---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'MIP39c2-SP8: Governance Communications Core Unit, COM-001'
tags: [MIPs]

---

---
tags: MIPs
---

# MIP39c2-SP8: Governance Communications Core Unit, COM-001

## Preamble

```
MIP39c2-SP#: 8
Author(s): David Utrobin
Contributors: Many
Status: RFC
Date Applied: 2021-03-12
Date Ratified: <yyyy-mm-dd>
```

## Sentence Summary

MIP39c2-SP8 adds Core Unit COM-001: Governance Communications.

## Specification

*Note: the information presented in this section, and more, is available as permanent documentation in [our public drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GBAeTx4jmob7wRs7_LK32Bh_Y-pHzPvV?usp=sharing) as part of our transparency reporting. It will be kept up-to-date even after the publication and approval of this MIP.*

## Paragraph Summary

The Governance Communications Core Unit performs a complementary set of resources and services that focus on MakerDAO's informational accessibility and communication practices as a public organization.

**Vision**

A healthy communication and information infrastructure:

* Makes consistent, comprehensive, and accurate information accessible.
* Has well-managed public communication venues.
* Engages with stakeholders to improve its output.
* Provides dedicated support and multiple points of access to members of the media.
* Advocates for, facilitates, and promotes beneficial organizational communication practices.
* Maps the organization and its surrounding stakeholder ecosystem.
* Results in a more effective and less opaque organization that attracts more stakeholders.

## Motivation

Now that MakerDAO has completed the launch of Multi-Collateral Dai, followed by very strong growth, *it is time to focus on improving MakerDAO as a public organization*, not just as a technology.

MakerDAO is a multi-headed rapidly-growing organization with many categories of focus and numerous stakeholder groups. As a result, our stakeholders face many difficulties; keeping up with the growing volume and complexity of information, spending too much time searching, filtering noise, understanding Maker lingo, not knowing who is a point of contact for what, inability to make it to all the meetings, and more. These are only some of the barriers to increasing the quality of their experience working with us, and as we grow these will only get worse and worse.

**Our motivation is to improve MakerDAO's performance as a public organization by removing information and communication barriers for stakeholders.** A dedicated communications team is fundamental for strengthening MakerDAO’s dependability day-to-day and in crisis situations. Such a team would help MakerDAO operate more effectively as a public organization, become more transparent and reliable, increase trustworthiness among stakeholders, and ultimtely attract more business interest.

## Core Unit Name

Name: Governance Communications
ID: COM-001

## Core Unit Facilitator

David Utrobin

## Mandate

Perform a complementary set of resources and services that focus on MakerDAO's informational accessibility and communication practices as a public organization. Below is the envisioned scope; not all of it will be covered immediately, and we may alter it in the future as a result of feedback and new developments.

![](https://i.imgur.com/kx59gmp.png)

### Resources

**Governance News & Reports**
_COM-001 leads this, and collaborates with other Core Units._

- Weekly Maker Relay
- Monthly Governance Report
- Annual Governance Report

**Public Call Summaries**
_Leads a team of part-time contributors to produce summaries for all public calls._

- Seven Call Types and Growing
    - Governance and Risk
    - Know Your MIP
    - Core Unit Launch Pod Sessions
    - Core Unit Tools
    - Core Unit Rituals
    - Office Hours
    - Speaker Series
- Three types of summary
    - Snippets
    - Semi-Transcibed
    - Editiorial

**MakerDAO Public Calendar**
_Maintains and improves the calendar, and acts as a point of access for other CUs to add events._

- GovAlpha also has access to this Calendar, for redundancy and collaboration.
- Access point ensures the new calls are tracked by the summaries team.

**Organization & Stakeholder Mapping**
_Creates and maintains a public Organization Chart of MakerDAO and non-public stakeholder registries for the DAO._

- Org Chart captures all CUs, their Facilitators, and other Key people.
- Stakeholder Map, captures the surrounding landscape of stakeholder groups.
- Stakeholder Registries:
    - MKR Voters
    - Freelance Contributors
    - Delegates
    - Media
    - Key people at other DAOs
    - Backup Registries for other CUs (Partners, Integrators, etc)
- Use Cases for Registries and Backup Registries
    - Rollodexes for DAO-use will enable better connectivity.
    - Groups stakeholders for easier outreach.

### Services

**Stakeholder Engagement with Informational Focus**
_Engages stakeholders for information-related feedback and advises MakerDAO on how to improve._

- Cross-DAO research, outreach, and coordination around mutually important issues.
- MKR Holder outreach about information disclosure quality.
- Works with Core Units to improve their Reporting standards.

**Issue Discussion Public Call Series**
_Leads a public call series that discusses governance decisions and other issues, inviting the stakeholders that would be affected most._

- Used to discuss issues at all levels.
- Weighs pros and cons of varying proposals in the presence of a well-balanced group of stakeholders.
- Uses the stakeholder registries to inform relevant stakeholders about upcoming discussion calls.

**Press & Media Relations Support**
_Gives members of the media known points of access for engaging with us._

- Sets up an individual as a dedicated point of contact.
- Maintains and manages access to the Media Inquiries section of the forum.
- Works with other Core Units to resolve inquiries

**Emergency Communications Support**
_Ensures that crisis moments have the support of a dedicated communications team so that key actors can focus on decision making and executing solutions rather than managing public comms._

- Co-Authors Emergency Response Process MIP, still in conception.
- Maintains a set of emergency response templates in collaboration with other CUs.
- Posts and maintains a view-only Update Thread and a public Discussion Thread.
- Works with Protocol Engineering, Oracles, Risk, and others to publish live updates.
- Point of contact for Press Inquiries.
- Provides backup access to Stakeholder Registries for emergency outreach.

**Communication Platform Stewardship**
_Leads a small team of community moderators, establishes guidelines and best practices for moderating, suggests improvements for user experience._

- Facilitates moderation duties on our most used communication platforms
    * Forum.makerdao.com
    * Rocketchat
    * Reddit
- Collaborates with the Governance Core Unit to improve venues.

## Roadmap

### Month 1-3: Setup and Cover the Bases

* Execute on our active projects as usual.
* Set up administrative operations.
* Activate unlaunched projects (Issue Discussion Call, Org Mapping, etc)
* Hire and onboard for all required roles.
* Set up project owners.
* Set up project tracking.
* Set up Transparency Reporting & Self-Auditing.
* Assess budget, submit proposal for changes if needed.

### Month 3+: Execute and Report

* Execute on our mandate.
* Improve on our projects.
* Improve on our documentation and tracking.
* Refine our goals and vision per project.
* Update the roadmap for the next quarter and communicate explicitly about our progress, blockers, and needs.

## Team Structure

The Governance Communications Core Unit will function as a self-managing entity with a hierarchical management structure. Contributors and Project Managers answer to the Facilitator, who then answers to MKR holders and the wider community.

The three main roles in this Core Unit are Facilitator, Project Manager, and Contributor. The contributor role is not a full-time role. If a contributor is interested in a full-time role, they become a project manager.

| Title           | Commitment | Name           |
|-----------------|------------|----------------|
| Facilitator     | Full-time  | David Utrobin  |
| Project Manager (Content Lead) | Full-time  | Artem Gordon   |
| Project Manager (People Lead) | Full-time  | Hiring     |
| Project Manager (Engagement Lead) | Full-time  | Hiring     |
| Contributor     | Part-time  | x8  |

## Team Credentials

Members on this team bring expertise in communications, english writing skills, and project management. Members should also bring a comprehensive understanding of the Maker Protocol, its governance process, and its stakeholders.

## Working Philosophy

_Aggregate and Simplify. Stakeholders need to be kept informed._

This team works on a variety of projects and is fully remote. This means that as a team we embrace the concept of agile workflows, pair and group working sessions, mutual accountability, and getting things done. As part of our day-to-day, we:

* Consider how each of our projects can be improved and iterated on. 
* Maintain an open culture for discussion, collaboration, and learning.
* Are unafraid to voice concerns or give constructive feedback.
* Embrace a shared decision-making methodology to avoid getting stuck as a team.
* Maintain active relationships with mandated actors and the greater stakeholder community.
* Aim to constantly raise the bar for quality and coverage.
* Keep a tight coupling with the Governance Core Unit and the community to ensure communication needs are being met.

## Legal Structure

**This section will be updated before the freeze deadline ahead of a July Formal Submission**

* Operating Entity based in x.
* Working with a third-party company to enlist HR services to ensure good options for worker compensation and benefits.
* US & non-US team members.
