Le Nexus members have voted Aye on proposal 1287.

We hope that this new attempt at an ambassador programme will be the right one and are confident enough to accept the funding for the interim phase.

Le Nexus is the Polkadot DAO of the french speaking community and current members of the third DV cohort. Agents that whish to contact us can join us here.

Hi,

While my opinion is the Ambassador Program brings positive changes and community engagement to Polkadot, I cannot Aye this with a good heart. Reason for this is the list of members in the Board - people who have many other things to do (eg. being full time CEO) and also most of you guys, except a few of you, didn't really didn't help to make this program happen in the past.

If you make it actually good and leave the program, passing it to full-timers and people actually caring about community, including minority and not just your close friends, then you'll have my support. Otherwise, it stays centralized again with kind of group of friends.

Ambassador Program: Aye! This process: Nay, sorry.

Wish, all Polkadot people will prosper.

@Flez my apologies for the tardy response, I have just got back from Asia but it has been on my mind to come back to you!

I will answer your questions in order:

1. Seeding & Onboarding — we are only planning on onboarding 5 Ambassadors to the Fellowship during the incubation phase (Q1 2025) to avoid what you are descirbing here. We are looking to seed Ambassadors that are already operating within the Polkadot community, so know what they are getting themselves into (!) and can work to build the programme as well as acting as external Ambassadors and for some, working on phragmen funded initiatives. We have given ourselves a tight tomeline to be up and running by April 2025 with a programme ready to open it's doors to grow the community, but by this time we plan to have a solid onboarding process, internal reward systems, fantastic learning platform and be supported by other initiatives that will be up and running, such as Polkadot Hub.
2. Moving the needle — when the phragmen system has been built, all funds will require a memo to be released to the beneficiary. This will act as a way that the community can track whether work is being delivered. For the Ambassador Fellowship, we will be encouraging people to be committed to their rank, but given the uncoupling of rank and salaries, we will not be forcing deliverables or rerporting on individuals and instead will focus on creating a programme that supports the upwards trajectory of all Ambassadors, encourages growth and provides education and assistance to reach individual goals. We can track the number of rank promotions by quarter, conduct quarterly satisfaction surveys, look at retention figures as well as just the number of Ambassadors at any given time. All Ambassadors will also be required to have a wallet, verified identity and lock 1 DOT. We will be able to track the number of new wallets registered and could track those for activity — how many are active, vote, buy more DOT, etc. Lots of metrics to consider when we are up and running.
3. Board members — in short, no. The Board has been selected as a group of the most prominent, trusted, experienced individuals within the Pokadot ecosystem. They will only be in operation for the first 4 months of the programme. At that point, the Board and community will decide whether the continued input of the Board is required and if it is, in what capacity. The selection of the Board is the only decision that we have taken as part of this process and it was announced in large part before the ref was launched and a call out to the community for comment / additions was made on multiple community calls, so we felt by the time we posted the ref, the general feeling was supportive of those selected. 
4. Progress tracking — this process will be part of the working of the Ops Committee during the incubation period. Looking at which tools are most effective for the programme whilst on the ground in the middle of it growing. This is the apporach for much of the programme. We have ideas but want the Ops Committee to work very closely with the seeded Ambassadors, Board and wider community to try and test before we settle. One of the reasons we want a highly qualified Board and Ops Committee is to ensure the Ambassador Fellowship is in experienced hands to drive these processes forward, capturing input from all angles.

I hope this helps and shout if you have any further questions!

@RebornPolkaman2 Thank you so much for your support!

We will make sure we fulfil what has been promised if we pass :)

Yes, finally, an external advisory board! I can’t possibly oppose this—in fact, I had previously suggested the idea of a “governance collective” during Referendum 1222, though at the time it was deemed too bureaucratic. So, I’m genuinely thrilled to see it has now been included. An advisory board is absolutely necessary in my opinion to rebuild trust and establish transparency (especially after the HA-drama…).

The proposal wisely includes a 4-month trial phase to test the funding system and refine operational processes, which minimizes risks associated with scaling too quickly. Furthermore, recipients must report their expenses and justify the use of funds, with oversight provided by the advisory board, ensuring transparency and accountability.

That said, the requested $640,000 for the interim phase is substantial, especially for a trial. This raises concerns about cost-efficiency and the long-term sustainability of such a program.

Another critical point is that during the trial phase, the advisory board holds significant power in fund allocation, which could lead to perceived or actual centralization of decision-making. Additionally, while the ranking system is thorough, it might deter new participants due to its perceived bureaucracy and the challenges in advancing through the ranks.
I believe a detailed evaluation framework post-trial will be vital to determine whether the program should scale or pivot.

As a former elected Head Ambassador, I was not directly involved in developing this program, but I fully support it, especially because of the Advisory Board. This pilot will clarify whether such a 'program' is truly needed now that bounties are fulfilling their role. For now, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see how this experiment unfolds!

The Ambassador Program is awaste of funds and time. Polkadot does not need an Ambassador Program... the objectives can be accomplished more effectively through other means. 

Lucky Friday have voted AYE. Please consider this a temporary notification after our vote has gone on chain. If you would like additional feedback on our rationale for this vote, please join our OpenGov Public Forum on Telegram here: https://t.me/+559tyPSfmGg0NzUx

Lucky Friday provides feedback once per week (Fridays) if specifically requested in our OpenGov Public Forum, and we respectfully ask that all proponents of referenda interact with us here for the sake of transparency. Please tag our Director of Protocol Relations “Phunky” with your referendum number so that he can gather the relevant commentary from our internal deliberations.

ChaosDAO would like to provide the following feedback from our community. We offer this feedback voluntarily in the spirit of OpenGov, in order to help teams improve their proposals so we can all build the network together.

1. Members discussed the absolute necessity for an ambassador program within the ecosystem

2. There was plenty of discussion around the workload on the members of the advisory board

ChaosDAO votes as a collective based on the results of our anonymous internal voting procedures. Our members are not required to provide any feedback about why they have voted in a particular direction. Similarly, to respect our members' right to anonymity, we will not be sharing the names of individuals who have chosen to voluntarily provide feedback. You can find out more about how we vote and how to get in contact with us here: https://x.com/ChaosDAO/status/1762986093316587995.

I have met Lucy a few times, and love her enthusiasm and passion towards growing the Polkadot ecosystem. 
Good luck Lucy

@PolkassemblyGov Thank you for your comment.

I encourage you to read the full manifesto and you will see that the Ambassador Fellowship is significantly different from what has come before, but it does encompass the best parts of previous programmes and has taken on board all of the lived experiences of previous Ambassadors and collected all of the community feedback over the past 5 years, since 1.0 began.

If there are any specific areas of what we are proposing in the manifesto, which is a root referendum so changes the pallet significantly as well as the many adaptations made to the programme itself, so I would struggle to see where you do not think we have gone far enough, but all feedback is important so very happy to dive deeper into yours.

We believe that the ambassador program should we thought of from scratch.

"The USDT 200,000 for the OpCom and Advisory Board is a set up cost to allow the seeding and onboarding of 55-105 Ambassadors (depending on how many people come forward for the seeding process), establish the onboarding structure for new members to open the door to 100s more from Q2 2025."

That's a lot of ambassadors to onboard before Polkadot can truly scale. The reality is we are simply not ready to onboard the masses to Polkadot just yet (e.g., JAM is not ready, Identity is not solved, etc...).

Thus, we should be asking if funding this program today makes the most sense for us to do as a community... or would it actually be better for us to simply wait and revisit this topic in 2025 once Polkadot is better structured to entertain mass adoption?

Perhaps I am missing it in your proposal, but what are the actual goals of this program in terms of tangible milestones/OKRs that will help move the needle for Polkadot adoption?

In other words, how do we know if someone is being effective or not in their specific role, and how do we know if ambassadors are living up to expectations? Can the board members be removed, and if so, what does that process look like?

Also, given the fact that OpenGov & OG Tracker have proven to be rather lousy tools at tracking the progress of funded proposals and ambassadors, I am curious what software/programs this program intends to use so that we can all track the progress of different ambassadors, on-going projects, etc... any feedback here would be appreciated.

@12WQMLv8itdKJ83R4y3qNGYCRrsU6bFjyd4ZvcE4tmJoSiPv 

Thank you! Hope we can get you onboard as an Ambassador if we are successful ☺️

[Deleted]

@Lucy 

I fully support you.

I hope that you will lead Polkadot to prosperity, transparency, and sustainability for the entire Polkadot community.

I voted 'Aye' on 3 addresses x3 for you.

RebornPolkaman-3

I fully support you.

I hope that you will lead Polkadot to prosperity, transparency, and sustainability for the entire Polkadot community.

I voted 'Aye' on 3 addresses x3 for you.

Great initiative @Lucy fully support, and Brazilian Community fully support this!

GM All,

It would be super helpful if people could leave feedback. We first created the medium spender proposal 2.5 weeks ago and had 3 X spaces to discuss the cost, Board, deliverables. We also had comments active on the document and socialised the ask across all platforms, including GitHub, for 2+ weeks before posting, so I did not expect everyone to be as surprised at the request as we are seeing. Also appreciate that we cannot all be living and breathing other peoples efforts and OpenGov in general which is why we have tried to keep our deliverables as fluid as possible despite being in the voting period as we know it is not until we get here, that people can often take the time to review work done.

Firstly, unfortunately, all programmes require a higher injection of capital to build out, which is what you are seeing here. The USDT 200,000 for the OpCom and Advisory Board is a set up cost to allow the seeding and onboarding of 55-105 Ambassadors (depending on how many people come forward for the seeding process), establish the onboarding structure for new members to open the door to 100s more from Q2 2025. We will establish an educational programme which will be free to all members, Radha on our Board will be leading this initiative following his completion of the PBA online course. This will sit alongside the Educational Manifesto he is also writing with Pauline. A rewards and retention scheme will be designed and a launch event at SXSW is in the initial planning stages. We will also be supporting the 10-15 initiatives that are funded through the interim phragmen fund. Assisting with drafting KPIs, getting the programmes off the ground and providing guidance to ensure they succeed in the start-up style environment.

I am sure that the community can appreciate the scale of these deliverables and the cost of paying people that are highly experienced at these tasks as well as being steeped in the ecosystem is reasonable. Talent and commitment come at a cost and, as Mister Cole said, this feels like our last shot at really getting something right and given this has been a labour of love by the community, for the community, it seems right to give it a go. The opportunity cost vs possible reward, we feel, is very low.

Addressing the other costs, USDT 400,000 will go towards supporting 10-15 programme initiatives. The community can apply for a 3 month USDT 5,000 or 10,000 slot. The initiatives selected will be (1) aligned with Polkadot's immediate needs; (2) ready to kick off at the start of Jan 2025; (3) can survive in a start-up style environment; (4) has clear and achievable OKRs/KPIs; (5) have a programme that will blossom with this level of cash injection over that period. The Advisory Board will select these programmes and the Ops Committee will support them in the journey to success.

Finally, the $40,000 is for the Ambassador treasury. This is for tooling and other general costs to run the programme on the ground. This will be the only permanent, ongoing cost of the programme and whatever is not spend will be returned to the treasury. We do not know what the monthly cost will look like, so we went with $10,000 per month as an estimate, but spending in the incubation phase will give us a good guideline.

To compare this to the Ambassador programme 2.0, the costs of 21 Head Ambassador salaries, with no travel, tooling, funds for other ranks or any other needs to make the programme run effectively, was USDT 840,000. We are suggested that we need USDT 200,000 less to fund up to 105 Ambassador onboarding, reward and retention programmes, an educational platform, tooling and a flagship event (we will go to the EB for the event funding but would not be asking for production fees) provide funding and support to up to 15 initiatives which will have key deliverables for Polkadot and all in the first 3 months of the programme being in operation.

The Advisory Board is composed of the key figures within the Polkadot ecosystem. They have all read the Manifesto, educated themselves on what we are trying to achieve and where they see potential and have each decided to sign up on this basis. It is fair to say that these individuals know how to manage their time and what they want to commit it to — they clearly see huge potential in the Ambassador Fellowship and want to support in making the big dreams that we have, a reality.

During the voting period and for further Q&A, we will be:

• On Polkadot AAG every Thursday
• Hosting a Q&A / Ambassador Fellowship 'CommuniTea Time' every Tuesday starting next week. This will then transform into a monthly YouTube stream, similar to the AAG set up next year, with a special kick off episode in December this year to celebrate getting the community ayes (if we do ofc!)
• Available to chat any time about anything in DMs or jump on a call.
• Monitoring the OKR / KPI doc which is deliberately fluid. We have so many ideas and know you all do too so please keep adding

We hope that we can keep talking and improving in the hope that both 1267 and 1287 will pass and we will have an excellent structure on which to kick off!

@BRA OK, I think I understand a little more clearly. You are talking about the phragmen voting system which gives people access to money to fund their programme initiatives? Before I explain a little more about that I want to make sure I am on the right track? 

@Lucy.  

I understand, I'm not referring to you, I'm referring to OTHERS, more than ever I think that the role of fishermen is needed… Controlling which initiative each applicant is involved in and that they would facilitate it would be ideal, if the tokenholders vote it is understood that NOT EVERYONE has time to do a search for this…

@BRA   Thank you for bringing up double dipping...I am not sure I exactly understand you question to be able to answer in full. I will make an attempt but I think this would be better answered in a live discussion so that we can fully work out the answer together,

Firstly, I think you know that I have not had a penny from the treasury for the past few months and have fulfilled every criteria an HA was expected to — it is pretty irrelevant now but given the reference to HAs, I feeI I need to lay down some legitimacy on behalf of us all. I also need to make it very clear that 'HAs' are not a part of the Ambassador Fellowship. When I say this, it is to make very clear that salaries and ranks have been completely uncoupled in this programme.

When it comes to the funding mechanism, it is voted on by token holders, so it is up to each and every one of us to check the memos that are required to access the funds. During the incubation phase of the fellowship, the Advisory Board will decide which specialist verticals receive funds. We are going to mimic the system that will be being built and adjust as necessary. That is why we asked people that have proven themselves to be incredibly knowledgable, trustworthy and committed to Polkadot to be members.

I know I haven't answered this in full because I am not completely clear on what you are asking. There are many people in the ecosystem receieving salaries from multiple treasury pots. The community chooses to police or not — this is something that has been happening for some time. There is quite a clear split between who people choose to focus on and who they dont.

What I think I can answer, is the suggestion that there will be a rank which holds power and somehow has access to money that others do not. This is the antithesis of what the Ambassador Fellowship seeks to and will achieve. Everyone could double dip, nobody should be double dipping, everyone is held to the same standards and there will no longer be anywhere to hide...

Let's put this on the agenda for the next live call?

Something I have never liked about Polkadot is double payments. Who will be in charge of ensuring that this does not happen, that X application paid by the treasury comes, either for a bounty, own proposal or even for another ecosystem project? I reiterate the same thing I said in previous proposals. A large part of the HAs put their work done by other initiatives in their application to HA. Who will be in charge of ensuring that this double payment does not happen?

The signers?