Civics Meeting Mintues Sep 18 2025

Attendees:

Name	Attendance	Role	Voting Seat (Y/N)	Election Term
Nicolas Cerny	Yes	Chair	Y	April 2026
Larisa Mcfarlane	Yes	Secretary	N	N/A
Thomas Lindseth	Yes	Intersect	N	N/A
Ken-Erik O	Yes	Member	Y	April 2026
Nana Safo	Yes	Member	Y	April 2026
Alex Seregin	Yes	Member	Y	April 2026
Randy	Yes	Member	Y	April 2026
Taichi Yokoyama	No	Member	Y	October 2025
Reshan Fernando	Yes	Member	Y	October 2025
Mermoz Dzubang	Yes	Member	Y	April 2025
Takeshi Ohishi	No	Member	Y	October 2025
Ryan Williams	Yes	Intersect	N	N/A
Gemma Dakin	Yes	Intersect	N	N/A

Observers: Cathy Hermstad, Gnobudy John, Tevo Saks (Contributor)

Decisions/Actions

Decisions

• Adopt Constitutional Amendment Framework: The committee formally voted (6-0) to adopt the presented five-step framework as the official starting point for the new Constitutional Amendment Working Group.

• Approve Expanded DRep Compensation Grant: The committee formally voted (6-0) to approve the expanded scope and revised structure for the CIP-149 (DRep Compensation) grant. The total grant fund is now 100,000 ADA, allocated across wallet providers, governance tools, and SDKs.

Actions

• Define Grant Application & Selection Criteria (Civics Committee): The committee is now responsible for defining the application process, timeline, and technical selection criteria for the expanded DRep compensation grant, with input from technical experts like Ryan.

• Prepare Grant Administration (Gemma / Intersect Procurement Team): Once the committee provides the selection criteria and process, the procurement team will prepare to manage the application and contracting process for the 100,000 ADA fund.

• Kickstart Constitutional Amendment Working Group (Committee Members): With the framework adopted, the new working group can now formally begin its work of refining the process for constitutional amendments.

• Submit Member Bios (All Remaining Members): All committee members who have not yet submitted their short bio for the "Meet the Members" social media campaign are required to do so.

• Promote Grant Opportunity (Committee & Intersect): Once the grant application is live, committee members and Intersect will promote it across their networks to ensure wide visibility among potential applicants like wallet providers and SDK teams.

Topic	Discussion	Notes
Constitutional Amendment Framework	The meeting began with a discussion on the newly created space for constitutional amendments. Thomas and Larisa presented a draft framework document outlining a five-step process: 1. Collect Ideas, 2. Refine, 3. Draft, 4. Adopt, and 5. Review & Improve. The goal is to create a sustainable, long-term process, not just a one-off update.	A draft framework for a continuous constitutional amendment process was presented as a starting point for the new working group.
Technical Implementation of Framework	Nicolas suggested that instead of building a custom platform from scratch, the process could leverage a user-friendly GitHub repository, similar to the CIP process. Thomas agreed, noting that a simpler UI could be built on top of GitHub to make it accessible to non-technical users.	The group leaned towards using a modified GitHub process as the technical backbone for the amendment framework, prioritizing simplicity and leveraging existing systems.
Community Feedback on Framework	Tevo (Contributor) joined to give feedback, emphasizing the need for clarity on how resources would be allocated to teams doing the amendment work. He also suggested thinking about how to create a "delegation of trust" so the entire community doesn't need to be engaged on every minor detail.	A key piece of feedback was the need to clarify how community contributors would be resourced and to design a process that doesn't require constant, universal engagement.
Adoption of the Framework as a Starting Point	The committee held a formal vote to adopt the document presented by Thomas and Larisa as the official starting point for the Constitutional Amendment Working Group. The motion passed unanimously (6-0).	The presented framework was formally adopted as the starting point, giving the new working group a solid foundation to begin its work.
Expanded DRep Compensation Grant (CIP-149)	The committee revisited the Optional DRep compensation grant. Ryan explained that to be effective, the scope needed to be expanded beyond just wallet providers to also include governance tools (like GovTool, Tempo) that build the delegation transactions, and SDKs (like Mesh, Blaze) to provide reference implementations.	The grant proposal was officially expanded to include governance tools and SDKs, as they are crucial parts of the transaction-building and reward-distribution process.
Revised Grant Structure	A new grant structure was proposed: 10 grants of 5,000 ADA for wallet providers, 5 grants of 5,000 ADA for governance tools, and 5 grants of 5,000 ADA for SDKs. This brings the total proposed grant fund to 100,000 ADA.	The total grant fund was revised to 100,000 ADA, allocated across wallets, governance tools, and SDKs.
Approval of Expanded Grant	After the discussion and clarification from Ryan, the committee held a formal vote to adopt the proposed changes to expand the scope and revise the grant structure for the CIP-149 initiative. The motion passed unanimously (6-0).	The committee formally approved the expanded scope and new 100,000 ADA budget for the DRep compensation grant.
Grant Application & Selection Process	Gemma from the Intersect procurement team joined to outline the next steps. She clarified that the committee would need to define the application process, timeline, and selection criteria. The procurement team can then handle the contracting (likely via a Purchase Order) and KYB process for selected vendors.	The committee, with support from technical experts like Ryan, is now responsible for defining the grant's selection criteria and application process.
Communications Update	Larisa made another request for the remaining committee members to submit their short bios for the "Meet the Members" X (Twitter) campaign. She also announced a series of X Spaces planned for October.	Members were reminded to submit their bios for social media. A series of X Spaces are scheduled for October.
Working Group Updates	Due to time constraints, there were no detailed updates from the working groups. The full agenda was not completed.	Updates from the Governance Health and Education working groups were postponed until the next meeting.