Something I have never liked about Polkadot is double payments. Who will be in charge of ensuring that this does not happen, that X application paid by the treasury comes, either for a bounty, own proposal or even for another ecosystem project? I reiterate the same thing I said in previous proposals. A large part of the HAs put their work done by other initiatives in their application to HA. Who will be in charge of ensuring that this double payment does not happen?

The signers?

GM All,

It would be super helpful if people could leave feedback. We first created the medium spender proposal 2.5 weeks ago and had 3 X spaces to discuss the cost, Board, deliverables. We also had comments active on the document and socialised the ask across all platforms, including GitHub, for 2+ weeks before posting, so I did not expect everyone to be as surprised at the request as we are seeing. Also appreciate that we cannot all be living and breathing other peoples efforts and OpenGov in general which is why we have tried to keep our deliverables as fluid as possible despite being in the voting period as we know it is not until we get here, that people can often take the time to review work done.

Firstly, unfortunately, all programmes require a higher injection of capital to build out, which is what you are seeing here. The USDT 200,000 for the OpCom and Advisory Board is a set up cost to allow the seeding and onboarding of 55-105 Ambassadors (depending on how many people come forward for the seeding process), establish the onboarding structure for new members to open the door to 100s more from Q2 2025. We will establish an educational programme which will be free to all members, Radha on our Board will be leading this initiative following his completion of the PBA online course. This will sit alongside the Educational Manifesto he is also writing with Pauline. A rewards and retention scheme will be designed and a launch event at SXSW is in the initial planning stages. We will also be supporting the 10-15 initiatives that are funded through the interim phragmen fund. Assisting with drafting KPIs, getting the programmes off the ground and providing guidance to ensure they succeed in the start-up style environment.

I am sure that the community can appreciate the scale of these deliverables and the cost of paying people that are highly experienced at these tasks as well as being steeped in the ecosystem is reasonable. Talent and commitment come at a cost and, as Mister Cole said, this feels like our last shot at really getting something right and given this has been a labour of love by the community, for the community, it seems right to give it a go. The opportunity cost vs possible reward, we feel, is very low.

Addressing the other costs, USDT 400,000 will go towards supporting 10-15 programme initiatives. The community can apply for a 3 month USDT 5,000 or 10,000 slot. The initiatives selected will be (1) aligned with Polkadot's immediate needs; (2) ready to kick off at the start of Jan 2025; (3) can survive in a start-up style environment; (4) has clear and achievable OKRs/KPIs; (5) have a programme that will blossom with this level of cash injection over that period. The Advisory Board will select these programmes and the Ops Committee will support them in the journey to success.

Finally, the $40,000 is for the Ambassador treasury. This is for tooling and other general costs to run the programme on the ground. This will be the only permanent, ongoing cost of the programme and whatever is not spend will be returned to the treasury. We do not know what the monthly cost will look like, so we went with $10,000 per month as an estimate, but spending in the incubation phase will give us a good guideline.

To compare this to the Ambassador programme 2.0, the costs of 21 Head Ambassador salaries, with no travel, tooling, funds for other ranks or any other needs to make the programme run effectively, was USDT 840,000. We are suggested that we need USDT 200,000 less to fund up to 105 Ambassador onboarding, reward and retention programmes, an educational platform, tooling and a flagship event (we will go to the EB for the event funding but would not be asking for production fees) provide funding and support to up to 15 initiatives which will have key deliverables for Polkadot and all in the first 3 months of the programme being in operation.

The Advisory Board is composed of the key figures within the Polkadot ecosystem. They have all read the Manifesto, educated themselves on what we are trying to achieve and where they see potential and have each decided to sign up on this basis. It is fair to say that these individuals know how to manage their time and what they want to commit it to — they clearly see huge potential in the Ambassador Fellowship and want to support in making the big dreams that we have, a reality.

During the voting period and for further Q&A, we will be:

• On Polkadot AAG every Thursday
• Hosting a Q&A / Ambassador Fellowship 'CommuniTea Time' every Tuesday starting next week. This will then transform into a monthly YouTube stream, similar to the AAG set up next year, with a special kick off episode in December this year to celebrate getting the community ayes (if we do ofc!)
• Available to chat any time about anything in DMs or jump on a call.
• Monitoring the OKR / KPI doc which is deliberately fluid. We have so many ideas and know you all do too so please keep adding

We hope that we can keep talking and improving in the hope that both 1267 and 1287 will pass and we will have an excellent structure on which to kick off!