The Community Development (CommDev) Group at the MakerDAO Foundation is always hard at work coming up with new ways to boost the grassroots nature of the global Maker community. After all, MakerDAO as a whole is meant to be just that—a global community. To date, the Maker Community is vast; the Foundation alone is made up of people from more than 20 countries. We’ve also seen an increasing amount of activity on our social channels, a ton of developer activity, a thriving ecosystem of partners, and an ever-increasing number of analyses pieces and public commentary.

To further engage the community, the CommDev Group has created a valuable, easy-to-digest resource to help anyone plan, organize, and host their own MakerDAO-related meetup. It’s called the Do-it-Yourself Meetup Kit, and it’s designed to help anyone who would like to self-plan a meetup apply for a micro-grant and get funded in Dai to help cover some of the expenses involved.

The kit includes general information about MakerDAO, an overview of the entire process (from planning to hosting a meetup), a budget guide, a marketing and promotion guide, a guide on different meeting formats, presentation slides, and information on how to apply for a micro-grant.

Importance of the Global MakerDAO Community

The Maker Community is the essence of MakerDAO. Early adopters, Dai enthusiasts, developers, Maker Foundation employees, MKR holders, keepers, and engaged observers make up a community that is an indispensable and a critical part of MakerDAO. Dai and Maker fundamentally cannot exist without the cooperation of—and scientific governance by—the entire community. In short, we recognize that the community is the most critical component of Maker’s success.

Much of the world is underserved when it comes to financial inclusion and access. One core principle of the Maker Foundation is to help serve the underserved by focusing on Dai adoption in emerging markets. We believe that access to a stable currency, combined with the emergence of open and decentralized financial primitives, will allow the financially underserved to realize the same advantages as much of the rest of the world. This is why our focus on education, onboarding, and access to Maker technology, the platform, and Dai is so important.

The First DIY Meetups

One of the first meetups we aided through the micro-grant initiative was held in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, on March 11. Anett Rolíková and our friends at Progressbar, a popular local co-work and hacker space, hosted an event called “From Blockchain to Dai for Beginners.” Attendees were introduced to cryptocurrencies, the major issue of crypto volatility, and how the Dai stablecoin stands to solve this problem.

Although 20 guests were expected at Progressbar, 35 showed up to learn about Dai.

On March 18, in Münster, Germany, a meetup was held by Florian Drewes and his crew at CryptoMonday (@cryptomonday on Twitter). There, the topic was "DAI—Solving the Stable Coin Drama the Decentralized Way." The evening included an introduction to Dai and MakerDAO, as well as a vote on the demonstrations attendees wanted to see. Participants chose a live DEX trading session and a demo of a CryptoKitty purchase.

Florian Drewes leads a discussion about MakerDAO and Dai during a meetup at CryptoMonday in Münster, Germany.

Through the Do-it-Yourself Meetup program and micro-grant initiative, we hope to get as much feedback as possible on the process. So far, we haven’t been disappointed. Our first few grantees provided us with some fantastic insights that helped us make the process lighter and more user-friendly.

What Type of Meetup Can I Host, and How Do I Apply for a Grant?

Meetups can take many forms. Common meetup formats include presentations, demos, live tutorials, panels, interviews, and developer-focused workshops. Choosing the best content for your meetup will depend on your target audience and their level of blockchain and crypto knowledge. It’s completely up to organizers to decide on the agenda and structure of their meetups.

The purpose of this initiative is to allow anyone access to the resources they need to host a successful MakerDAO-related meetup. All one has to do is complete this simple form and provide a payable Request Network Invoice link with the form submission. That way, if the application is approved, funding will be received completely on-chain. Grantees who want to receive additional grants in the future are required to complete the Maker Community Meetup Feedback Form. It’s as simple as that. Our hope is that the number of educational meetups driving enthusiasm and adoption of Dai will increase, particularly in parts of the world lacking financial inclusion and stability. Our desire is to educate local communities in areas that can most benefit from Dai.

Community Collaboration

This initiative is brand new, and we invite feedback on both the process and the materials provided. We are always looking to improve upon the resources we offer, so we invite anyone to submit pull requests for improvements to the Do-it-Yourself Meetup Kit.

If you have any questions or inquiries about this initiative, join us in our #community-development channel on Rocket.Chat or email [email protected], Community Development Lead.