is when we summarize it each month, I actually look at the summary, and I'm like, oh, man. This person did all these tasks, and they didn't bother to put any cooks on them even though they could have. I'm like, okay. Let's just make an adjustment and put some cooks on that. So it's a little bit arbitrary in that sense, because you have people who are always putting their cooks on it. You have people who are not, and then we try to adjust it a little bit. But what I find is because it's so granular, if I look at it after time, it's like, oh, yeah. That's about right. So
Speaker 1
18:45 – 18:45
Steve, was that your question, or did you have
Speaker 8
19:00 – 19:00
No. I I mean, my question actually was already answered in the text. I just wanted to say that, you know, my game tomorrow is exactly on this subject. It's a way of doing a peer funding allocation, which I think is a lot simpler than the method that you use. It doesn't have the communication and feedback that your method does, but it could, you know, somehow fit into your process or I I don't know. Or or you could critique it. Maybe it's there's some critique I'm missing of it. And so I'd love for any of you if you could come participate tomorrow at the same time as as this session today. That would be great. And you can also maybe use my method to actually allocate cooks both before tasks and after them.
Speaker 6
19:15 – 19:15
Interesting. Are these seminars open to the public? I wasn't sure if we could invite our whole team or if we just invite the so they don't have to do the survey at MediGov. They can just come to the seminar?
Speaker 1
19:30 – 19:30
Correct. Yeah. They come tomorrow. Here. I'll send you the link to the community call. We made a Looma page. We're experimenting with using Looma, for some of our events. So tomorrow's call, we have a Looma for where you'll have the Zoom info, but we also have a public calendar. So all of Medigov's calls are totally open to the public, and you can join us via the events page on our website, which sent or I am also on my way to pulling it up, but you can, yeah, check out the calendar, subscribe to it, and join us. Cool. So and I sent a link to a presentation about link trust that, I've actually watched before on YouTube, which was using the link trust method for impact measurement with nonprofits. So that's a really great presentation for folks interested. Check out that YouTube. Yeah. So y'all are doing really awesome work, and thank you so much for sharing about a bit more about the governance process with us today. So if y'all don't mind unmuting and giving our presenters a big round of applause before we log off and get on with our day. Thank you all. Thank you.
Speaker 3
19:45 – 19:45
Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
Speaker 6
20:00 – 20:00
No. Thank you so much for inviting us and for being interested in digging into the real stuff here. So
Speaker 4
20:15 – 20:15
Yeah.
Speaker 3
20:30 – 20:30
Totally. Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 2
20:45 – 20:45
Thank you at all.
Speaker 5
21:00 – 21:00
Thank you so much. We really appreciate.
Speaker 3
21:15 – 21:15
Have a good rest of your day, everyone.
Speaker 5
21:30 – 21:30
See you
Speaker 4
21:45 – 21:45
and You
Speaker 3
22:00 – 22:00
too. Yeah. Yeah. Take care. Thank you. Bye.
Speaker 5
22:15 – 22:15
Bye.