Community!
I hope everyone is staying healthy and safely away from Omicron. I would like to thank our community members for all the questions and interest prompted by my last post on November 12.
Here is a follow-up post to let you know what’s been cooking since then:
1 - Guilds Grant Program
We aimed to launch the Grants program in November, but unfortunately we needed more time to adjust compliance requirements. This means we will still accept applications from eligible Guilds throughout December, with the aim of starting the grant on January 1, 2022.
As explained in my November post, we would like to offer grants to Guilds that have been active in the NEAR Ecosystem for at least 3 months; have earned trust from our community; and have proven to be valued contributors to the ecosystem.
It’s very important to understand that the Grant is designed to set these Guilds up for self-sustainability, and to ensure they will continue to create value for and contribute to the development of the NEAR ecosystem. Our goal is to create a community-driven economy around apps built on NEAR.
For those interested in applying to the Guild Grant Program:
- Please write a Forum Post with your Guild’s vision, mission, and a 6-month roadmap.
- Include clearly defined objectives, a budget, and ways by which success can be measured.
- For help preparing your application, feel free to contact @mecbecs or myself—we are happy to have a chat and guide you through the process.
2 - Community Team Objectives - Mid-Term Q4 Review
We’ve completed our mid-term review, and are happy to share the progress and provide an overview of what the Community team has been working on.
Don’t miss @mecsbecs Summary Post!
3 - NEAR Meetups
We are launching Global NEAR Meetups as part of the “NEAR my City” initiative. I’m very excited about this program and hope to get everyone involved. @jlwaugh is leading coordination and is ready to help local leaders organize events and engage contributors in strategic ways.
Our aim is to complete 5 pilots—complying with local government regulations—before the end of 2021, then have a proper rollout with lessons learned from the pilots and fully documented support some time in January 2022.
For more information check out the Wiki or reach out to James.
4 - Payout Time? Let’s Talk About Proposals
As you know, we’ve moved to Astro DAO and continue to fund Guilds’ activities and work through the Ecosystem Development DAO, Creatives DAO, and Marketing DAO.
For Marketing DAO proposals:
- Please share your intentions with the DAO Council for guidance before you submit your proposal. We strongly suggest you agree on success metrics and estimated payout in advance. The marketing DAO will only consider proposals valued at less than USD 20,000 and will not approve payouts in advance of completing the work.
- For Guilds and Contributors that would like to explore higher value rewards for proposals (above $20K), feel free to reach out to the Community Team.
For Ecosystem Development DAO proposals:
- Reach out to the DAO Council members for guidance.
All proposals must be posted in the forum for public feedback, all links and documented results need to be legible and relevant. Questions from community members need to be addressed before the proposal is approved.
For Guilds planning to apply for the Grant, please follow the usual process for reward payouts until the Grant is awarded.
Note: It’s important that Guilds providing services to projects and other Ecosystem members gather feedback for the work performed through this form: Guilds Work Assessment. We are looking to level up the quality of work so that you can be rewarded for a job well done!
Guilds Office Hours
We are thrilled with the participation of Guilds members to @Jessica bi-weekly Office Hours. We encourage you to join and ask questions, share ideas, explore opportunities and get to know other fellow Guild members. Hope to see you next Friday.
Last but not least, we continue to support the adoption of Astro DAO. We have over 60 Guilds that have now completed their transition from V1 sputnik. I am very excited about that! 
We’re a strong community of passionate contributors, and we want to support projects and apps that are committed to growing and scaling our Ecosystem.
