Establish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pod (1-Month Pilot)

[Matai]

TL;DR

This proposal seeks to establish a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Pod as a 1-month pilot to foster impact and belonging within Cabin’s Network City.

The Pod will be open to all community members, with participants collaboratively defining its role and contributions, while collectively allocating rewards for impact

For this pilot, we are requesting a budget of broken down into 3 parts:

1. A community-wide impact reward pool of $1,000 in USDC and 420 CABIN tokens that pod members will have equal voting rights to allocate
2. A bonus reward of an additional $1000 USDC that will be unlocked for pod members to allocate if the proposal key results are achieved
3. An upfront contributor payments of $420 in USDC and 69 CABIN tokens each to the proposal stewards for their leadership and coordination of the initiative

The Pod will begin operating during the week of December 1, 2024 and run through the end of December, regardless of the proposal’s approval #doocracy. If the proposal is not passed, the reward pool will instead be the good vibes of mutual support and collaboration shared by all members, and all deliverables / key results will be non-comittal, given this effort would be a volunteer project.

At the end of the month, Pod members who attend the week 5 impact meeting will distribute the community-wide reward pool (and bonus if key results are met) amongst the nominees based on a public nomination form open to submissions from the entire community.

To enable its success, this proposal team is excited to see how you want to get involved, and also requests specific dependencies from Cabin Labs, the Neighborhood Accelerator Pod (NAP), and the Tech Needs pod (see below).

Team

Sponsor: Matai
Stewards: Matai & Zoya
Team: everyone is invited to the cookout, you gona join?

Goals

Objective:

Launch a 1-month pilot for a DEI Pod to support Cabin’s mission of building a thriving and regenerative Network City by strengthening connections within the broader network, orienting community members towards impact, and putting the ideals of decentralization into practice while fostering belonging and impact.

Key Results:

This Pod will support a community centric approach to:

1. Cultivating space for deeper connections and collaboration via an open forum and impact oriented approach while hosting at least two live zoo. meetings and supporting other online and offline discussions as needed
2. Laying the groundwork for future initiatives by identifying impact opportunities and proposing community oriented and actionable solutions through a post-pilot Pod proposal
3. Producing content that generates >1000 social impressions, including:
   • Weekly updates written in the forum and shared via short video vlogs
   • Recorded community calls assuming all participants opt-in.
   • Impact stories from pod members and community nominations.
   • A retrospective forum post and longer form vlog to reflect on learnings and outcomes.
4. Sustain engagement and collaboration within at least three active neighborhoods on the City Directory
5. Recruit at least two new neighborhoods to join the City Directory and engage with the Community
6. Add at least 5 new people to the Cabin Census as a part of the impact nominations

Impact

The DEI Pod’s impact will center on fostering connections and collaboration both in-person within neighborhoods and online across Cabin’s broader network.

Key areas of impact include:

• Strengthening the bonds between community members through shared initiatives and activities.
• Enhancing the inclusivity of Cabin’s network by creating space for a diverse voices and experiences.
• Recruiting new neighborhoods and sustaining active ones, contributing to a more vibrant and connected Network City.
• Experimenting with opportunities for progressive decentralization

By integrating diverse perspectives and fostering a sense of belonging, the Pod will contribute to a more cohesive, resilient, and inclusive Network City.

Proposed Budget

This proposal requests:
$2,840 in USDC

• $420 each for the stewards, Matai and Zoya, as an upfront payment
• $1,000 for the community-wide reward pool to be distributed during the 5th week
• $1,000 for the reward pool bonus if the key results are met, else this will be returned to the DAO

558 CABIN tokens

• 69 CABIN tokens each for Matai and Zoya.
• 420 CABIN tokens for the community-wide reward pool.

Use of Funds:

A new DEI Pod multi-sig will hold the funds, with all active contributor pod sponsors as signers (pending they accept), with the goal of establishing inter-pod communication, engagement and alignment. Assuming all 4 accept (Jon, Grin, Savannah, Jackson), we could have 3 out of 5 (+ Matai) signatures required for fund distribution.

Funds will be used for:

1. Community Impact Reward & Bonus Pool: Distributed through a manual gift circle during the Week 5 meeting, where Pod members allocate resources amongst nominees submitted via the public nomination form.
2. Steward Payments: Recognizing the leadership and coordination efforts of Matai and Zoya.

The distribution of the reward + bonus pool will be a manual experiment of value assignment. Ahead of the 5th week meeting, all impact nominations will be received 48hrs beforehand to give the community a chance to review them ahead of the cal. During the call, each community member present will get 2 votes to allocate towards any nomination. After everyone has voted, we will certify the results on the call and distribute the rewards proportional to how everyone voted.

Timeline and Deliverables

Week 1:

• Host a kickoff meeting for group introductions, intention setting, and planning for the month.
• Discuss and define the types of impact the Pod wants to promote.

Week 2:

• Co-create and launch a public Google form for impact nominations.
• Open nominations to anyone on the Cabin Census, including non-Pod members, for submissions.

Week 3:

• Focus on collaborative actions and impact: What can we each do to make a difference?
• Begin drafting an extension proposal for the Pod if the group decides to continue beyond the pilot month.

Week 4:

• Christmas week, focus on impact, friends and family

Week 5

• Impact nominations are due 48hrs before the final meeting
• Host a live meeting to finalize nominations and conduct the first manual gift circle:
  • Review the pod extension proposal and hold space for community input.
  • Reflect on the pilot progress, lessons learned, and discuss opportunities for improvements.
  • Discuss next steps and any questioms or comments

Dependencies

Cabin Labs

• Provide a Cabin email, paid Zoom and Fathom AI account to facilitate Pod meetings.
• Socialize meeting opportunities, Pod updates, and outcomes through Cabin’s Twitter, Farcaster, Instagram, and newsletter, with the Cabin Labs team determining what is “appropriate” to share, while making an earnest effort to provide the DEI Pod with access to community outreach channels.
• Provide enough ETH to cover gas fees associated with distributing tokens as a part of the proposal

Neighborhood Activation Pod (NAP)

• Invite NAP members to participate in DEI Pod meetings and the impact nominations to foster collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas.
• Collaborate on how Cabin can orient community members towards meaningful impact
• Discuss opportunities for future initiatives

Tech Needs

• Create a dedicated DEI Pod Discord forum channel for sharing updates and hosting topic-based discussion posts to maintain ongoing engagement and communication.
• Enable the DEI Pod to create and distribute Stamps to Cabin Census profiles
• Discuss opportunities for Tech enablement of gift circles, group treasuries, and Hats membership NFTs as future potential enhancements within the Cabin.city app

About the Stewards

Matai and Zoya have been dating for 4 years and just got engaged they share a passion for community building and immersing themselves in nature

Since 2022 they have been deeply involved with Cabin. Highlights of their contributions include:

• Co-hosting the Nx City SXSW pop-up and Kift Kickback at Neighborhood Zero with Kift and Cabin
• Serving on the Vibes Team for DAO Camp 2023 alongside vibe champ Cam.
• Showing up to community calls and representing the Cabin community in a multitude of IRL and online social circles

Together, they have been actively working on local Neighborhood building in Ojai, CA, where they live at an intergenerational ecovillage with 20 other people, ages 80+ to 2-years-old. Their current efforts include:

• Developing plans to support the Cabin Village permanent tiny house development for 30+ unhoused residents in Ojai.
• Collaborating on local resiliency programs and regenerative agriculture initiatives in collaboration with multiple farms and nonprofits.
• Hosting routine gatherings that immerse participants in nature

Zoya is also a retired professional gymnast, certified life coach and yoga practitioner who previously led the DEI Pod at Kift DAO (a nomadic coliving DAO). She integrates physical, spiritual, and mental wellness into her holistic approach for community building and self-care. She’s led meditations on past Cabin community calls with JD, and is excited to step up into her first role as a Cabin contributor.

Matai used to work at Deloitte before quitting to join a crypto startup. This led to him launching web3 social impact and non-profit fundraising initiatives with Deepak Chopra, before he caught the coliving DAO bug and moved into a camper van to travel the west coast setting up coliving houses and community caravans with Kift DAO.

Matai worked with Cabin Labs for 7 months this past year where he:

• Led the Supper Club Program, generating interest from 600+ new people with 200+ people attending IRL community gatherings as a result.
• Organized ETH Denver 2024 activations, interacting with 500+ interested attendees, housing 18+ guests across two weeks, driving a 12-seater bus around Denver and Boulder to shuttle community memebrs around, facilitating a workshop at Edge City, and organizing a celebration with Hats and Coordinape.

While recently Matai has struggled and made mistakes with how he voices his concerns about the lack of focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion within Cabin, he hopes this proposal can be a step towards a more collaborative approach and rebuilding of his relationship with the extended Cabin Labs team (especially Jon) and broader community as we find ways to co-create the beautiful future we know is possible.

Ideas for things to consider for future Pod Iterations

• Celebrating Impact: How can Cabin celebrate positive impact within our in-person and online spaces, while fostering an inclusive and supportive culture?
• Impact Grants and Public Goods: What opportunities can we explore to secure funding for impact grants and public goods that align with our values?
• Rotating Stewards: What if we experiment with a month-to-month rotation of stewards, empowering different members to take on leadership responsibilities within the DEI Pod?
• Inclusive Governance: What if we established councils within Cabin to support inclusive and equitable governance deliberations?
• Hats NFTs: How could we enable real world utility by re-exploring minting Hats NFTs to signify Pod (and neighborhood?) membership and to recognize contributions?
• Coordinape Gift Circles: Could this be helpful to streamline more collaborative ways of dynamically distributing compensation and rewards amongst community members and contributors?
• What else? We’d love to hear your ideas

Conclusion

This 1-month pilot will allow the Cabin community to test the effectiveness and impact of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pod with minimal commitment. By fostering belonging and impact, the DEI Pod can help Cabin cultivate a diverse and resilient Network City.

If funded, this proposal will enable thr active recognition of contributing community members; if not funded, the Pod will still operate on a volunteer basis, with the reward being the mutual support and shared vibes of collaboration, creating space for more opportunities for collaboration and community building online and IRL.

Call to Action:

What questions or ideas do you have?

Does this sound like something you’d like to be a part of?

Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for when the 1st call will be scheduled the week of Dec 1.

We look forward to connecting with you and thank you for support this 1-month pilot to explore how a DEI Pod can contribute to Cabin’s mission. Whether by joining the Pod, sharing feedback, or participating in discussions, you belong and your involvement will make a difference

[jon]

I don’t plan to support this proposal for two reasons:

1. My general perspective on DEI initiatives is that diversity, equity, and inclusion are all valuable things, but that they are best accomplished by thinking about them and their tradeoffs in the context of specific actions vs operating as a standalone initiative like this. For instance, I was impressed to see that the most recent cohort of the Neighborhood Accelerator Program was diverse across many dimensions, and the program has become more diverse over time. This was accomplished by making a program that was broadly attractive to a diverse audience, not by operating a DEI initiative. When we’ve operated specific DEI initiatives in the past at Cabin, I haven’t seen any evidence that they actually increased diversity, equity, or inclusion.

2. My personal perspective is that Matai’s recent actions have not been in line with those of someone I would want to see leading an initiative focused on these principles, particularly inclusion. Matai has taken up a large amount of space in the discord, forum, and on community calls recently, often expressing grievances unrelated to the topic at hand, focusing on personal ideology, and directly attacking other community members. I have had multiple members of the community tell me they’ve stopped posting in the discord out of fear of his retribution. I have personally had to request that he stop publicly and directly attacking me, which he apologized for—and then continued to do days later. I have had multiple community members tell me they’ve felt forced to limit their personal conversations with him because they were made uncomfortable by his actions and messages. I do not believe these actions have fostered an environment of inclusivity.

Matai — myself and other members of the community have spent many hours listening to your perspectives and trying to provide proactive opportunities to engage on the topics that you are passionate about. I have been disappointed by the way that these conversations have failed to improve the conditions of our public discourse, and how your apologies and promises to change your approach have often only lasted a few days before the same behaviors return. I think that regardless of your intentions, your recent actions have made Cabin feel like a less inclusive place.

For these reasons, I don’t plan to vote for this proposal. If it passes, I will fulfill my role in supporting the proposal in the same way I would for any DAO proposal that passes. Note that our policy is to only provide official @cabin.city emails for full time contributors to the DAO. I’d also recommend you confirm if the stewards you are asking for support from have the bandwidth and ability to support your requests of them before including them in your proposal.

[Matai]

When I first joined Cabin Labs as an employee my cover letter included a focus on DEI. After being hired, @jon shared with me that he didn’t see DEI initiaitves as a priority (similar to his statements above), and that he didn’t think focusing on diversity initiatives would attract who he saw as Cabin’s target customers.

Whenever i have tried to talk with @jon privately about topics of diversity, equity and inclusion, he ignores them and changes the subject, hence i have begun to have these disucssions in public spaces.

@jon

often expressing grievances unrelated to the topic at hand,

Good thing the NAP call was recorded… not surprised to hear that you dont think DEI is relevant. How diverse is the NAP? What % of people are BIPOC? I think 2 or 4 out of 50 or so? What has been done to actively reach out to BIPOC communities?

@jon what are you doing to promote diversity and inclusion?

Multiple statements made by @jon and others in the Cabin discord have racist undertones that are deeply offensive to BIPOC and allies.

Many people from Cabin’s Discord have reached out thanking me for speaking up, sharing that they have felt excluded by @jon and the culture he has cultivated. Multiple people have told me they felt dismissed by @jon when bringing up concerns or initiatives related to diversity. His response here is yet another example.

The fact that most people from Cabin’s past are no longer involved shows a clear gap in Jon’s ability to turn his aspirational words into actions that sustain a diverse, equitable and inclusive community.

The Cabin website doesn’t even include the word diversity.

I look forward to continuing to speak up for diversity, equity and inclusion within this community and beyond

[Matai]

I also want to address @jon’s point that DEI is best achieved through embedding its principles into specific actions rather than as standalone initiatives.

@jon

My general perspective on DEI initiatives is that diversity, equity, and inclusion are all valuable things, but that they are best accomplished by thinking about them and their tradeoffs in the context of specific actions vs operating as a standalone initiative like this.

1. if you read the key results, this proposal is about more than just DEI. By coming together in an inclusive space, instead of private group chats only for contributors or NAP members, we can cultivate more impact while fostering diversity, equity and inclusion.

2. @jon’s framing seems to dismiss the need for deliberate and focused DEI efforts and, frankly, undermines their potential.

By pointing to incidental progress in programs without acknowledging the structural barriers that standalone DEI initiatives aim to address, Jon’s stance gaslights the necessity for focused action, creating a narrative where DEI becomes a passive, secondary byproduct rather than a core priority. This approach not only overlooks the gaps that still exist but also reinforces a pattern of inaction when it comes to implementing meaningful and intentional DEI strategies.

The DEI Pod proposal directly challenges this passive approach by creating a dedicated space to experiment with collaborative, community-led solutions for fostering inclusion and belonging. It’s not an attempt to replace integrated efforts but to strengthen them by addressing the very barriers that limit organic progress. This includes:

• Actively engaging underrepresented voices in shaping Cabin’s future.
• Distributing resources in ways that empower those who often face systemic inequities.
• Offering a transparent, inclusive process for recognizing and rewarding contributions.

Jon’s position that past standalone DEI initiatives at Cabin “haven’t worked” without citing any evidence or acknowledging potential areas for improvement further reinforces a lack of accountability and action. Even when recently people in discord have advocated for the DEI pod to reform.

Instead of dismissing the need for focused DEI efforts, why not support this pilot as an opportunity to experiment, learn, and adapt?

The DEI Pod is about ensuring that DEI principles are not just a background consideration but an intentional and proactive part of our community.

@jon I hope you’ll reconsider and see the potential for this pilot to complement and enhance Cabin’s broader goals. Your support would enable us to catalyze meaningful change.

[ChristineU]

Matai, I wanted to shout out support for this effort but unfortunately my band width is very thin. I am trying to get involved in less things online as my IRL community takes up major time and effort.

[Matai]

Thanks @ChristineU! Totally understand and am grateful for your support.

Hope things in Honduras are going swell

And just to clarify, the impact that this proposal aims to create would be IRL, with 2 online calls in month-1 to:

1. onboard people into the pod and explain the approach
2. to help ppl get rewarded for the impact they they created during the month in the final meeting

I assume most folks are relatively well resourced at Prospera, but maybe this could be a cool way to reach out to local Honduran communities to create more opportunities for social impact

[Matai]

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to the DEI Pod call

Folks can access the recording here along with the AI notes summary:

This proposal is now live on Snapshot for voting until Dec 12th.

[grin]

I agree with Jon that diversity and inclusion are worthwhile goals, but this proposal is not a good way to achieve those goals. Cabin did a more intensive 3-month-long DEI initiative two years ago. It also involved community calls, feedback collection, and suggestions for future action. I don’t see any meaningful results from that work.

Also based on my experience with Matai, I don’t have confidence in his leadership here. This proposal requires strong collaboration with people who hold differing views. I’ve seen the opposite from him. He has struggled to collaborate effectively on past proposals, responded to community members with incendiary language, and made people to feel uncomfortable engaging in our discord. Even in this proposal he included requests for work from other contributors but hasn’t talked to any of us about it.

That said, on a meta level there are a few things I like:

• Matai has something he wants to do and he’s doing it, even if this proposal doesn’t get approved. This is do-ocracy and I applaud that.
• I’ve been voting on Cabin proposals for 3 years now, and always to approve them. This is the first proposal I don’t support. In some ways that’s great. Good decisions arise from disagreement, not consensus.

But those are promising high-level trends for Cabin on the whole, not reasons to support this specific proposal. So I’m voting against it.

[dianacornell]

Matai, I read through all this material and even watched the “key point” clips of your call you recorded with 3 other cabin members. I was curious, how do others feel? I know I’m not the most active member keeping up on the forum. But looking at what you posted in this reply right here, I cannot vote for this. You claim in your rather smug call that your posts have been about ideas and not ad hominem but then you label racism in “multiple statements” made by Jon and others and it is specifically wholly ad hominem with no substance to those paragraphs otherwise. What you say will be your key areas of impact are already things that cabin explicitly stands for - strengthening bonds between community in a more decentralized model of governance. What are you actually going to do other than host more zoom calls to complain about and undermine others? I guess you slated week 1 to be about determining the type of impact you want to have but I’d like to see that already in the proposal as I’m quite unclear what this reward pool is for and what type of engagement you may, or may not find in directing it anyplace. One thing thats super hard about the commons is getting people to contribute and from what I can tell, Jon is the principle architect behind building something great, something you and I have both at least at a time believed in, something that could grow into something even more transformative, but you have become sadly bent on tearing it down. I hope I’m wrong but thats what I see here.

[Matai]

Look forward to taking the time to respond in detail when i have the time to