The Haven Council

Introduction 

As discussed in the recent Governance and Decentralization post, a new community working party is collaborating on a decentralized governance structure. Its goal is to respond to the evolving regulatory landscape and define a project structure that decentralizes control whilst improving the management of the project. The result will be flexible and resilient, allowing the entire Haven community to contribute meaningfully to the project’s success.

This document provides a high-level overview of the proposed structure. The next step is to gain initial feedback from the community before defining detailed guidelines on how it will work.

The Haven project consists of many facets, from development and infrastructure to content creation and marketing. In order to maintain a cohesive approach that continues to grow the project, we have devised a governance system based around a Haven Council. The Council will consist of several committees and groups. 

• Haven Oversight Committee (HOC)
• Haven Steering Committee (HSC)
• Protocol Developers
• Community Working parties
• Haven community

Haven Council Structure

The Steering Committee (HSC) will facilitate decision-making on all project matters whilst drawing on expertise where needed from external advisors. Key decisions will always be made following consultation and consensus with the broader community and where necessary the Oversight Committee.

​​​​​​​Nominees

If anyone is interested in joining any of these groups or committees, please make yourself known in the #governance-discussion channel in the project Discord.

Roles and Responsibilities

Haven Oversight Committee (HOC)

The HOC will act as a back-stop, ensuring the steering committee’s actions are always in the project’s best interests. They will not have voting rights within the steering committee, so decision-making will not be centralized around the HOC. The Steering Committee will, however, require HOC approval for major decisions. The HOC’s power is derived from the following principles:

The Oversight Committee will:-

1. be required to approve all major decisions made by the steering committee (as defined by a formalized process)

2. include enough muti-sig governance wallet signatories to ensure governance vault transactions are used in the project’s best interest

3. initiate a review of steering committee membership, where members are not acting in the project’s best interests. 

Until a more robust alternative is defined, the oversight committee will also manage the treasury. This will involve the preperation of monthly income and outgoing reports, as well as initiating payments.  

The HOC will initially consist of 3 to 5 members.

Haven Steering Committee (HSC) 

The primary purpose of the Haven steering committee is to define and facilitate the wishes of the wider community. The committee should consist of loyal and trusted project supporters who have relevant knowledge or expertise.

The HSC will consist of 7 to 11 members elected by the community from a pool of nominees. Once working parties are established and representatives elected, they will also be eligible to join the Steering Committee. This will allow for a broad range of community members to contribute on different levels of governance.

This committee will seek consensus on strategy (with support of advisors where needed), assign working parties and budget, monitor progress and respond to issues. They will conduct community discussions and votes where required. A formal process for the decision making will be developed and published for feedback in due course.

The steering committee won’t typically deliver any specific initiatives, they will just steer them. They will meet regularly to monitor projects and move initiatives forward. It is envisioned that they will be supported by a secretary, who will document and communicate between parties.

Working parties

Any group or individual actively delivering initiatives that benefits the project can be described as a working party. They can be formed organically within the community or under the direction of other groups. Examples of working parties include protocol development, marketing, content, tokenomics, decentralization etc.

Working parties can be funded through grants from the governance vault where needed. A process for the application of grants will be defined in due course.

Overview of Committee Protocol 

Precise rules on how each committee will run will be defined following further discussions with the community. An overview of initial thoughts is described below. A more descriptive protocol will be published prior to the committees being established.

Recruitment

Haven Oversight Committee (HOC)

In order to maintain trust in the custodians of the project, whilst we transition to the Haven Council governance, the HOC will initially consist of long term contributors. (e.g. Dweab), as well as representatives from the community management team and/or core contributors. They will be selected with consensus from each individual group.

A steering committee representative could also have a seat on the oversight committee.

Haven Steering Committee

Any community member can nominate themselves for membership in the steering committee. 

There will be a formal process by which prospective members can provide details to the wider community on why they want to become committee members. They should include:

• Length of time in the community
• Links or reference to previous engagement and input into project matters
• Insight into relevant knowledge and experience.
• Reasons for wanting to sit on the committee.

An election process will be defined where nominees can stage a simple campaign followed by a vote.

Elected representatives of established and active working parties will also be admitted to the steering committee.

​​​​​​Secretary

There is a significant amount of admin required to manage the Council, documenting, facilitating, and communiticating the projects progress. This is predominantly a project management role – with no decision making-power. This could be completed by one or more contributors.

Once formed, the Steering Committee will recruit and appoint this position. A current core contributor will fill this role until the HSC are ready to appoint the candidate of their choice. 

Length of service

Defined terms are essential to ensure power is decentralized and the community has regular opportunities to re-appoint committee members. This should be balanced with the need to maintain continuity of decision-making. 

Steering Committee members

In order to maintain continuity of decision making and to encourage active participation, we should allow for committee members, once elected, to be able to hold their position for a minimum period of time. The period will be determined following on from community consultation.

Oversight Committee 

The HOC could consist of a small number of experienced individuals. A longer maximum term would be beneficial as this role requires members with a deep understanding of the project and the wider crypto space. It will also provide a greater level of stability for the more important project decisions.

Commitment and attendance

Committee members are expected to attend meetings when required. It is expected that the HSC meet weekly. HOC to meet monthly or as required where approval on development is needed. Ad hoc meetings may be held depending on requirements.

Treasury Management

The treasury (governance wallet) is a multi-sig wallet. For security, trusted members of the community, councils, and trusted 3rd parties will all be required to enable any transaction.

Actual approval for any budgetary spending should follow an agreed signoff protocol.

Until this protocol is established, existing multi-signatories will fulfill this role, whilst the Council establish an alternative group.

Sub-wallets will be utilized for each working group (where required) for additional security.

Treasury responsibilities will include:-

• To manage and administer project funding
• Distribute payments.
• Publish Monthly Treasury Report 
• To ensure contributors are carrying out project tasks as per proposal before making bounty payments.
• Forecasting

Working parties

The community working parties will run independently from direct control of the Haven Council. They will be able to apply for funding for specific initatives, from Haven Council when needed. 

Transparency and reporting

To provide a level of accountability and transparency, it will be a requirement for the results of council decisions to be documented and communicated to the wider community.

The Secretary will be responsible for maintaining reports and proposals in conjunction with the committee members and 3rd party advisors. 

Transition period

Currently, a significant proportion of the workload required to facilitate the ongoing maintenance and development is undertaken by full-time contributors. These core contributors are paid, at current market rates, from the governance vault. 

In the future, and with consensus from the community, the Council will ultimately manage how the governance funds are spent. 

To ensure continuity and stability of the work, we suggest that full-time contributors continue to serve the project under their existing agreements under the Council’s direction. This would ensure that the work continues whilst the new Council establishes itself. Over time, it is expected that the Council will work towards increasing the number of contributors, by spreading payments to a broader base. 

Road Map

The next steps in this process are laid out below and will be a project priority.

• Community discussion and feedback on proposed governance structure.
• Completion of detailed documentation for governance protocol. 
• Completion of nomination and election process
• Formation of Council (HOC & HSC)

The evolution of working parties will continue during this period.