TL;DR ~ we will be posting monthly and quarterly reports in order to facilitate coordination with greater accountability, empowering communities around the world.
Since our initial announcement of the NEAR Meet initiative to support local events globally, this program is evolving to facilitate coordination and collaboration between local guilds organizing both virtual and in-person experiences. Here is the 1st update of 2022 intended to start discussion about governance of NEAR community events.
Read our initial forum post:
Guidebook on the NEAR wiki:
Summary
- I think we should invite any / all brands organizing events to participate and coordinate NEAR guild events with our community of ecosystems.
- We may need a specific funding process for event sponsorship / media opportunities.
- Ecosystem Development DAO can review proposals + invoices.
- NEAR Discord integration with Moonbase ~ which DAO?
- Let’s integrate NEAR Meet Discord with “Events / Guilds” group in Community DAO
Report
Thus far, we have connected with at least one person in 45 cities, listed as channels in the NEAR Meet Discord. Last month, the community successfully organized 5+ events, including a virtual gathering to discuss community events with potential contributors.
This month, we have seen growth in the number of proposals, and our payout processes are improving. I’m super grateful to Grace, Rebecca, Sonja, Yessin, and the FLO Team for all their careful and important work!
Highlights:
Kapital (Berlin), Jakarta, Tulum, Odessa, Miami, Ankara, San Diego, Dubai, Vancouver, Kampala + NearHub, 3xr.space, Human Guild (San Francisco), BAF, 4NTS, Education Team, and OWS
IMPORTANT UPDATE
New Funding Process: Community Events
1. Create Proposal
For visibility, we ask you to share updates on the NEAR forum; however, you can discuss event #proposals and #reports wherever stakeholders participate.
Examples: Topics tagged proposals #proposals
2. Open Discussion → Send Payout Request
Ecosystem Development DAO can review proposals + invoices, and the NEAR Meet community can provide support on Discord.
Members: Grace, David, James, Zana
3. Submit Report
Most importantly, to build momentum, our expectation is you will share detailed #reports on your site, blog, Twitter, and / or NEAR forum. This update may include another proposal, following the report based on milestones and key results.
Examples: Topics tagged reports #reports
Global Community Events
Online gatherings and events are in scope for NEAR guilds, and we are collectively sharing knowledge about successfully producing awesome virtual experiences for the whole community.
How To Contribute:
- Get a NEAR Wallet and set up your NEARdrop account
- Follow the community events DAO and join the NEAR Meet Discord
- Propose an event, find what you need, and remember to submit a report #global
NEAR Meet
We initially used the Meetup.com platform because it provided a common resource for anyone organizing community events. However, it feels necessary to distinguish NEAR Meet from the global ecosystem of NEAR communities pursuing the same objectives.
Many event organizers have their own communities, and they use other platforms like Eventbrite or SplashThat. All who are organizing events aligned with the NEAR ecosystem should feel welcome to participate and learn how they might contribute to guilds and DAOs.
Event Sponsorship
There is a need to distinguish between community event funding and event sponsorship. NEAR Foundation Marketing Team will strategically sponsor Events and create amazing experiences like informative Town Hall presentations and NEAR | CON!
As more and more sponsorship / media opportunities (example) are presented to leaders in our community events program, we could establish a system of reviewing, funding, and coordinating those projects, while raising any proposals with offers worth consideration by NF Marketing.
Dev Guild(s)
So far, I have learned so much from @theChosenOne and @pransh of NEAR Dev Guild. They are finalizing a proposal for Q1 with goals to activate communities around the world. Their alignment with our vision of successful dev guilds may lead to new projects with enginears onboarded and empowered to build new solutions. Overall, their leadership of NEAR Meet will unlock greater potential to increase capacity for supporting developers in local guilds.
Tamago
For musical experiences, we have a really strong partner in Tamago, led by @clarian, who undaostands the music indaostry. He is working with professional agents to propose a series of Gatherings that feature NEAR integrated with dazzling performances.
“The Gatherings” Proposal:
NEAR Model UN
Personally, I’m fascinated by the United Nations and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and I can’t wait to see NEARMUN develop, led by a fantastic group of Nearians in Venezuela. They are building educational resources for any Model UN event organizer to integrate with content programming. Also, we will support any guild coordinating with teachers and students curious to learn about blockchain and its role in society.
Textbook: NEARMUN: 1st Report [Date: 3rd to 16th Jan 2022]
Governance Participation
NEAR Meet DAO
At our global NEAR Meet webinar in DAOcember, I shared plans for an experimental DAO focused on membership, rather than funding. To be clear, you are not required to join our participatory action research efforts, and the Ecosystem Development DAO is prepared to review any proposals + invoices. However, if you want your local guild represented as a group within a multi-group events DAO, we are pushing the limits of interdaomensional space travel.
As an experiment, members of any groups in our experimental NEAR Meet DAO will have access to private channels in the NEAR Meet Discord:
Community events DAO
Meanwhile, a group of leaders will try using a fresh DAO to create a flexible governance structure intended for supporting all kinds of guild events. Our team will continue discussing how and why this Events DAO might grow, develop, and evolve to facilitate community-driven coordination and collaboration. Let us know if you are interested!
All are welcome to join the community group of this events DAO.
Guild Events
Of course, many guilds already organize wonderful events IRL and online. My dream for this community events program would be to help connect any guilds with similar objectives, e.g. creating opportunities for teachers to learn about the NEAR ecosystem. How might we improve our decision-making processes to generate better outcomes?
- Sharing content resources ~ where? Google Drive?
- Using one calendar ~ which? Tockify → NearGuilds.com?
- Helping anyone ~ how? Guidebooks → The Wiki?
To discuss governance of NEAR community events, please join our Events Guild on Telegram.
NEAR Speak
Here is a great proposal focused on creating opportunities for NEAR ecosystem participants to speak at events, and I believe this will be crucial for success. Please reply to the below forum topic started by @GeorgePro1, and we can discuss any ideas or questions:
Related Communities
NEAR Design Guild
NEAR x Publish
Creative Guilds
Open Web Sandbox Events
New Twitter Account:
https://twitter.com/OWS_Events
[add yours to the list by editing this post directly]
Future Plans
I’m excited to support development of the NEAR Guilds platform, and I hope it may evolve into a decentralized Meetup.com 
This would enable anyone to use a NEAR account in the registration process on specific event pages, and it would facilitate notifications / reminders. Perhaps tickets will be NFTs? Can’t wait to learn more about vSelf!
What Now?
Overall, we are prioritizing education, and specifically teaching teachers, as the north star of this community events initiative. I’m committed to sharing monthly updates with our community, and there will be quarterly reports informing the daovelopment of event guilds throughout NEARverse and beyond!
Please don’t hesitate to respond here, and feel free to contact me directly @jlwaugh
Action Requested:
Participate in daoscussions via the Community Events category here on the forum, and you are welcome to create new topics about relevant issues, problems, challenges, or decisions.
So, another hug and cheers