Welcome to Sensemaking, a SpiritDAO community-created weekly column about applying our philosophy and practice to everyday life.

I've often been imagining how SpiritDAO might onboard new users—always keeping in mind the magic associated with experiencing the unknown, a future rapidly unfolding onto the present that is both exciting and intimidating. An intentional and value-creating onboarding process can give an individual the access and agency necessary to create a meaningful impact. Contrast that to a hollow introduction and productivity-driven approach, which quickly becomes the very thing the individual sought refuge from—more of the same.

Our shared transcendence is a process of creation, but creations demand to be shared. To do that, we must communicate the message effectively. Ensuring that our various format offerings are accessible and varied to meet the prospective member where they are. I say prospective because some may choose self-select out of the process before it is complete.

Recent conversations have led me to conclude that many of us share concerns around the accessibility barriers of many of the coordination frameworks being developed. If I'm being authentic in my imposter, likely, I am also guilty of this. Many brilliant minds are analyzing the crisis, and there is no shortage of detailed analysis. Unfortunately, the word that we use to convey the various coordination failures we inhabit is out of reach for many. We must always be mindful not to leverage language as a barrier, no matter how authoritative or expert. To do so is to exclude the many who will be the cornerstones of SpiritDAO.

We must never allow our well-intended efforts to become echo chambers of self-gratification. Our purposes serve to elevate our shared human condition. To do that, we embrace equity in our relationships with others, creating foundational space for those who might otherwise lack access to or awareness of our vision and values. SpiritDAO is intended to cast an inclusive net, as we all share the common struggle of lack of alternatives.

Suppose we're unwilling to do the work of building the bridges, ramps, and pathways necessary to ensure access to our community. We will never achieve the scale required for collective transcendence. Worse still. In that case, we will serve to further the inequities baked into our existing order that we so desperately seek to escape.

SpiritDAO is still in the pre-launch phase, with co-founders coming together to imagine a vision and process that is true to our mission, purpose, and values. We'll be focusing on onboarding small cohorts with a personalized approach and binding our philosophy and practice to the individual and collective actions necessary to realize our vision. What exactly that looks for onboarding is still to be determined but in our immediate present, SpiritDAO hosts a weekly Meditation / Contemplative Session (Wed. 8:30 PM EST) and Town Hall (Fri. 4:00 PM EST) to help support your philosophy and practice. Say hello and explore becoming more.

Intent-aligned DAO onboarding

When we think about an equitable and trust-based approach to onboarding community Samantha Martin's 2022 sieve model really resonates. It empowers individual members to align with organizational values, purpose, and expectations throughout the process of onboarding while providing disinterested members a path to easily self-select out of the DAO.

SpiritDAO is likely to embrace this process and customize to our community experience.

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As we continue to grow, we want to make sure that our values and efforts align with our community needs. Join us every Friday at 4:00pm EST for our weekly Town Hall.