Standard Change - Create A Pilot Discretionary Budget for Operations and Community Projects

[stephenscapelliti]

Description

This is a proposal to authorize a pilot discretionary budget for the expenditures related to ProgCode Operations and ProgCode community projects.

Problem

Activism has experienced a downturn over the past year. Although activists are eager to volunteer some of their free time to projects, there is little enthusiasm to undertake the responsibilities of project management and extensive development tasks. This became evident just as ProgCode staff were anticipating receipt of a funding grant, which eventually was awarded to the community. This proposal is for a pilot program that will target the relaunching of at least two ProgCode community projects and the funding of some basic operations tasks relative to fundraising, website development, and outreach.

This proposal would allot the sum of up to $10,000.00 to each of the following:

1. CarpoolAction - tech development, including, without limitation, the restructuring and implementation of tech revisions necessary to meet the vision of Developer Sasjkia Otto (see link below).

2. EnviroTrack - tech development, including, without limitation, the creation of 10 - 25 detection units for proof-of-concept testing and reimbursement to Robert Diamond of funds advanced to-date.

3. ProgCode Operations - basic tasks necessary for the operation of ProgCode, including, without limitation, monitoring and logging donations, assisting ProgCode's CPA with accounting records, website design and development, promotion through regularly-scheduled social media posts, and implementation and maintenance of Progbot.

AMENDED MARCH 31, 2023

4. Impact Space (Project.Gallery progcode channel #impact-space) - reallocating $5,000 from Carpool Action to launch the MVP of Impact Space. Impact Space first project, Project.Gallery, will provide a single view of all progcode and other organization Projects, which will include the ability provide information, manage priorities and democratically allocate funding based on contributor requirements as defined in the Go to Community Plan

Benefit

This proposal anticipates several benefits.

1. As a pilot program, it will provide a minimum viable product effort to create discretionary budgets to be managed by community members acting in collaboration to act in the best interests of the ProgCode community.

2. The proposal would enable CarpoolAction and Envirotrack to offer contract payments on a task/phase-of-completion basis to community members who perform work deemed critical to the project by the project team members. One goal is to incentivize interest in the projects by advancing some of the initial development work necessary to re-launch CarpoolAction and to implement the EnviroTrack detection network of hardware and software. Volunteers who have only a few hours to contribute each week are more likely to do so when the project is in an advanced state than in the initial stage of development.

3. The critical operations functions necessary to enable the non-profit to satisfy its reporting requirements, maintain a public presence, recruit new contributors, and expand fundraising require the performance of regular periodic tasks, many of which can be done by some of the more-experienced members of the community. Offering a modest remuneration for performing the tasks now will help to train members for operations functions needed on a full-time basis when ProgCode achieves its funding goals.

Under this proposal, the ProgCode staff would receive all requests for funding the foregoing activities, verify that the requests meet the criteria of this proposal, verify the expenditure, and issue payment once criteria has been satisfied. This process will be open to all who wish to participate.

Establishing a one-time budget - with the option of amending that budget based on need and available revenues - will enable the community to continue development of this important project and to reimburse certain expenses incurred by the EnviroTrack team members.

Expenditure Analysis

The proposal would authorize appropriation of up to $10,000.00 each for CarpoolAction, EnviroTrack, and key operations functions. At least three (3) members from each of the CarpoolAction and EnviroTrack teams will create budgets and criteria for the tasks and related expenditures (such as hardware, organizing platforms, etc.). Staff will created budgets and criteria for the operations functions.

Notices would be sent to all ProgCode members and, if necessary, to the public, to solicit interest in performing the function. Each team would assign an amount to each task or phase-of-completion for which the contractor will be paid. The contractor will be required to sign a contract for the work, and payment will be made at the conclusion of the task or job. The teams would be expected to work in consultation with at least two members of the ProgCode staff to discuss budgets, progress, and payment.

The same process will be followed for operations tasks, except that at least three staff members would be required to create the budget, set task criteria, and monitor the activity of each contractor.

The ProgCode community will be notified upon completion of each task for which payment is owed to a contractor, prior to payment. All expenditures must be disclosed to the community within a week of payment, both for transparency and opportunity to initiate community discussion regarding any concerns or ideas for modification of the program.

Discussion of the expenditures and the process will be mandatory at each of the regular community operations meetings.

AMENDED MARCH 31, 2023

From the originally allocated $10,000 to Carpool Action, $5,000 to be re-allocated to Project.Gallery

Criteria:

As outlined in the Expenditure Analysis, the persons who create the tasks for the projects and for the operations functions will establish written criteria for the performance of each task. The criteria will be included in the written contract between ProgCode and the person(s) performing the task. The team members will verify that the functions have been performed and maintain written records of the same for accountability to the community and for satisfaction of ProgCode payment obligations under the contracts.

The requirements of Issues #198 and #236 are applicable, as follows:

Proposals seeking consent for implementation of budget requests and/or change process should not contradict ProgCode core objective and should pass this four-pronged test when considered by operations:

Is this proposal non-partisan in nature? Yes

Is this proposal aligned with ProgCode's mission of removing the influence of big money in politics? Yes

Does this proposal seek to empower the grassroots by supporting the creation of open source tech? Yes

Is this proposal sponsored or funded by an outside organization? If yes, the source of the funding must be disclosed. No

Plan

• [x] Community discussion of all elements of this proposal at the Community Operations Meeting scheduled for Monday, January 9, 2023, at 5pm PT | 6pm MT | 7pm CT | 8pm ET | 1am Tuesday BST/GMT.

• [x] Vote for consent to implement the establishment of a one-time pilot budget of up to Thirty Thousand and no/100 Dollars ($30,000.00) and to authorize the Board of Directors to release up to that amount in the aggregate for execution of this proposal.

• [x] Notify the community of the vote taken by posting a #team-announcement and sharing the video URL in #operations immediately following the vote for consent to proceed, in accordance with ProgCode Processes, allowing additional votes & feedback during the standard 72-hour waiting period before ratifying the vote.

• [ ] If the vote to implement passes, provide notice to the community in the #team-announcements channels, and send an explanatory notice to all ProgCode members by e-mail to their log-in addresses.

• [ ] Define a single process by which each team will define tasks and activities for payment as well as define the process for payment and tracking expenditures.

• [ ] Retain this issue as an open issue for possible amendment or termination of the budget at a later date.

Decision Making

Consent to implement a standard change per the Change Process

Optional Information

Reference link(s)

• Change Process

• Funding Framework FY 2016-17: Budget Breakdown

• Proposed 2018/19 Budget Breakdown

• CarpoolVote Future by Sasjkia Otto

• EnviroTrack materials cost projections

Community Discussion History

• 02.26.2017 - Issue #81 "Funding Framework"

• 05.15.2017 - Issue #198 "Four Pronged Test for Mission Alignment"

• 06.18.2018 - Issue #236 "Standard Change - Budget Expense Requests"

• 11.10.2018 - Issue #250 "Major Change: Create a ProgCode 501(c)(3) entity"

[stephenscapelliti]

If sufficient interest is shown in re-launching National Voter File, I would support amending this proposal at a later time to appropriate funds for that project.

[jpb5013]

Original change amended with the proposal to reallocate $5,000 from Carpool Action to Project Gallery