## Leu Pioneer Community, Zürich
The valuable experiences made with the first Encointer community in Zurich serve to remove friction and adjust the Encointer system. The early months were used to identify bottlenecks and test different approaches to solve these.
The Pioneer community serves as a field experiment primarily. Secondly, we are striving to make Leu a successful example, other communities can use as a role model.
In general, the first mover needs significantly more resources to establish a new system than the nexts in line. For Encointer we assume that this principle will apply as well, which will put future spendings to launch communities into perspective.

### Facts and Figures

As of October 22nd, the Leu pioneer community looks back to:

* A total of 20 ceremonies with
* A total 401 ceremony attendances
* The Encointer Wallet has been installed >1'100
* The circulating suppyl of Leu passed 10'000 LEU
* The total turnover of known acceptance points: is at 3'800 LEU
* A total of 5 permanent places of acceptance (+3 temporarily)
* 11 community events (LEUträff, Info Point and Visiting)

### Noteworthy Achievements Jun-Sep
* 4 more points of acceptances joined our previous pioneer. Besides coffee, meals and beer, Leu can now buy locally produced delicacies, sustainable activewear, stationary and local honey. Find the complete [list of points of acceptances here](https://https://leu.zuerich/bazaar/)
* On June 12th the local newspaper with the highest reach in Zurich published [an article about the pioneer community Leu](https://www.20min.ch/story/zuercher-kryptowaehrung-leu-soll-ungleichheit-bekaempfen-610404225283) (german).
* On June 17th / 18th Leu was accepted at an [openair in Zurich](https://openairwipkingen.ch/). Here a picture of the [bar including the flyers](https://https://twitter.com/leu_zuerich/status/1537770136400175105).
* Successful increase of the nominal income by the community in Zurich from 22 $LEU to 44 $LEU.
* [LeuTräff - a Meetup Series](https://www.meetup.com/leu-zuerich/events/past/) to give updates and discuss the community currency Leu and reach new members has been engrained. Renowned guest speakers and around ~35 people are attending. Here is a picture from the last one [with Hongyang Wang.](https://twitter.com/leu_zuerich/status/1573704328153600000) LEUträff #7 is coming up
* Due to a critical bug on protocol level the Leu community was purged twice. The timely resolution and transparent communication, strengthened the trust.

### Points of Acceptances
The first months clearly indicated the businesses accepting the new currency as the bottleneck. A strategy to contain the bottleneck has been developed.
Firstly, we are focusing on finding owner-managed companies, sharing Encointer vision of financial inclusivity and towards a global Universal Basic Income.
This process has been designed and part-time $Leu sales force has been recruited. The first person is starting in the beginning of November to approach suitable businesses.
Secondly, to relieve the current points of acceptances from accumulating too much LEU as well as to start building a circular economy, we are targeting suppliers and designing a participatory “market maker” as an association for circular economy. The association for circular economy buys the LEU at a 20% discounted price and sells it consumers with 10% discount. The spread is used to finance its operation and to fulfill its purpose: helping foster the local economy. The association for circular economy is designed to be controlled by the community from day one, which is why we invited the current places of acceptances to co-found the association with us. So far we received soft commitments from the first two initial LEU places of acceptance.
Thirdly, we are suggesting that businesses distribute a part of the community currency revenue directly to their employees as a bonus. This point has a dependency with the growth of points of acceptances, since the attractiveness of community currency correlates strongly with possible places to spend it.

### Community Building
The key to success is a strong and flourishing community. At Leu we use the three step process postulated by the experts from [Get Together](https://https://gettogether.world/resources) as as mental model:
1. Spark the flame - Find early adopters and establish routines
2. Stoke the fire - Attract new people and build on top of established routines
3. Pass the torch - Enable community leaders to take over

The *spark the flame* phase was concluded with the [5th LEUträff](https://www.meetup.com/leu-zuerich/events/286416075/). In the following summer months more routines were added:
Firstly, suggesting to all community members to have a coffee after the ceremonies and using this social events to involve the members.
Secondly, the *Info Point* was launched as new format. We were luckey enough to find a community managed space in the busiest street in Zurich ([L200](https://langstrasse200.ch/)). During the *Info Point*, community leaders are present in the space and answer question and [help with setting up the wallet](https://twitter.com/MalikElBay/status/1580531589594763265). This format is very important in order to the strengthen the trust in the community.

### Marketing and Communication
We are working towards a tipping point in Zurich, by focusing our efforts in one district: All ceremony locations, LEUträffs and the major points of acceptances are in this district. The news article did help to create awareness. Next up is a billboard campaign, running in mid-November accompanied with a focused effort of the part-time advocates to introduce the concept to local businesses.
In the last few days one could overhear a few conversations in bars or clubs, where people were discussing this new community currency in Zurich. This effect was supposed to be created. Further, the Leu community is present on Twitter and Instagram. The LinkedIN page was recentely created by a motivated new community member.

### Misc
In order to have regulatory security the concept was discussed with a legal counsel **Add Name and Link here**. According to their first assessment, Leu and Encointer both can operate under Swiss Law without facing any legal risk. Even the envisaged association for circular economy can initially be operated without any creating regulatory hurdles.

## Global Marketing and Communication
Encointer publishes thought pieces on a regular basis as [blog posts on its website](https://encointer.org/blog/).
Further around three weekly posts on LinkedIN and Twitter keep the online communities informed about latest achievements and updates.
To streamline the bidirectional communication of the global Encointer efforts as well the different local communities, a forum based on [Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/) has been designed and deployed. Currently it is being populated by the Encointer team, to prepare for a public launch.
The search engine marketing campaigns, financed by the Google NPO grant, have been implemented and drive traffic to the Encointer website, ultimately paying in towards the creation of new communities.

**Evtl. Polkadot Decoded, live Demos und LATAM?
**

## Organisational Scaling
With the successful launch of the Zurich community the dependencies on the know-how of Encointer founder Alain Brenzikofer reached a critical point. To mitigate the risk of a SPOF and liberate Alain from the mainy operational duties, Malik El Bay was onboarded as deputy. [Malik El Bay](https://www.linkedin.com/in/malikelbay/) brings extensive experience in building and managing growing organisations to the table. Further, his deep knowledge of the blockchain technology ecosystem, qualified him to lecture Blockchain courses at Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences.

The month of September was mainly used for knowledge transfer, such that Alain Brenzikofer is freed from many operational tasks since the beginning of October, enabling him to start onboarding communities in the global south.

### OKR Process
To streamline the different teams working on Encointer and to set the direction for the next six months, a two-stage workshop has been conducted to yield clear objectives and measurable key results.

**Objective Pioneer Community:**
**The diverse Leu community is successful through and for Encointer.**

With Key Results

1. A 7,5% week over week growth, leads to around 15 points of acceptances in Zurich by 1.3.2023
2. A 7,5% week over week growth, leads to an average of 100 participants in Zurich by 1.3.2023

3. By 1.3.2023, 5 valuable and functioning resources and templates used by the Leu community, were used as examples for other communities

4. By 1.3.2023, 1 democratic vote on a high-impact topic has engaged 10% of the community (entitled to vote).

**Objective Global Effect**
**Encointer is growing and able to create sustainable social value on a global level.**

With Key Results:
1. By 1.3.2023, 3 new active communities were launched on Encointer mainnet and 10 new communities are in the onboarding process.

1. By 1.3.2023, a funding strategy, involving different financial sources, is implemented such that the next 18 months of development are secured.

1. Until 1.3.2023 The Encointer platform and its communities are not operational for maximally 2 days in total.

1. By 1.3.2023, 5 case studies show that the Encointer communities deliver social added value

Based on this OKRs, the four teams (marketing, communication, community and technology) suggested 13 initatives to work on, in order to contribtue towards reaching the two global objectives. Here a few examples of the initatives:
- Circular Economy
- Fame
- Stability
- Fundraising
- Facilitate community growth
- Business Model