Hello Zcash Zeal!
Here are this week’s MGRC meeting details:
This was the first week that Danika from the Zcash Foundation was able to assist with note taking. Below you will see a much more detailed account of the MGRC meeting than previous minutes because Danika did a great job of taking more detailed notes of the conversation! Her help is much appreciated.
For the purpose of this post I did [Redact] mentions of the new MGRC name because we want to have the Website, Twitter, and Forum ready to go concurrently and make a big announcement with the new name.
We also came to an agreement that ( barring any unforeseen blockers) the MGRC will be able to start officially taking Grant applications early December! Woot! 
MGRC Zoom Meeting: November 11th, 2020
[Minutes taken by Danika]
Pre-meeting agenda:
- Landing page approach (ie about, mission statement, format, faq, location)
- Grant process document feedback
- Hard date to have adjustments made to Grant.io platform for MGRC use
- Approach for [Redacted new name] rollout/community announcement/timing
- Who will run social media accounts? Twitter? (did not cover)
Meeting minutes:
Attendance:
Hudson Jameson
Sarah Jamie Lewis
Shawn
Chris Burniske
Holmes Wilson
Danika Delano acting as notetaker
Discussed Landing page
Holmes committed to be in the PM role to make changes to the portal website. The members agreed that branding on the website should have a new [Redacted] logo. Shawn volunteered to create a interem logo for [Redacted] and later MGRC can consult a graphic designer, if needed. The members discussed 2 approaches to the landing page- 1) have the Grant.io platform host all [Redacted] content (like it is now) or 2) create a [Redacted] webste at a separate URL. After some discussion, the group reached consensus that [Redacted].org will host a GitHub webpage so the committee can make edits and pull requests internally instead of requesting edits externally via Grants io. On the website, there will be a button for grant applications that links to the grants io platform. There was also agreement that there needs to be some language added to the Grants io page. Consensus was reached that the site URL is to be [Redacted].org (instead of .com). Holmes pointed out that the owner of the GitHub repo should be perpetual even if all MGRC members were to be replaced in the future, so ZF should have permissions, so Shawn volunteered to ask Andrew or Antonie from ZF to start a GitHub and add MGRC members to the repo with the most privileges. Shawn shared that the Ethereum Ecosystem Support Program has a nice website hosted on GitHub and could be used as a starting point/forked for the [Redacted] website. Hudson shared that he has basic knowledge of Github and that Gatsby plug-ins use Markdown or Javascript. The next step is to explore tech stack, evaluate, then pick a suitable repo to fork for the back-end of the website.
Discussed Deadline for Grants. io platform adjustments, launch date & name reveal
The MGRC will be “open for business” when they get money to give for grants, so they can approve grants anytime after Activation block 1046400 (assumed to be Nov 18, 2020). A few members have received inquiries in regards to when they will start accepting applications as some people think MGRC is already up and running. After some discussion, there was consensus that they will publicly announce they are accepting applications and reveal the [Redacted] committee rename early December. With an early December intended launch date, the Grant io edits & GitHub website deadline should be the end of November.
Talk to Ethereum Ecosystem Support Program team
Hudson shared that he is friends with ESP and that he plans to have a conversation with them next week on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday regarding possible forking of thier website repo. He extended an invite to the committee and Holmes said he was interested and asked Hudson to share the meeting time when it is established.
Grant process draft
The committee reviewed some sections of the Zcash Major Grants Process Document; this is a fluid document that the committee can adjust if they find issues at a later point.
Chris suggested there should be some version of this document on the landing page. The members agreed that a basic project “wish list” that all MGRC members agree on will be posted on the website. The wish list will note that it is not strictly exclusive but applications should concentrate on Zcash and the ecosystem exclusively (as opposed to the Zcash Foundation mission, because of its 501(c)(3) status, can fund financial privacy more broadly). This will help the applicants know the themes and not waste their time on an application that will not be supported. Chris suggested starting a separate doc for the wish list.
There was discussion about a zoom interview component in the interview process. Chris pointed out that with a video interview one can get a feel for a person and is less likely to be duped, but there is also more opportunity for bias. Sarah explained that a video interview would make the grant process too laborious and would not be advantageous for time-sensitive projects. She advocated for making the initial application process with as few barriers as possible. The rest of the committee agreed with Sarah’s point and Chris stated that he is okay scrapping video as long as the MGRC has control to pull the cord if someone is a problem later on. Holmes suggested an optional video interview but after some discussion there was consensus that there would be no video interview component in the regular process. Shawn stated that he wants to see a more robust process for very large grants and Holmes suggested that more emphasis on references (especially if there is access to the applicants position in their community) will prevent many problems. Hudson and the rest of the committee agreed. There was consensus to scrap the zoom interview requirement in the application process.
Additional Meeting
Due to the decision to launch early December the committee decided to meet next Wednesday (normally an off-week). The Grant Process Document has many more components to discuss live. Chris will send an invite.
Summary of action items:
- Make changes to portal website repo (Holmes)
- Create basic [Redacted] logo (Shawn)
- Ask Antonie for foundation to add a GitHub and add MGRC members with the most privileges (Shawn)
- Explore GitHub for website template to fork (Hudson, Shawn, Holmes)
- Communicate with Daniel at Grants io on edit
deadline (Hudson, Holmes) - Change the tag in the forum sub and group name at launch (Shawn)
- Ask Antonie if there are other guidelines before submitting an application (Danika)
- Create a “wish list” draft (Chris,
- Hudson to tell Holmes when the ESP meeting is scheduled (Hudson)
- Send invite for next week’s meeting (Chris- Done)
