Formalizing Your Web3 Community Governance Structure
The best communities are the most energetic ones, working together and connecting over shared interests and values. They’re full of passionate members and burgeoning ideas, and it’s always great to see community and team members who are excited to improve and grow the community. That being said, with so many ideas and participants, there’s a potential for chaos and disorganization. Beyond road maps and roles, it’s important to implement a more formal governance structure within communities. Traditional leadership roles don’t always allow for collaboration between roles, and DAO participation is historically low and inefficient. Governance systems allow groups to plan and execute community-driven initiatives. Today, we want to discuss the steps to take after deciding that a governance system is necessary for your Web3 community.
Getting Started ⭐
To start, you’ll want to take stock of your community. Is there a current de-facto governance structure, formal or informal? If there is already a system in place, what are the pain points and strengths?
You’ll want to take into account feedback from many different stakeholders. Team members, community managers, and members will all probably have different expectations for the priorities of a governance board. The team working to establish the board will have to take all of these interests into account, while keeping the structure realistic and manageable. It’s especially important to gather and incorporate input from your brand champions, the ones who hold large collections and are passionate about your community in internal and external communication.
Defining the Board’s Structure 🏗️
Now that you’ve gathered insights and begun the process of forming a governance board, you can start to formalize the details.
You will need a board of representatives and will need to decide how they are selected and what the position looks like. Important criteria to consider could include but are not limited to, past involvement in the community, other experience, and ability to envision and execute goals.
Furthermore, you’ll need to define the goals of your board. Is the board responsible for the larger interests of the community & high-level priorities, or will it also dive into smaller tasks and initiatives, such as new marketing ideas or event planning?
In most cases, if the board is responsible for a variety of initiatives, it will be helpful to assign specific roles to different members. These members can be broken up into teams, who can tackle specific tasks for the board and community. For example, there could be a community management team who formalizes feedback collected via team members and distills it into insights. Having this board made up of investors (i.e. community members) and workers (i.e. team members) will allow all of the community stakeholders to be democratically represented on this board.
Lastly, you might want to decide whether you’ll want to define membership with a token, or another method that signifies a formal leadership role. Will all members be on equal footing or will there be different levels of decision-making power between members of the board?
Implementing Your System 🎯
The first step in turning your governance board plan into reality is alerting your community that you are starting one. Make sure to gather feedback and enthusiasm from members via your preferred communication channels (especially Discord), and collect input on who would like to be involved and in what capacity. This is best done in a more formal way, such as a survey-style interest form or application, to best keep track of applicants.
It might be helpful to allow community members to propose committees or initiatives for the board to focus on. Doing this before the governance committee is established allows you to properly appoint your board, garner interest/awareness, and further refine its goals.
After you select your team members & goals, it’s time to let your community governance board begin the process of strategizing and executing your community goals. The intentional planning that was put into the board will ensure that it is able to run effectively.
Takeaways 🧠
Though “community governance board” is an intimidating phrase, breaking the concept down into specific steps makes the process of founding one much more approachable. It’s best to start this board as soon as you notice there are more initiatives and communication than your founder and/or community manager can handle — that way, your governance board can grow with and guide your community along its journey.
What are your tips for keeping your community organized and focused? Feel free to chat below or discuss with us on Twitter.