Rationale:
For me this was a though decision but I ended up voting against.
What spoke in favor
the DAO needs more skilled delegates
the Arbitrum DAO is complex in nature
in light of the amount requested, the proposal is very thorough
the team set-up would invite some diversity into the DAO (and you can say all you want pro/con, end of the story is that 49.7% of the world’s population is female, and if we want to move the financial system on-chain we need to be creating products not only attracting male degens - I am exaggerating on purpose - but also other demographics; and hence we need these demographics to be represented otherwise we will never create products that are being liked and used)
What spoke against
poor ROI; ~200k USD for 10 delegates is simply too high; at current ARB prices this could fund 11 DIPs
the reality of DAOs and Web3 in a broader sense is that to succeed you need to be able to (at least at some level) self-teach yourself some concepts. Even by attending a governance bootcamp, applicants might face hurdles when certain topics are up for voting - if they have not been able to teach themselves concepts before, they wont be able to educate themselves on new topics/hence bringing low value
What could be explored in the future
taking the funding DIPs idea, there could some sort of competition to win 5 DIPs for new delegates. E.g., need to join the DAO and show that they can provide value over 4 months. Top 5 get voted on, receive 50k ARB and can apply for DIP
broadening the funnel: I am a big fan of SheFi (COI: I was part of cohort 11 and think Maggie is very inspiring) and believe something similar could be helpful to generally onboard non-crypto natives into Web3 (no matter their sex). E.g., something like a Arbitrum University (going through the same lectures as SheFi) that introduces people into crypto generally (and by onboarding them to Arbitrum/providing them value expecting them to stick to the ecosystem → lower hanging fruit vs chasing yield seekers). A nice side effect is that a curriculum (such as Arbitrum University) can be marketed on Meta/TikTok etc (while crypto is mostly banned).
From such a funnel, where we educate ppl about crypto, also potential contributors could come from/but even if there are just a few/none, at least we “Arbitrum pilled” them.
As I have also commented to other marketing intiatives/incentives etc.: I am missing the whole picture which could be the following:
through incentives (which are xyz) we target yield seekers
through Arbitrum University we target non native crypto users
through DIP scholarship we compete for the most promising DAO contributors
As mentioned in this post I believe the goal of the GMC and its potential options could have been communicated clearer, but I do agree that
a) idle sitting ETH is a waste
b) Arbitrum’s Treasury should be allocated in a risk sensitive manner