Release 1

About Pando DAO
1. Vision
  1. We believe that the future of Africa will be built by technology founders, innovators, and those who support them across borders. As technological growth has throughout history, this future will improve the fortunes and quality of life of members of society far beyond those directly involved in innovation.
  2. Our vision is that Pando DAO will deepen connections between members of Africa’s tech community and accelerate our scale and impact in order to realize this continent-wide, positive-sum future together.
2. Mission
  1. Pando DAO supports members of the Pando ecosystem to invest in each other, find connections and resources through our networks, and assist each other in scaling technology companies as entrepreneurs, employees, and investors.
3. Defining Success
  1. If Pando DAO is successful, our community will have an outsized influence on the future of technology & business in Africa. We will do this while building a positive-sum community & ethos.
  2. Pando DAO will measure success as described in section 2.4 DAO Health.
Member Privileges and Obligations
1. Like in a cooperative, members have the privilege to enjoy rewards. In return, they have shared responsibilities toward a common goal. Pando DAO requires high member participation to be successful; it is not for spectators. Therefore we as members:
  1. Participate in the discussion, creation, voting and documentation of proposals.
  2. Make friction, tension and inefficiencies known to all DAO members, so that changes, improvements and learning can take place.
  3. Monitor and record progress, for the creation of metrics to measure DAO health.
2. Membership Requirements
  1. By joining the DAO, you agree to:
    1. Abide by this Charter,
    2. Share the values of the Code of Ethics,
    3. Act in accordance with the Code of Conduct,
    4. Participate in the official communications channels on a regular basis.
3. Membership
  1. Pando DAO is open to:
    1. Founders & CEOs of technology companies in Africa who have raised a $2M or greater equity investment round.
    2. And others as authorized by the DAO.
  2. Pando DAO is managed by teams of elected members that serve the DAO.
4. DAO Health
  1. Pando DAO will measure its health in the following ways:
    1. Members are participating.
    2. Membership is growing.
    3. Startups are supported by the DAO and its members.
    4. The DAO financially supports its own operations.
    5. Documents and code are created, amended, and published as lessons are learned.
5. Removal of Members
  1. Members may be removed by Governance Committee vote for violating the Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics.
    1. Removal of membership is defined as the exclusion of the member from DAO spaces, processes, and tools. If the removed member has been asked to give up their DAO tokens but refuses to do so, the DAO may deploy software updates to exclude that member.
6. Resolving Conflicts
  1. Conflicts and disagreements are normal and part of any human endeavor. As a brand new organization, Pando DAO doesn’t have all the answers yet. Members are expected to apply our values in creating and modifying the instruments for conflict resolution. See Resolving Conflict.
7. Taxes and Legality
  1. Taxes and legal compliance are a Member’s own responsibility.
  2. Nothing published or claimed by the DAO or its members constitutes legal or tax advice.
DAO Operations and Governance
1. DAOs are decentralized and member-governed
  1. Pando DAO builds on shared interests managed through open and secure software that will help in the DAO’s governance. As we experiment with day-to-day operations, we should always consider:
    1. Is our operation following the mission and vision of Pando DAO?
    2. Is the solution repeatable and should it be coded into software?
2. Effective Date
  1. The Effective Date means the calendar date upon which this Charter has been approved by a majority of participants in the DAO’s Discord channel by emoji vote, at which time the articles of this Charter will be activated.
3. Seasons
  1. Seasons are a defined time period of DAO operations.
  2. Seasons must be consecutive without a gap in dates unless otherwise decided by the Governance Committee.
  3. Season 1 is from the Effective Date of this Charter until 12-31-2022.
    1. The following Season starts at midnight the day after the end of the previous Season.
4. Branding
  1. The DAO shall use the “Deciduous Tree” emoji (🌳) as its branded emoji. “🌳DAO”, or “Pando DAO” as typeset are acceptable. Use of the DAO branding requires the DAO’s approval. For example, you cannot use the DAO’s branding in a way that implies that the DAO supports another project without the approval of the DAO.
5. Committees and Teams
  1. To aid the operations of the DAO and to safeguard its integrity and assets, the DAO will establish a minimum of three (3) permanent committees.
  2. The three permanent committees are:
    1. Governance
    2. Programs
    3. Treasury
  3. Each committee will be staffed with a minimum of three (3) DAO members.
  4. To ensure a separation of powers, no member may serve on more than one committee in any term.
  5. A committee member may serve under a subcommittee of the same committee, but cannot serve in the subcommittee of another committee.
  6. A term is a Season or the remainder of a Season.
6. Governance Committee
  1. The Governance Committee builds trust between its members and between the DAO and other entities.
  2. It ensures the integrity of the charter, proposals process, voting, and discussion.
  3. It resolves any conflict of interest, rules on ethical questions, and disagreements.
  4. It is responsible for the structure and maintenance of the DAOs legal entities.
  5. It keeps this Charter up-to-date when proposals require the amendment of this Charter.
    1. All changes to the Charter must be passed through the proposal process.
7. Programs Committee
  1. The Programs Committee oversees the creation and maintenance of software, tools, and documents that support the goals of the DAO.
  2. It oversees the growth of the DAO’s membership and capabilities through direct development of programs and partnerships.
  3. It is responsible for maintaining the DAOs membership information and processes and safeguarding information.
8. Treasury Committee
  1. The Treasury Committee:
    1. Safeguards the DAO’s assets
    2. Distributes tokens according to the will of its membership, proposal processes,
    3. Manages its finances,
  2. The Treasury Committee members are required to be on the DAO multisig wallet(s).
  3. Prior to the end of the current season, the Treasury Committee will propose the allocation of a pool of tokens for subsequent seasons.
    1. It is the Treasury Committee’s responsibility to propose the minting of new tokens beyond the current limit of 100 million tokens.
9. Election of the Committee Members
  1. Upon the Effective Date of the Charter, the members of each committee will be voted upon by the membership.
  2. While there is no current limit to the term of any member on a committee or subcommittee, the DAO may set a term limit on any position in the DAO by proposal.
10. Power to Form Teams and Subcommittees
  1. Any permanent committee may form subcommittees to distribute its committee work. It may appoint other DAO members to these subcommittees as needed.
  2. Teams are ad-hoc groups of DAO members who are responsible for executing a proposal for a specific period of time.
    1. Teams of members may be allocated a budget of tokens from the DAO treasury in pursuit of DAO objectives.
    2. Teams are impermanent and their funding requires approval from one or more Committees or the passing of a Proposal.
Proposals and Quorum
1. The following actions require the passing of a proposal using DAO tokens:
  1. Elections of permanent committee members.
  2. Amendments to the Charter.
  3. Allocation of tokens from the Treasury.
  4. Committing the DAO to specific objectives.
2. All other decisions are carried out by the respective committees or by the responsible teams.
3. Proposals
  1. All Proposals will conform to the default time period of a minimum of 7 days to vote.
  2. A proposal shall pass by a simple majority and when quorum has been reached.
    1. Other thresholds or vote counting methods may be created by amending this charter through a simple majority vote.
  3. A Governance Sub-Committee may be formed to help members write proposals and guide them through the governance process.
    1. Initial proposal forum is Snapshot.org.
      1. This may be changed by the Governance Committee without a Charter amendment.
  4. Proposals shall be posted in the DAO’s Discord or other tools for feedback and may be signaled with emoji votes — which are non-binding — before they are posted on Snapshot for a binding vote.
4. Quorum
  1. Quorum is based on the number of $PANDO tokens in circulation.
  2. Circulation is defined as the number of tokens distributed to members.
  3. Tokens held by the Treasury do not carry any voting power and do not count towards quorum.
  4. The default quorum threshold is 10% of governance tokens in circulation.
    1. E.g. If we have 1000 total tokens in circulation, then we’ll need 100 tokens to vote to reach the quorum threshold.
    2. The DAO may change the default quorum threshold by vote.
  5. The Quorum threshold is defined by the minimum number of tokens that have voted in the proposal.
  6. The Governance Committee is responsible for setting the process for proposals.
  7. If two distinct consecutive proposals fail due to not meeting quorum, the quorum requirement is halved.
Delegation
Initial Token Distribution
Building the DAO Future
Investments & Fellowship
Legal Agreement

Member Signatures

By signing this Charter, I agree to become a member of Pando DAO and pledge to support and advance the vision, mission, and goals of this DAO.

Footnotes

Attribution
License