Proposal Guidelines

Proposals are documents that specify the idea that is put to the community for voting

Writing a proposal

The goal of writing a proposal is to explain your idea in a clear and accessible manner to your audience that will allow them to make an informed decision.

Assume that your proposal will be interpreted literally. Avoid vague language whenever possible. When it is not possible to avoid, provide examples or definitions - a good example of this is the definition of “minimally actionable”. That is, they must outline some sort of action, requirement, guideline, etc. that is intended to guide, alter, or compel the behavior of the Varen DAO and/or its participants.

While all proposals should contain the sections below, feel free to add additional sections if you feel that they will be useful in explaining your proposal further.

TITLE

Proposal topic titles should be in the format “DRAFT - VIP# - Name” (e.g. DRAFT - VIP1 - Governance Proposal Formats). Do not include a number for the proposal as was done previously, this will be added after the proposal is live on-chain.

Abstract/Executive Summary :

Give a brief overview of your proposal. Readers should be able to get a general sense of what you are trying to accomplish and why. Save details for the following sections.

Motivation :

Explain why you believe this proposal should be implemented, and how it will benefit the Varen project as a whole. Be detailed here about your long-term vision for the proposal (e.g. lifespan, potential changes, etc.). It may be necessary to address potential alternatives, and why you believe your proposal is the best choice among them.

IMPORTANT: Statements in this section are for the purpose of informing voters, not for defining the strict terms of how a proposal functions. Those details should be provided in the Specification section below.

In the event that there is a conflict between wording in a Motivation section and a Specification section either within or between proposals, the Specification section shall be assumed to control.

Specification :

Explain how you envision your proposal functioning in as much detail as you can reasonably provide. If you are proposing something that will require funding, explain how much you will need, where that funding is coming from, to whom it will be paid, etc. Try to keep everything in plain language, unless technical details necessitate otherwise.

IMPORTANT: This section is considered to be the ultimate authority on the function of a proposal. Authorial intent does not trump plain language, but authors are encouraged to provide explanations for potentially ambiguous wording in this section to ensure their intended interpretation and execution of a proposal.

Voting Options

For

A single short sentence that indicates what a FOR vote agrees to (e.g. Establishment of a treasury fund as outlined above)

Against

A single short sentence that indicates what an AGAINST vote agrees to. Note that this does not only have to be a vote to not execute the proposal (e.g. If the vote is a binary choice between funding two groups, an AGAINST vote can be in favor of funding Group B instead of Group A)

Proposals have to be published on the governance forums for a minimum of 3 days before being published to Snapshot to allow for a reasonable community review period and comment.

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