Thank you to @espanicon and @TranscranialSol for taking the time to write this proposal and get this active discussion going.
Just speaking from our own experience as a small sub-P-REP team, we can say that a lot of what’s being discussed here resonates with us, and we can definitely see where some teams like @Brandon_FBM are coming from. To be perfectly honest with everyone, since we started out as P-REP #105, our main focus has been trying to grow first and foremost, with things like worrying about saving for the 5% bond requirement put on the back burner (initially our thinking was that this task would become a lot easier to tackle, should we be able to rise up a lot in the rankings by earning more votes). We’re not saying out strategy was ever the right approach, but nevertheless, this was initially our plan of attack.
While we FULLY SUPPORT the recent move to drastically reduce Irep to decrease ICX inflation (particularly caused by P-REPs), it kind of goes without saying that such a sudden abrupt change that leads to ~2/3 reduction in one’s income in such a short period of time can really make it difficult for smaller teams with limited resources to try and map out and plan for their future.
For awhile, we were very confident and thought it would be entirely possible for us to fund both aggressive growth campaigns (which we had been doing up to now, especially on the marketing side), while also saving for the bond requirement, in conjunction, especially thanks to programs like the Pilot Delegation, which are aimed to give smaller P-REP teams a much needed boost.
However, with the recent drastic drop in Irep, we’re kind of back to the drawing board again, trying to figure out how to best balance and allocate funding of both tasks (even with the Pilot Delegation, we’re now earning less than before the Pilot Delegation was awarded to our team, which we’re sure all recipients are aware of by now). And this doesn’t even get into things like paying core team members salaries, which we basically have no room for anymore (however, for non-core contractor services, this is impossible to defer/halt, for obvious reasons)… With that said, we’re coming from a position of being a team currently ranked as #29, so we can only imagine how tough it must be for other sub-P-REP teams ranked further down the list…
This post is not meant to be a rant/tirade/complaining, but more of presenting the reality of the current situation, which we’re sure many small sub-P-REP teams are going through now (this isn’t exactly an easy subject to be vocal about and put into words). The drastic lowering of Irep, coupled with a static (or declining) ICX price, in a way represents a “worst case” scenario for income/planning, which is what we think is what’s prompting healthy discussions on how to better ease the 5% bond requirement burden for smaller teams (i.e., as suggested, make it more tied to how much income a team is actually earning)?
In any case, we’re going to continue to do the best that we can under the new operating environment, and if this means more of a reliance on programs such as Pilot Delegation, Grant Programs, and eventually in the future, things like CPF (which we believe is the intention all along, as outlined in IISS 3.0), then that’s where we will have to turn to for funding. We just sincerely hope that hard-working teams won’t be turned away from external funding, since being “self sufficient” isn’t quite as easy now as it used to be… Ultimately, we’re just trying to find ways where as a small sub-P-REP team we can aggressively continue spending to promote ICON, while at the same time save aggressively for the bond requirement…
Speaking from the point-of-view of just being ICONists, we would say that it would be a real shame to see up-and-coming and promising sub-P-REP teams having to stall or cut back on their aggressive growth initiatives due to any kind of lack of funding reason… Now is really the time for all P-REP teams to be trying to hyper-accelerate ICON growth, in our own opinion. At Icon Pilipinas, we do genuinely believe in the potential and exceptionally BRIGHT future for ICON, so even though the interim is a little painful now, we have extremely high hopes and belief that a better future awaits for all ICONists.
Thanks for taking the time out to read this post!
Let’s keep pushing forward together.