🎓 Fellowships
What is the FWB Fellowships Program?
FWB originated from a place of creativity and discovery. Artists, writers, musicians, thinkers, and dreamers have been at the very heart of the driving force behind the growth of the community since its inception.
To ensure that FWB remains a diverse hub of creativity and innovation, the Membership team is proposing that the FWB community establishes a trust to lock up tokens to preserve Fellowships for the next two to three years. This allows FWB to remain a home for all without any concern of financial barriers to entry
FWB Fellowships Program Summary
- The existing Scholarships program will be reworked into a new initiative (FWB Fellowships) to support new members awarded on the basis of merit, need, and prioritizing under-represented communities
- For FWB to remain unique aka ‘intersection of crypto + creativity’ we must continue to attract and nurture members embodying this culture
- Help maintain the balance of the existing community independent of an oft-fluctuating token price, which may unintentionally exclude otherwise exceptional applicants
- Introduction of FWBenefactor program to improve community engagement, onboarding, transparency, and quality of Fellowship applicants
Candidates for Fellowship
Creators and those who create/promote culture, including artists (traditional + digital), musicians, writers, chefs, creative thinkers and doers, curators, event producers and thought leaders of tomorrow. The desired candidate embodies the ethos that makes FWB an attractive place for bright and inquisitive minds.
Process: Application, Selection, and Onboarding
Recruiting: It will be the responsibility of the Fellowships Committee, and Benefactors to recruit potential Fellows, and direct them to the Application. FWB members are also encouraged to directly refer potential Fellows to the Fellowships Committee.
Applying: Submitted via web application. Application is based on the same questions as the standard application including wallet address. Application page will remain referral-only, possibly generating unique URLs per applicant. Selection criteria to be made visible on the application page.
Timing: Application process is open for program duration, with preliminary scoring (aka Round 1) reviews monthly by the Fellowships Committee. Voting snapshot (aka Round 2) will occur in the final two weeks of the season, for participation in the following season. Late applicants will roll over to the following season (cutoff tbd). Each season will launch with ~20 awardees (variable contingent on token threshold).
Selection Process
- Round 1 Preliminary Vote: Fellowships Committee
- Round 2 Vote: One batched Snapshot vote, weighted by electorate groups: Fellowships Committee, FWB Team Leads, FWBenefactors, FWBoard, FWB members
Round 1 Preliminary Vote
- Highlight the right kinds of applicants (focus: merit, need, under-represented)
- Rule out those who do not fit the criteria
- Review of new applicants to occur monthly
- Distill highlights into summaries for Round 2 voters
Round 2 Vote
- Each voter may select one or more candidates up to the maximum number offered per season
- Round 2 voters will be presented with a summary of each candidate, highlights, Fellowship Committee comments and any applicable social media
- Occurs final two weeks of each season
- Round 2 is up or down vote only
Priority Applications
- Need: One of the core motivations for Fellowships is to provide opportunities for candidates who may come from less advantageous or differently abled positions.
- Merit: Those with a proven track record or who have demonstrated an affinity in creative fields, developing insights or specialized skill sets, and tomorrow’s thought leaders.
- Under Represented: The average crypto/tech demographic does not accurately reflect the diversity of society - it is imperative for FWB to embrace voices that represent different backgrounds, gender identities, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities and so forth