Community Counter Proposal 39

This counter proposal 39 seeks to address transparency, accountability, and effectiveness within BuilderDAO operations in alignment with the DAO’s ratified Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV).

Despite 12+ months of funding, no public knowledge base (e.g., Charmverse), receipts, SOPs, or consistent updates have been provided as deliverables.

As stated in Prop 39:

“The DAO faces ongoing challenges in maintaining compliance, securing grants, and managing operational documentation and budgeting.”

Payments have been requested retroactively without role-specific KPIs, progress reports, or community review. While leadership renewals have technically been voted on by the DAO, they occurred without published performance reviews or documentation of success metrics.

This creates a pattern where compensation and authority are renewed without adequate accountability mechanisms, despite recurring deliverables going unfulfilled.

Recent Discord discourse from the community regarding these concerns has been marked by defensiveness and deflection, which undermines the collaborative and respectful tone encouraged by BuilderDAO’s values.

Discussions should bring communities together, and all voices should be valued and Discord moderation must discourage dismissive, gaslighting, or ad hominem tones.

The community respectfully requests that Proposal 39 be cancelled and withdrawn to address the concerns raised before resubmitting.

Issue/Context

Please reference this timeline here: Builder DAO Timeline

As originally promised in Prop 58 (June 2023), the DAO was allocated 50 ETH to "improve efficiency and effectiveness in managing administrative tasks."

Yet again, Prop 39 admits: “no progress on a knowledge base.”

This continued pattern of renewal without performance review sets a precedent that violates the DAO’s values of accountability and transparency.

Public Knowledge Base Requirement: Require all working groups to maintain an up-to-date, public Charmverse with:

• Meeting notes (AI note tools make this an easy lift)

• Budget usage

• Assigned responsibilities

• Status of deliverables ** Financial Transparency Gaps**

• No receipts have been submitted for reimbursements

• A Deloitte tax bill remains unpaid due to banking delays

• No public documentation verifies tax advisory services, payments, or prior consultation with the DAO

Over 40% of BuilderDAO’s treasury has been allocated to administrative roles and tax infrastructure (Props 58, 70, 93, 31, 39) without a single public-facing, on chain reference for accounting, products delivered or built, or grant submission & reporting process delivered.

SafeNotes is a proposed solution that lets teams annotate their multisig transactions with descriptions and categories, turning ambiguous blockchain data into public, clear, understandable records for all to see.

DAOs promise transparency, but raw transaction data is hard to understand without context. SafeNotes bridges this gap by letting teams document the purpose of each transaction. Secretaries can easily record decisions as they happen, while stakeholders get clear, real-time visibility into DAO operations. By using this alongside Charmverse the DAO receives transparency.

Removal of of LLC/C-Corp Creation Language

This proposal opposes introducing LLC or C-Corp formation language without a separate vote and legal review. From Prop 39:

“The Administrators are seeking permission to create a holding entity that exists under the DAO, an LLC or C-Corp…”

Requirements before any legal structure consideration:

• Legal memo from counsel
• DAO-wide discussion of multiple legal entity options
• Dedicated proposal for ratification

No bundling of major governance changes (e.g. legal entities) should be inside operational renewal props. If making payments in fiat, and handling transactions is a recurring issue for the UNA Admin, a prop addressing this needs to be formalized and allow token holders to understand the situation clearly.

Additional Community Feedback

BuilderDAO members have raised the following unresolved questions, which should be transparently addressed prior to approving any renewal or compensation:

-Unspent Funds: Why are we voting on a new term and backpay request when 19 ETH remains unused from the February proposal?

• Deliverables Overdue: Documentation and SOPs have been promised since Q3 2023. If the barrier is bandwidth or prioritization, can responsibilities be redistributed to unblock progress?

• Grant Pipeline Clarity:

• How many grants has the DAO applied for?

• Can the applications be shared publicly?

• What is the current and future grant strategy?

Success Metrics & Milestones: How has role performance been measured to date, and what is the benchmark for renewal?

These questions reinforce the need for a milestone-based approach and public reporting structure outlined in this counterproposal. Rather than personalizing the dialogue, this proposal responds to these governance concerns through structural reform, not character critique.

DAO Role Separation & Rotation

A core structural issue arises when one person holds multiple overlapping roles without adequate oversight. As of this proposal, the same individual has acted as:

• UNA Administrator
• Operations Lead
• Multisig Signer

This consolidation of authority introduces risk, limits feedback loops, and violates the DAO’s commitment to decentralized governance.

Solution:

• Enforce role separation across administrative, financial, and communications functions.
• Introduce role rotation and onboarding processes to prevent single points of failure.
• Assign clear backups for each role and make contact points public.

Clarifying the Role of the Operations Working Group

While this counterproposal focuses primarily on the renewal of the Ops Lead position, token holders recognize that the Operations Working Group (OWG) has played a supportive role across past terms.

However, continued funding and involvement of this group must also meet updated standards of transparency, documentation, and measurable deliverables.

Community Recommendation

• Be retained only under redefined expectations of performance and documentation.

• Submit monthly progress updates to a shared DAO dashboard (Charmverse)

• Provide visibility into their scopes of work, time allocations, and communication with external service providers (e.g., Deloitte, tax advisors).

• Operate under a clear mandate approved by the DAO and not serve as an accountability buffer for the Ops Lead.

Funding for the OWG via the OP grant safe may continue, but only with:

• Clear reporting on how those funds are spent
• Documentation of work completed by each member
• Public minutes from group decisions or guild calls

This ensures the OWG evolves into a support function that complements DAO accountability goals, rather than operating in a silo or shield.

Revised Budget & Disbursement Framework

To align with BuilderDAO’s values of Transparency, Accountability, and responsible stewardship of public goods, this counterproposal recommends a revised flat-rate budget structure that emphasizes verifiable progress over frontloaded compensation.

Community Request To Reduce Proposal 39 Ask to 10 ETH (Reduced from 15 ETH in Prop 39)

This reduced amount reflects the DAO’s urgent need for deliverables and proof of work before any further increases in funding. The intent is to rebuild trust through action, not assumption.

• No milestone, no unlock: If deliverables are incomplete by milestone deadlines, remaining funds will be paused and subject to DAO vote for continuation or reassignment.

• All deliverables must be posted in a public DAO documentation hub (Charmverse) and shared in a dedicated forum thread or public Farcaster update.

• To restore confidence in compensation practices, no backpay is permitted under this revised structure.

• Work must be compensated based on agreed future benchmarks, not retroactive subjective effort.

BuilderDAO deserves operational clarity and better alignment with its mission to support DAOs through public goods.

This proposal re-centers around public documentation, structural integrity, and DAO-wide empowerment.

The current proposal (Prop 39) is a continuation of a broken funding cycle. This counterproposal offers a new framework of ideas grounded in DAO values: transparency, decentralization, and results-based funding.

When a single contributor holds multiple unchecked roles—such as administrator, operator, fund manager, proposal author, —without clear oversight or transparency, it erodes the very foundation of decentralized governance.

Even more concerning is when that contributor responds to valid community questions with hostility, deflection, or sarcasm.

This behavior not only undermines the DAO’s values of mutual respect and accountability, but also creates a chilling effect: members begin to hesitate before speaking up, participating in governance, or offering constructive critique.

This is not just a personnel issue — it's a systemic flaw in our structure that must be addressed with process, not personality.

DAO members should feel safe, welcomed, and encouraged to question how funds are spent, what deliverables are produced, and whether role holders are fulfilling their obligations.

Without that environment, we are not building a DAO — we are maintaining a gatekept hierarchy in disguise.

This counterproposal is not just a response to Prop 39. It is a call to realign BuilderDAO with its own mission: to build sustainable, transparent, and decentralized infrastructure for DAOs.

Let’s lead by example, and show that we are willing to audit ourselves, evolve our systems, and uphold the values we’ve ratified.

— the tools and people exist, we just need transparency and structure to support them.

Builder DAO is dedicated to the creation and development of free and accessible DAO infrastructure as a public good.

North Star Check

All activities noted above help either to amplify the activities of BuilderDAO or educate around the Nouns Builder protocol, in alignment with BuilderDAO's mission.

Author: Mary McCawley

As a founder, curator, and long-time Web3 community advocate, I’ve spent the last several years actively building in the decentralized ecosystem — from leading onchain cultural projects to advancing open governance frameworks. I am the founder of Digital Dreams, Kansas City’s first digital art gallery.

I joined BuilderDAO out of belief in its public goods mission and have since engaged deeply in governance, documentation review, and community transparency.

Through my recent involvement in BuilderDAO, I’ve identified structural issues that hinder trust, participation, and accountability — and I believe this proposal offers constructive, values-aligned solutions.

My intention is to help the DAO evolve into the transparent, community-driven protocol steward it aspires to be and for this infrastructure to become better, stronger, more productive for the next generation.