---
tags: GovComms Weekly Update
---

# GovComms Bi-Weekly Update #1

_Getting Started_

## Administrative Update

### Accounting & Payroll

Core Unit Setup has been coming along slowly. We are in contact with AccountAble and the Professional Employer Organization, but cannot move forward with payroll, software subscriptions, etc. until we have our first Dai disbursement. This month's budget disbursements have been delayed.

Our team promises to publish accounting actuals during the first week of each month. This may be delayed for August since our setup with AccountAble is still not complete.

### Transparency Dashboard Improvements

We added team details and resource links to [govcomms.makerdao.network](https://govcomms.makerdao.network/)

### Hiring an Engagement Lead

Our efforts here are shared between GovComms and the Talent CU that's being incubated under SES. So far they have presented us with a handful of applicants, soon to be interviewed. In parallel, David did a first interview with at least one other applicant.

Applicants are generally few, but I am confident we will find the right person for the role in the coming weeks.

[_Apply for the position here!_](https://makerdao.recruitee.com/o/engagement-lead-govcomms)

### Hiring Summary Team Contributors

Our Public Call Summary Team has been growing, with the introduction of a few new part-time contributors. Welcome, Andrea, Rody, and Zainab!

We are always looking for folks here so don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like to contribute!

[Apply to join us by commenting on this thread!](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/wanted-writers-and-reviewers-for-summary-team/9752)

## Work Being Done

### Taking Ownership

With the official launch of this team, we have already begun taking responsibility for the work outlined in our mandate that was previously being handled by other teams. We now operate:

- [Forum at a Glance](https://forum.makerdao.com/tag/forum-at-a-glance) weekly publication.
- MakerDAO's [Holiday/Time-Off Sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U7nhBG96z233TKK3jK59be74shdEAEJQXZ_AnsXD0BE/edit?usp=sharing).
- Publishing(written versions), final QA, and feedback survey of [Maker Relay.](https://forum.makerdao.com/tag/maker-relay)

### Sharpening Documentation & Workflow

Since the launch of the CU, we have added a ton to [our public drive.](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GBAeTx4jmob7wRs7_LK32Bh_Y-pHzPvV?usp=sharing)

Following the SES team's example, we created a basic [GovComms CU Overview presentation](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s8lxiq3-HXNzSiGYgpdwYBDnDMGYA0mU4R8wd58nPqk/edit?usp=sharing) in PowerPoint. Our previous CU overview presentation is on Figma and slightly outdated, so we took the fundamentals and re-crafted them into something basic and fresh for anyone to look through and understand what our team does.

Supporting documentation around all our active projects is growing with project plans/descriptions, metrics tracking, and workflow process docs coming into existence.

### Starting up Issue Discussion Calls

Once we have a full-time Engagement Lead we will move forward more aggressively with issue discussion calls. In the meantime, our team has begun coordinating the first _internal_ issue discussion call around addressing the overconcentration of USDC backing Dai. The intention being that the internal teams review and document all the approaches available and their associated pros/cons/nuances before making this documentation available to the community for further comment. This exercise is being done to understand what the most impactful approaches are and how Maker teams should prioritize them in the coming year.

### Starting up a Team Updates Audit

In determining what our updates should contain and how we can best align with other teams, we've begun documenting the various ways the current Core Units update the community. This project will result in actionable recommendations from our team on how we can all come to closer standards for team updates.

### InfoSec Consult

Being proactive about data security and the tools we use is important. This week we sat down with Dimitru, a former Foundation Tech-Ops team member, about google drive information security best practices. As many of you know, our team intends to collect identity and contact information for MakerDAO and its stakeholder segments to be used internally for research and outreach projects. Before starting on this, we must hire an Engagement Lead and conduct some research for the best way to operate this project. Likewise, a public MakerDAO people registry is also in the works but will contain very limited, opt-in-only information.

### Reddit Overview

David met with [Mario](https://www.reddit.com/user/mariouy1986), our current r/MakerDAO Reddit moderator, to discuss the state of Reddit, trends, and other insights Mario has collected. Expect some documentation to be published in our public drive soon. The goal of this call was to assess Marios ongoing availability and our moderator needs. We do not need anyone new at this time, smooth sailing continues.

### Maker Relay Updates

[Maker Relay](https://forum.makerdao.com/tag/maker-relay) got a facelift! We worked with @content-production to implement some major improving changes.

- New Banner Style
- New Information Structure

It's workflow also got a facelift!

- New [Maker Relay rocketchat channel.](https://chat.makerdao.com/group/MakerRelay)
- New Maker Relay Segment Sign-up sheet (internal use).

We encourage Facilitators, CU members, and senior community members to join the #MakerRelay chat. This way coverage of any given topic can be addressed in a single location where all the collaborators can be found.

### Published

_08/01/21 - 08/19/21_

- Monthly Governance Review
[July 2021](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/maker-governance-review-july-2021/9758)
- Maker Relay (Dual effort between MKT-001 & us)
[#56](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/maker-relay-ep-56/9649/1)
[#57](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/maker-relay-ep-57/9760)
[#58](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/maker-relay-ep-58/9892)
- Forum at a Glance
[07/30 - 08/05](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/forum-at-a-glance-july-30th-august-5th/9708/3)
[08/06 - 08/12](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/forum-at-a-glance-august-6th-12th/9823/2)
[08/13 - 08/19](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/forum-at-a-glance-august-13th-19th/9936/2)

## Up Ahead

- Engagement Lead gets hired.
- Sprint on developing the Emergency Communication Response Process Docs
- More progress on everything mentioned above.