Civics Meeting Minutes Aug 14 2025

Attendees:

Name	Attendance	Role	Voting Seat (Y/N)
Larisa Mcfarlane	Yes	Secretary	N
Nicolas Cerny,	Yes	Chair	Y
Ken-Erik O	Yes	Member	Y
Nana Safo	Yes	Member	Y
Alex Seregin	No	Member	Y
Randy	Yes	Member	Y
Thomas Lindseth	No	Intersect	N
Taichi Yokoyama	No	Member	Y
Reshan Fernando	No	Member	Y
Daniela Alves	No	Member	Y
Takeshi Ohishi	No	Member	Y

Recording: CIVICS Committee (Intersect) Mtg - 2025/08/14 13:56 BST - Recording

Transcript: CIVICS Committee (Intersect) Mtg - 2025/08/14 13:56 BST - Transcript

Chat Transcript: Here

Agenda 14th.Aug.25

Welcome - Chair Update
Recommendation on Grants for DRep discussion (CIP-149)
CC Update Committee GA - SPO Call
Working group updates: Governance Health Working Group (for objective 1) Governance Education Working Group (for objective 2)
AOB & Close

Decisions/Actions

Decisions

• Maintain 2025 Roadmap Focus: The committee affirmed its decision to not take on a full constitutional rewrite this year, agreeing that its current roadmap focused on governance health and education is the priority.

• Proceed with CIP-149 Recommendation: The committee agreed on the substance of the recommendation for CIP-149 grants, deciding to include specific requirements for data reporting from participating wallets.

Actions

• Finalize and Send CIP-149 Recommendation (Nicolas): Nicolas will update the recommendation document to include a "measuring success" section and the data reporting requirements discussed, then send the final version to Jack with the committee copied.

• Host X Space to Mobilize SPOs (Larisa & Nicolas): Larisa and Nicolas will host an X (Twitter) Space next Wednesday to raise awareness and provide guidance for SPOs on how to vote for the "Update Constitutional Committee" governance action.

• Invite Guests to X Space (Larisa & Nicolas): Larisa and Nicolas will invite knowledgeable community members to the X Space to help explain the voting process for SPOs.

• Resume Governance Health WG Setup (Larisa): Larisa will resume the setup activities for the Governance Health working group, including scheduling the first meeting, now that members have returned from travel.

• Provide Update on Member Status (Larisa): Larisa will update the committee on Alex's participation status once discussions with him have concluded.

• Review Education WG Documents (Committee Members): Nana has updated the documentation for the Governance Education working group, which is now ready for review by other members.

Topic	Discussion	Notes
Opening & Rare Evo Debrief	Larisa and Nicolas shared their experiences from the Rare Evo conference in Las Vegas. They described it as a valuable and positive event with great community engagement around Intersect and its committees.	The conference was considered a success for community engagement.
Governance Workshop Insights	Nicolas discussed the two-day governance workshop held at Rare Evo. He mentioned the focus on an "executive function" and shared a link to a forum post summarizing the discussions. He felt that existing info actions already mostly fulfill this need.	Key discussions from the workshop revolved around improving Cardano's governance model, with a write-up available for review.
New Community Constitution Proposal	The committee discussed a new constitution version submitted for a vote by a community member (Uta). While acknowledging the content may be an improvement, members raised concerns about the non-inclusive drafting process compared to the original, workshop-driven constitution.	A new constitution is being voted on, but its legitimacy is questioned due to the closed drafting process, highlighting a challenge in Cardano's permissionless governance system.
Civics Committee's Role in Constitution 2.0	The members reiterated that a full constitutional rewrite is not on the committee's 2025 roadmap due to resource constraints. Nicolas suggested the committee's future role should be to create a framework for a process to develop a new constitution, rather than drafting it directly.	Civics are unlikely to take on a full constitutional rewrite this year but may develop a process for one in the future.
CIP-149 DRep Donation Recommendation	The main topic was the review of a formal recommendation document drafted by Nicolas regarding CIP-149. The document proposes providing grants to wallet providers to implement the DRep donation feature.	The committee reviewed a draft proposal to provide grants to wallets for implementing CIP-149.
Grant Amount & Effort Estimation	Ken-Erik provided an estimated breakdown of the work required for a wallet to implement the feature (dev, UI/UX, testing), totaling around nine days. The group discussed the appropriate grant amount, with Nicolas noting the transcript from the last meeting mentioned 5,000 ADA.	The proposed grant aims to subsidize, not fully cover, the development cost. The group estimated the effort at ~9 days of work per wallet.
Data Collection Requirements	Ken-Erik emphasized the need to include data reporting requirements in the grant contracts. Specifically, wallets should report on user engagement (how many users were shown the feature, conversion rates, opt-out rates) to help measure the feature's success and inform future incentive discussions.	The grant will require wallets to provide anonymized data on user interaction with the donation feature, which is crucial for the "test" aspect of the initiative.
CC Update Governance Action & SPO Voting	Larisa highlighted the low SPO voting turnout for the "Update Constitutional Committee" action, which requires 51% approval from stake pools. The process is more complex for SPOs, often requiring them to use their cold keys.	SPO voter turnout is critically low. The complex voting process for SPOs is a significant barrier.
SPO Engagement Plan	To raise awareness and encourage voting, Nicolas and Larisa agreed to host an X (Twitter) Space next week. They plan to invite knowledgeable guests to explain the process and the benefits of using newer features like Catalyst keys to simplify voting.	An X Space will be hosted next Wednesday from the Civics X account to mobilize SPOs to vote.