Introduction
This is a proposal to reimburse Guild Facilitators who went to Wyoming to work on CityDAO for one week, to visit possible parcels of land that CityDAO could purchase for building a city (Parcel 1) and to plant a flag on Parcel 0. This proposal was previously put on Snapshot, but was removed before a vote could be taken, due to procedural issues.
Background
CityDAO began with a tweet from Scott Fitsimones on August 5th, 2021. In December 2021, the CityDAO City Council was formed through elections. They began work on a charter. The months from January to April were an exciting time, with numerous hours of city council meetings daily, and the eventual creation of the Charter, the Operating Agreement, and the Bundled Guild Proposal, all of which passed via a Snapshot vote. At no time had these council members, many of whom are now facilitators, met in person.
On April 26, 2022, Scott told the facilitators that he was going to Wyoming to visit Parcel 0 and to plant a flag. He invited them to join. It was a last minute decision but some members bought a ticket. The members who chose to attend were: David from the Legal and Education Guilds, Sytonikka (Nico) from the Design Guild, Pat from Events and Lyons from Operations. We met Josh (formerly DAOvolution) who lives in Wyoming, along with Wdclapp (Walt) from the Legal Guild and his brother kkopczyn (Konrad) from the Real Estate Guild, who were there.
Deliverables
Relationships: This trip proved to be extremely valuable. In terms of spending time together, everyday we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together. When we weren’t seeing land or visiting Parcel 0, our days were spent sitting around a table at the Airbnb with our computers open, on calls with others in the DAO, discussing the mission, the vision, the values, and the future of CityDAO. When we had questions, we could just ask each other. The days were filled with very fruitful conversations about issues that could be discussed in person rather than over Discord.
Real Estate: We were able to engage with local real estate agents in Wyoming and actually visit a number of properties for sale, including both unused land and land with structures, to get a better idea of prices, concerns of the local residents, availability of parcels and contacts that we could use in the future for seeing available land and making offers.
Legal: We were able to meet in person with the local Wyoming representative of CityDAO who will handle legal filings, and who created the Parcel 0 LLC. Meeting with him in person allowed us to make an invaluable contact, another law firm that specializes in securities and who literally helped write the Wyoming DAO law. They are now serving as outside counsel for CityDAO and it is unlikely we ever would have met them had we not been there in person.
Parcel 0: We went to parcel 0 and planted a huge flag together. We were able to gauge the land, the driving, the conditions and to discuss more meaningfully how this land may be used viably. In addition, we were able to have a long conversation with the neighbors who live next to Parcel 0. They were extremely interested in who we are and what we represent. Despite living in a non-urban setting, they were very knowledgeable about both CityDAO and blockchain. This gave us valuable insights into the neighbors we may have if we decide to move forwards with a Parcel 1 purchase in Wyoming or similar areas.
Conclusion
The value of this IRL meeting of the facilitators was high. It demonstrated that IRL meetings are an important part of CityDAO. Real connections were made with each other, with the guilds and with the land. We believe that IRL meetings between citizens, facilitators and guilds should be a part of our goal. We would therefore like to establish a precedent that they be funded so that others, not only facilitators, but also citizens, may meet outside Discord and in real life.
For all airplane tickets, food, car rentals and expenses, the total cost for this trip was: $9005.27 The expense breakdown can be seen in this document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19Q_NZbbkc_yX_899-COaEo_TKxvI1U33nTJaUfuYupY/edit?usp=sharing