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Meetings Guide

Meeting Planning​

  • Please announce the meeting a few days in advance. You might want to use the advice process and Doodle to find a date if the meeting is not regular.
  • Be sure that there is at least one person taking notes in the meeting.
  • Be sure that there will be somebody present who is capable of streaming the meeting.
  • We use Interspace or Discord for our meetings.
  • Please don't forget to announce the meeting in the #scheduling channel of Discord before you begin.
  • There should always be an introductory round and a closing round.
  • After the meeting, please make sure the notes are saved in Notion, a link to the notes is posted in the #meetingnotes channel of Discord, and the video is published to our Transparency YouTube channel.

Note Taking​

  • There should be a designated note taker for each meeting.
  • We use Notion for record keeping of our meeting notes.

Streaming and Video Recording​

We record and/or livestream our online video conferences for record keeping, to support our team and to uphold our values of transparency and accountability. You can find recordings of our meetings on the Giveth Trasnparency YouTube Channel.

How to record meetings for Giveth Transparency:​

  • We use OBS to livestream and record our video calls. You can download it here.
  • During installation select "Optimize for streaming, recording is secondary".
  • Select YouTube as the streaming service and input the Giveth Transparency YouTube Stream Key. If you need access to the Stream Key, please ask one of our team members.
  • In general, the recommended settings in the setup wizard are already optimized for your device, but feel free to adjust them.
  • Setup your video and audio sources; we recommend using Window Capture for streaming calls.
  • When you are ready to stream the meeting, select the appropriate window to capture and select "Start Streaming". Your video will be automatically livestreamed on YouTube.
  • For a more thorough setup guide, check out this video from our friends at the Token Engineering Commons (TEC).

Governance of Meetings

If you are looking for more notes on past Giveth DAC/Community Meetings, you can find this here.

Meeting Types & Intentions​

Giveth aims to operate meetings that are efficient, connective, fair, transparent and heart-centered. We do this by honoring time and agreements that the collective has agreed to. Some meetings like our weekly Sunday Community Call are intended to deliver updates and highlights so that all circles can understand the latest and greatest of one another, and be in alignment. In our Community Call, the time is not to brainstorm ideas or make decisions but rather to share updates.

Other meetings, like our weekly Monday Governance Call aka GIVernance, are intended to present proposals and field objections or feed-forward from the group. Besides these larger, recurring group meetings, Contributors can schedule 1 on 1 or small group work sessions to bring a specific task through to completion. These meetings gather necessary participants to focus on a goal and drive it home.

Meeting Roles​

There are specific roles to be filled. In general, we use roles to avoid things getting personal. For instance, it is not that Griff is interrupting Dani, but rather that the Facilitator is making sure the Smart Contract Reporter respects the meeting's process.

The Facilitator​

The Facilitator needs to stay curious and calm. They make sure the meeting process is RESPECTED at all costs, like a referee. The Facilitator is encouraged to interrupt when people are getting off topic and is discouraged from making extra commentary or from coaching. It is very important that the Facilitator stay neutral.

The Facilitator holds the space so that people can process their tension on their own and react as they need to express themselves freely in a safe, controlled environment.

The Note Taker​

Note taking is important because it allows us to capture meeting highlights in a clear, organized way and store them in Notion, our shared transparent tool. The Facilitator can also be the Note Taker for smaller meetings, but in general it is best if they are 2 different people.

The most important task is to record the agenda items. Everything else recorded is bonus :-D. The Note Taker has the responsibility the go to the person when there is a conflict interpreting the results of the meeting.

After the meeting, the Note Taker will share a link to the meeting notes in the #meetingnotes Discord channel.

The Livestream Recorder​

The Livestream Recorder is in charge of recording and publishing the audio/video recording of the meeting in the Giveth Transparency YouTube channel. In order to properly fulfill this responsibility, it is important that the Livestream Recorder be on time and present for the duration for all meetings that they are responsible for recording to ensure everything is being captured and shared transparently.

The Proposer​

The Proposer is the person who put a tension on the agenda for the group to discuss. A 'tension' is languaging commonly used in sociocracy and holacracy. When someone has an objection, it's an issue, or tension, that needs to be processed - usually by way of creating or adapting the proposal until the tension is alleviated and the proposal/solution can be passed.

It is the Proposer's responsibility to propose a solution to the tension and it is their responsibility to make sure that their solution will alleviate the tension. It is NOT their responsibility to solve other people's problems. One tension at a time.

Don't feel pressured to solve other people's problems with your solution. Everyone is an adult and we need everyone to take care of themselves. That starts with you taking care of your responsibilities. You do not have to take any of the feedback you received.

The Reactors​

The Reactors are everyone who is not the Proposer during the decision making process. They are encouraged to freely react however they want during the reaction round.

The Objector​

The Objector needs to stay curious and calm. They are anyone who believes the proposed solution to the Proposer's tension would cause harm or move Giveth backwards. If they have a simple concern about the proposal or think something should be added to the proposal but don't believe the proposal would concretely cause harm or move Giveth backwards, then it is not a valid objection and it should be ruled as an invalid objection by the Facilitator.

Sample Meeting Flow​

A Facilitator and a Note Taker for the meeting should have been chosen ahead of time and once everyone is at the meeting, the meeting can begin.

For our GIVernance Call specifically, we follow many of the sociocratic principles. This meeting is structured following the example of governance meetings in sociocracy.

The purpose of a governance meeting is to:

  • Create, remove or modify the Roles of the Circle
  • Create, remove or modify the Policies of the Circle
  • Elect people to the core roles of the Circle

Now we will walk through a sample meeting flow and governance process:

1. Optional Centering​

The Facilitator may choose to begin the meeting by leading the group through a centering practice to ground everyone's energy and tune into the same frequency. This may look like breathwork, a short meditation or visualization, sharing an inspirational quote or a combo platter.

2. Check in​

Everyone voices what is most alive for them, reveals any momentary personal distractions and states a 30 second or less intention for the meeting. One person speaks at a time. This is not a time for responses or discussion.

3. Facilitator States Meeting Logistics​

A simple space to triage any administrative and logistical issues to take into account for the meeting. E.g., We have 2 hours for the meeting; Jen needs to leave early; this meeting is being live streamed and has 25 viewers so far; we'll be bringing lunch at 1pm; etc.

4. Building the Agenda​

The Faciliator introduces the pre-prepared meeting agenda and then opens the space for additional agenda requests before diving in. Agenda items may be submit ahead of time via Discord, previous meeting discussion and/or curated by the Meeting Facilitator.

The goal is to build an agenda of tensions, or topics, to process. There is no specific order and anyone can add items to the agenda. The Note Taker captures the agenda items for everyone. The Facilitator will determine the order these agenda items are processed.

5. Process each agenda item with the Integrative Decision Making process​

The Facilitator encourages everyone to take notes and determines the order these agenda items are processed on the fly.

Present Proposal​

Either the Meeting Facilitator shares the update/highlight with the group -or- the Proposer describes the tension and in one sentence makes a proposal to resolve it. The proposal should in general be a creation of a circle, role or policy. Only the proposer speaks during this time.

Clarifying Questions​

All the meeting participants may ask clarifying questions about the tension or proposal to ensure they have a good understanding. The Proposer then has a chance to respond to questions. This is not a space for back and forth discussion.

It's NOT allowed to use clarifying questions to give an opinion about the proposal. Opinions, suggestions, reactions... all should be left for the Reaction Round coming next. The Facilitator will cut off any question that's conveying an opinion or isn't intended to better understand the proposal. There is no hard line between clarifying question and reaction, and it's at the Facilitator's discretion to discern between the two.

Reactions​

One at a time, each person reacts to the proposal as they see fit. No response or interruption is allowed during someone's reaction. Any type of reaction is welcome, from intellectual critiques to emotional outbursts. The only caveat is that reactions should not be engaging someone in particular. Everyone reacts except the Proposer.

Reactions are the only step of the governance meeting when people can speak freely. It's a perfect phase for providing different perspectives and suggesting improvements to the proposal, so that the Proposer can integrate those changes if he or she likes them.

This is the dangerous part of this meeting if people want to keep talking and talking… that is ok, and HAS to be allowed. This could make these meetings long.

Amend & Clarify​

After all reactions are complete, the Proposer can optionally clarify the intent of the proposal, or amend it based on the reactions. Only the proposer speaks; no discussion allowed.

Although the proposer can modify the proposal however they want, the goal is for the Proposer to amend their proposal if they found a better way to address their tension. It's not his or her job to address all the concerns and reactions heard during the reaction round, or even to make improvements that were suggested by other participants.

Watch out for proposal creep.

Objection Round​

One at a time, the Facilitator asks each participant if they see "any reason why adopting this proposal would cause harm or move Giveth backwards." The proposer also gets the opportunity to raise an objection. Objections are stated, tested and captured without discussion. One person may have several objections, and everyone's objections must be captured before we move to the next step.

If there is no objection, the proposal is adopted and we move to the next agenda item.

The Facilitator will need to test the objection occasionally to determine if the objection is valid or to help the Objector clarify the objection. To test, there are 3 questions to ask:

  • How do you believe adopting this proposal would cause harm or move Giveth backwards?
  • Does this objection still exist if this proposal wasn't implemented?
  • Is the proposal good enough for now and safe enough to try, knowing we can readdress this later if problems arise?
Integration​

If one or several Objections were raised, the Facilitator moves to the Integration step. The goal is to amend the proposal so that it would not cause the Objection, and would still address the proposer's original tension. Objections are integrated one at a time. For each objection, the Facilitator facilitates a discussion to help integrate the objection. Mostly the Objector and the Proposer speak, but others can help as well. The discussion stops as soon as the Objector and the Proposer have both agreed that an amended proposal would not cause an objection while still addressing the Proposer's tension. This is not a place to debate the value of the proposal or the objection! We need to focus on finding an acceptable amendment to the proposal that both the Objector and Proposer agree on. MOVE FORWARD ASAP!

Once all objections are integrated, go back to an Objection Round to ensure there is no new objection.

6. Check out​

Each person has an opportunity to share a closing reflection on this meeting. No discussion.

7. Transparency Publishing​

The Note Taker posts the meeting notes in the #meetingnotes channel on the Giveth Discord.

The Livestream Recorder publishes the audio/video recording of the meeting in the Giveth Transparency YouTube channel.