Steem Foundation

# Steem Foundation ## Announcement and Structure Ned [4:45 AM] Aggroed -- I'm completely open to the governance structures And don't want to be in the way whatsoever Anyone who is nominated, we'll get their emails and begin deliberating and finding one or more of the folks to be point person to finish setting up a foundation. I'd be happy to include you! My plan is to fund it through inception -> then it's potential is to grow into an non-profit, mission oriented organization for Steem, that can flexibly add more to its doings as it raises more funds and shows success Ned [2:56 PM] A few months ago, Steemit made significant progress setting up a Foundation to support Steem sustainability. Given the moment, it makes sense to find a person or two to fund and lead this. Is there anyone that comes to mind for you from the Steem community to lead this? The general idea is hand the project to someone who will set up a Foundation governance that advances Steem, is transaparent, accountable -- is flexible for adopting more responsibilities as it grows. Take it through launch then launch fundraising efforts -- take it into actually executing given the funds it receives -- to which we would plan to donate a multiple of other initial donations It is often the person most reluctant who would be best to lead However, I believe the task should be manageable - we have contracted an organization that specializes in setting up >Foundations and can manage to the goals (edited) Somehow, it would be great to get the initial nominated group to deliberate in their own channel, with comms appearing publicly The funding I'm committed to is the initialization funding I expect once it is initialized that there will be a subsequent fundraiser for year one (edited) Based on fundraising goals, I expect it would attempt certain initiatives (edited) I expect it will raise significant funding for year one (at least), and am committed to making that happen Once an accountable structure is set up, I'm very optimistic is will become logical to put more responsibilities in this org Ned [4:49 AM] Can we publish this channel publicly? Ned [4:49 AM] Please 🙂 I don't want any seats in the org for myself or Steemit, Inc folks, btw - for clear corporate distinctions ## Objectives Pointers about objectives, governance, mission & vision Ned [4:53 AM] I am stepping out of the way now Please appoint a leader aggroed [4:53 AM] Ned do you have a scope in mind of what the foundation should cover? Ned [4:53 AM] I will be here for support aggroed [4:53 AM] or a broad objective? Ned [4:53 AM] The general idea is hand the project to someone who will set up a Foundation governance that advances Steem, is transaparent, accountable -- is flexible for adopting more responsibilities as it grows. Take it through launch then launch fundraising efforts -- take it into actually executing given the funds it receives -- to which we would plan to donate a multiple of other initial donations A foundation that can handle as little as marketing campaigns with flexibility to grow to handle GitHub repos and engineering outsourcing aggroed [4:54 AM] are you open to creating a process for delegations from misterdelegation under this group? Ned [4:55 AM] I would suggest something like that be baked in to be manage-able from the way the Foundation is setup. Whether that needs to be in the by laws, I'm not sure; I'm not sure it's not too specific. A process for incorporating a process like that seems adviseable, (edited) Short answer, yes. aggroed [4:57 AM] Do you have an initial budget in mind that would come from Steemit to support this initiative? Ned [4:58 AM] The initia lbudget is only to setup the organization That will cost between two and 15 thousand dollars ## Contacts & Fund Raising Ned [4:59 AM] I have a series of communications, contacts and setup documents to share with the group once it is somewhat organized with co-leaders or leader, etc Ned [5:01 AM] replied to a thread: There needs to be a fundraising exercise once the organization is formed. I am committed to making that substantial for the first year, through some commitment later to a multiple of funds received for certain fundraising thresholds. This group must be willing to launch a fundraising campaign for this to work. ## Nominations TODO: Define how nominations work. How the nominations should be handled, how the board seats should be handled etc. aggroed [5:03 AM] I know you were looking at this a lot a year ago, did you see anything along the lines of technology grants that might be able to support a non-prof like this? Ned [5:04 AM] ^ seems worth creating a role for someone to look into (edited) Ok, I believe I need to help get this to one more step aggroed [5:05 AM] yeah, grant writer seems an imperative Ned [5:05 AM] The nomiated group should accept anymore nominees after soliciting from the first transcript post thecryptodrive [5:05 AM] What are the initial thoughts, operating the foundation as a trust with the Steem network as beneficiary or as a DAC? Ned [5:05 AM] After that, the nominee group should nominate each other for two co-leader positions The co-leaders shall be blessed by the group to pull the foundation to fruition (edited) aggroed [5:09 AM] I'd suggest we talk about Crim's comment about Witnesses and conflicts before going on we have a lot of witnesses in this group Ned [5:09 AM] That perceived issue could get resolved through the next round of nominations llfarms [5:10 AM] I don’t know that being a witness is a conflict of interest as it’s an elected official who is vested in the platform, but I know some would disagree. True Ned [5:10 AM] There also should be rotating board seats in the by laws, if not some seat reserved for STEEM-based votes, or some such aggroed [5:16 AM] Having formed a group before and got bitten by it before I would argue the first piece of business is actually settng community guidelines llfarms [5:16 AM] Not without everyone here Ned [5:16 AM] We need to solicit more member before setting organization guidelines, maybe community guidelines is differen Agree, we need everyone here ## Steem Community Gathering aggroed [5:31 AM] I want you to mark your calendars. At 1pm EST on Sunday Feb 3rd I'm going to host a community wide open forum. There's lots of ideas of community governance. I've been floating mine around, which I've called Steem Council, but there are others as well. I'm inviting anyone in the community that wants to share what they are working on, why it has merit, and why we should support it/ use it/ adopt it will be given a platform to share that.