This Charter outlines the structure and responsibilities of the Milestones and Metrics (M&M) Council and its participants. This is the Season 7 Charter, which introduces and sets in place a founding Charters for Season 7.
The Milestones and Metrics Council is established to:
- Measure and evaluate the completion of milestones for grants given to initiatives within the Optimism Collective.
- Maintain a clear and orderly record of historical and pending milestones, providing a simple platform for grant recipients to report progress and for the community to see grant completion and funding disbursement
- Quantify the impact of grants made by the Collective by working with data providers like OSO and/or OP Labs
- Track milestones and metrics for any other relevant situations as they occur, with guidance from the Optimism Foundation.
- Manage the delivery of grants to recipients selected by the Grants Council, ensuring compliance with grant policies and successful completion of milestones.
The Milestones and Metrics Council will be managed by an elected council of a lead and 3 reviewers. The council will have full decision-making authority as to which projects approved by the Grants Council have fulfilled their milestones and should receive their milestone grant disbursements. These decisions will be published and made available to the grant reviewers and the general public.
The Milestones and Metrics Council will operate a Gnosis Safe multisig wallet, in accordance with the Collective Multisig Policy adapted for the M&M Council. In addition to the M&M, there will be additional signers from the GC and DAB. We will be working closely with the Foundation over S7 to structure good practices and fledge out how this will look.
Under normal circumstances, the Milestones and Metrics Council will:
- Maintain and update a clear record of grant milestones and their completion status.
- Review and validate milestone completion reports submitted by grant recipients in a timely manner.
- Disbursing grant funds to recipients upon successful completion and verification of milestones, inline with any lockups.
- Track and report on KPIs related to grant outcomes and overall impact.
- Coordinate with the Grants Council and the Optimism Foundation to ensure adherence to grant policies and effective grant lifecycle management.
In emergency situations, such as:
- Detection of fraud or misappropriation of funds.
- Significant deviation from agreed-upon milestones by grant recipients.
- Security breaches affecting grant funds or reporting systems.
The Milestones and Metrics Council will/may:
- Temporarily halt disbursement of grant funds pending further investigation.
- Initiate an internal review of the grant recipient’s activities.
- Adjust the timeline of a grant and consider extensions of denials in outstanding situations
- Adjust procedures to mitigate future risks, with any changes communicated promptly to the community.
- In the event that corrective measures are ineffective, the M&M will follow the enforcement procedures outlined in the Grant Policies
Cohorts and Appointment Terms
- Initial Term: Members of the Milestones and Metrics Council will be elected through the general governance process
- Future Terms: In the future, the Foundation has signaled the civil servant level of work the Council oversees and intentions to make it an appointed role in the future.
Participants on the Milestones and Metrics Council should meet the following criteria:
- Expertise: Proficiency in measurement, evaluation, data analysis, and reporting.
- Reputation: Known and trusted individuals or entities with a demonstrated alignment with the Optimistic Vision.
- Impartiality: Ability to maintain objectivity and fairness in assessing grant outcomes.
- Alignment: Disclose all conflicts of interest that could impact impartial decision-making.
- Secure: Maintain good industry standard Operational Security practices with regards to multisig signing.
As highlighted above the group’s goals and responsibilities are:
- Measure and evaluate the impact of milestones for grants given to initiatives within the Optimism Collective.
- Maintain a clear and orderly record of historical and pending milestones, providing a simple platform for grant recipients to report progress and for the community to review milestone completion.
- Develop and implement robust output measurement systems to oversee the milestones tracking process.
- Manage the delivery of grants to recipients selected by the Grants Council, ensuring compliance with grant policies and successful completion of milestones.
- Track milestones and metrics for any other relevant situations as they occur, with guidance from the Optimism Foundation.
The Council Lead will oversee the general administration of the Council and should:
- Oversee the provision and/or maintenance of external and internal information about the Milestones and Metrics Council, and any other resources needed by the Council
- Facilitate coordination across Councils by scheduling and hosting regular Council meetings.
- Prepare regular reports to communicate milestones decisions at the end of each review period to be published within a reasonable timeframe of the review period’s conclusion
- Exercise decision-making authority in the event that reviewers cannot come to consensus on an administrative or operational matter
- Final review and execute multisig transactions for milestones disbursements from the Council controlled multisig, pending changes decided internally throughout the season.
All Reviewers including the Lead should:
- Have the subject matter expertise required to evaluate advanced proposals. It is recommended that at least one member of the Council have a technical background
- Be accessible to grant recipients - within reason - to provide feedback, answer questions, and respond to comments. Reviewers should favor feedback on public channels but may provide direct feedback where doing so is efficient
- Work with Grants Council to ensure proposed milestones are clear, measurable, and achievable within the specified timeframe
- Maintain a participation rate >70% on group Council decisions and group meetings
- Review multisig transactions in a reasonable and prompt manner (less than 3 working days without prior notification).
If a member wishes to resign before the end of their term, they must:
- Notify the Council Lead at least 7 days in advance of the intended resignation date.
- Assist in transitioning responsibilities to ensure minimal disruption to Council operations.
- The Lead will assist in changing quorum and signing thresholds
- If necessary, the Lead will find a replacement for the resigned member
All Milestones and Metrics members are subject to Representative Removal as outlined in the Operating Manual. Removal votes will occur before the end of the next voting cycle. Please see Representative Structure Framework for additional details about edge cases related to removal.
All representatives may be removed from their position for failing to uphold the responsibilities outlined in the relevant Charter or for failing to act with honesty, integrity, and transparency. If there is a vote to remove a representative, the Lead, or a simple majority of the remaining membership, may appoint a replacement for the remainder of the term.
A Proposed Budget, linking to this Charter, will be proposed by each prospective Lead, subject to approval by governance. The Lead may propose a budget that contains variable rewards for members, provided that the evaluation algorithm for rewards is approved by a simple majority of members by the end of the first month of the term.
The canonical version of Charters for persistent structures will be published to GitHub. Any material updates to the Charter will be reflected with a new version number at the top of this document, at which point the updated version will go into effect.
It should finally be reiterated that the role of all structures are intended to be progressively and programmatically reduced over time, as its functionalities are no longer needed or can be effectively managed by other means. Ultimately, it is the goal of the Collective to reach a state of protocol and governance reliability that allows for the full and final dissolution of any non-essential structures.