2023 SpiritDAO Year in Review
2023 was an incredible year for SpiritDAO, with many significant milestones completed, the formal launch of our community DAO, and an ever-increasing interest in and attention to our efforts. In this newsletter, we're excited to cover some of the major highlights of the past year!
As a relatively new practitioner of DAOs and the "DAO oriented mindset," I can confidently say that it's been a wonderful serendipity finding, learning, joining and contributing to SpiritDAO in 2023! My original intention was to find like minded BUILDERS creating the types of structures that can and will adapt to crises and systemic changes. To find organizations with the decentralized ethos baked deep into their core. Ones with clear values, an artistic style, and pragmatic processes. From the beginning, SpiritDAO has embodied its word, remained true to its promises and delivered on tasks. Everything works and fits into the larger vision. In 2024, I'm excited to help onboard those who are courageous enough to build something new, wise and true, and have a bit of fun along the way. Cheers! - Steph Macurdy, SpiritDAO Member
January - March
Q1 2023 was a significant planning stage for our efforts. Self-actualization in the Age of Crisis had only launched about 3 months before Jan, so much of our efforts were focused on spreading the message and gauging resonance. We found that the Single Truth, Relational Universe, our Core Values, and the Eight Dignities were well received. ETH Denver was a big success for us and led to some connections that would lead to our second formal member and and many friends and advocates!
Towards the end of the quarter, we pivoted from focusing on outreach to beginning to research our DAO infrastructure.
Here's where we ended and began a new direction.
Talks and Interviews:
Green Pill Podcast w/ Kevin Owocki – 12/30/22 (2022 but a pivotal starting point, so why not revisit?!)
Reimagining Spirit & System – DAODenver / ETH Denver – 03/01/23
April - June
💰 April was a huge month for us as we were accepted into the Gitcoin Grants Beta round, a windfall that would lead to the funding, development, and production of Becoming More - our graphic novel ✅ distilling the central principles of Self-actualization in the Age of Crisis and SpiritDAO operations into an easily digested artifact.
🔮 In May we launched Sensemaker AI - a large language model trained on Self-actualization in the Age of Crisis. To date over 500 queries have been asked of it! In the same vein of community engagement, our weekly Contemplative Practice and Town Hall cadence took effect and have being going strong ever since.
👋 Additionally we began developing content for what would become our full Onboarding Process. ✅At the same time we were experimenting with a variety of DAO platforms such as Clarity and DAOLens, which while nice, were not ideal fits for our efforts.
📘 In June 100% of past revenues from Self-actualization in the Age of Crisis were transferred to SpiritDAO along with the rights to the book. While this process has been completed, legal documentation of the transfer will begin in 2024 as we formalize our nonprofit incorporation. Our finances are public to members, including all book revenues past and present.
Talks and Interviews:
The Sheasby Podcast w/ Owen Sheasby – 4/24/23
Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis Lecture at Eckerd College – 5/24/23
Chiwi Journal Podcast w/ Camellia Yang – 6/13/23
Binding Spirit & System Lecture at Safety Harbor, FL Public Library – 6/29/23
July - September
💰 In July we applied to (and were eventually accepted into) the Artizen Fund's Season 3 Grants Round. The round is still ongoing, there is still time to donate to help us launch our 2024 seasons!
📙 Becoming More officially launched for production and was given out at ETH Chicago and the Transformative Impact Summit NYC 2023.
⚙ We also finalized much of our present tech stack, formalizing our membership process with Unlock Protocol, our Roles organization with Hats, Guild.xyz for access and agency, and Charmverse to support work.
📜 Our community documentation continued to expand around a variety of content, including a robust infrastructure for nonprofit operations.
🗣 During this time we also secured our spot for our upcoming four-part lecture happening through University of South Florida's OLLI Program.
🟡 We formally launched the $SELF token contract.
🎉 Our first formal proposal passed and was executed on chain! 🎉
Talks and Interviews:
Web3 on Fire: Decentralizing the Future w/ Rob Edwards of Ambire Wallet – 8/10/23
Prioritizing Purpose: A Strategic Blueprint for Building Value-Based DAOs at ETHChicago – 9/15/23
Binding System and Spirit at Transformative Impact Summit NYC – 9/24/23
October - December
The past three months have been a whirlwind of activity!
🎉 SpiritDAO officially launched with members Stephen Maccurdy and Gustavo Segovia as a full, formalized DAO. There was significant traveling for events and lectures and we revamped and relaunched our website!
👁 We changed our Membership tiers to better reflect our core values, turning to a means-based approach and shifting access and agency levels to our onboarding process.
💰 Our Artizen Fund Season 3 is in full affect and we're presently sitting in fifth place at the time of this writing.
📜 We leveraged Sensemaker AI to create a discussion matrix database for our community that we've been leveraging at our weekly contemplative practices.
✅ We also passed our second formal proposal to purchase graphic novels for community distribution, events, and more. These graphic novels are intended to be sold to raise community revenue and are able to be requested via our Charmverse forum.
Talks and Interviews:
Art from our graphic novel Featured at Art Basel (Beyond Basel 2023)
Intimate Lecture at the Artizen / Console Creator House
ETH Miami to judge a hackathon and share books!
What's next?
While 2023 was an incredible building year for SpiritDAO, we're just getting started! If you're reading this and not yet a member we encourage you to join us! We offer both supportive and active membership tracks, and membership donations are as little as $20 (or free if you go the proof of curiosity track!) Every bit helps!
Our roadmap continues to be our north star with our initial priority continuing to build a foundational team. Early 2024 will focus on formalizing our legal status, automating merit and participation incentives with $SELF Tokens, and continuing proactive speaking engagements and community gatherings.
Together we are building special and our community is stronger than ever. Now is the time to embrace the alternative, we're building something special and we're still early!
DONATE TODAY: https://grants.spiritdao.org (ETH) | https://artizen.link/pay (USD)
Thank you for reading!
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