# Catalyst United Week 45 (Nov 7-13)

## TL;DR

Outside of Catalyst funding, there are dedicated rapid-funding treasuries to be spent on improving various aspects of Project Catalyst.

The Veteran Proposal Assessor Working Group (vPA WG) is one example of such community-owned treasuries. The purpose of this working groups is to experiment the **side-treasuries model**. The vPA WG is currently developing a **bounty-based** workflow to solve high-priority issues. Contribute and get rewards! Anyone can join (you don't need to be a vPA!)

| :zap: Fingers itching?? GET INVOLVED NOW and [JOIN THE CATALYST UNITED DISCORD](https://discord.gg/k3BfbJ9m) or [READ MORE](https://hackmd.io/@PA-vPATreasury/HJsnAOA7s#vPA-Process-Working-Group-Main-Page)|
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### Background
In Fund8, a group of community members lead by the Catalyst Circle v3 Proposal Assessor representative recognised the need to establish a more flexible and rapid mechanism to incentivise improvements to Project Catalyst. This resulted in a [proposal](https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/403745) aimed at improving the Catalyst Quality Assurance process by creating a **PA/vPA Operations Treasury** - a rapid funding mechanism to fund improvements PA & vPA processes in a distributed manner. This resulted in a PA/vPA Operations Treasury [governing body policies](https://docs.google.com/document/d/15uCIF56W0xZWH0WMKQ_lZQM8y2jp4uHOzunsEl9t3y0/edit#heading=h.x73mlbdz425l)).

### Framework: Side-Treasury, Working Group, Task Force
The PA/vPA Operations Treasury research resulted in a hierarchical framework designed with principles of decentralisation, accountability and flexibility in mind.

*Side-Treasuries* can apply and win funding from Project Catalyst. Each one should have a charter and a clearly stated purpose. For example, to improve the PA/vPA process.

Under each *Side-Treasury*, *Working groups* can be set up. These have an even more limited scope, for example to improve the *Proposal Assessor Guidlines*, *vPA incentives model*.

Within each Working Group, temporary *Task Forces* can be spun up. These focus on something even more narrow, for example *Criteria for Excellent Assessments*. All of the above groups have some form of membership process. Currently, Task Forces are the ones that define Bounties. A person does not have to go through any type of membership application process to submit work for a *Bounty*.

If this framework proves to be useful, the hope was that more community members can spin up their own *Side Treasuries*, *Working Groups*, and *Task Forces*. Each with freedom to choose their own purpose and governance model.

### vPA Working Group experiment
The PA/vPA Operations Treasury decided to set up a vPA WG in order to further develop the details of this framework. The **main purpose** was to **set up** and **maintain** a **bounty** driven **workflow** to organize work **around vPA process improvements**. The initial design can be [found here.](https://hackmd.io/@PA-vPATreasury/SJqcbF0Qj#The-current-Bounty-flow-visualised). Due to the experimental nature there is some flexibility - especially in light of the many urgent issues facing Project Catalyst. You can read the [vPA WG charter](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zYMKkDKdZzRq4kW55ZBYQPOKR0xvngiZvJ6Ge8TaleU/edit#) to get details about the policies. For an overview of the work, check out the PA/vPA [HackMD](https://hackmd.io/@PA-vPATreasury/S1H32eyNs).

Right now, there is only the "[Catalyst Improvements f10 Task Force](https://hackmd.io/@PA-vPATreasury/S1H32eyNs)". This is experimental and broad in scope because we are developing this model. and is a subset of the aforementioned

The work of the Working Group and Task Forces is coordinated using the Catalyst United [discord](https://discord.gg/TyQvFzZkcn) and [Dework](https://app.dework.xyz/catalyst-circle-ca-r/veteran-ca-wg) (currently using the vPA WG space).

#### Current work areas
1. Gather feedback and identify priority issues
2. Turn feedback and issues into actionable items in a bounty workflow
3. Propose changes to Catalyst process based on the identified priority issues

### Working Group Goals

#### Primary goals
- Improve vPA/PA process
- Setup & pilot distributed workflow

#### Secondary goals
- Create side treasuries after pilot
- Create documentation on how to set up workflow
- Problem-based-learning workshops on how to set up workflow

| :zap: Ready to get involved?! [JOIN THE CATALYST UNITED DISCORD](https://discord.gg/k3BfbJ9m) or [DIVE in to the DOCS](https://hackmd.io/@PA-vPATreasury/HJsnAOA7s#vPA-Process-Working-Group-Main-Page)|
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