January 26 2026
Attendees:
Name
Attendance
Role
Voting Seat (Y/N)
Jack Briggs
Yes
Interim Executive Director
Y
Nick Cook
Yes
Director - Operations (Interim)
Y
Sheldon Hunt
Yes
Community Member Seat
Y
Fred Tanaka
Yes
Community Member Seat
Y
Kristijan Kowalsky
Yes
Community Member Seat
Y
Jose Miguel de Gamboa
Yes
Community Member Seat
Y
Georg Link
No
OSC Chair
Y
Samuel Leathers
Yes
Product Chair
Y
Maureen Wepngogn
Yes
MCC Chair
Y
Megan Hess
Yes
CBC Chair
Y
Kevin Hammond
No
TSC Chair
Y
Tim Harrison
No
GMC Chair
Y
Nicolas Cerny
Yes
CCC Chair
Y
Christian Taylor
Yes
Head of OSO
N
Lorenzo Bruno
Yes
Secretary of CPC
N
Bosko Majdanac
Yes
Secretary of TSC
N
Abhik Nag
Yes
Secretary of MCC
N
Lloyd Duhon
Yes
Secretary of Budget Committee
N
Larisa Mcfarlane
Yes
Secretary of CCC
N
Terence McCutcheon
Yes
Secretary of OSC & GMC
N
Lara Bonasorte
Yes
Secretary of GMC
N
Additional Attendees:
Adam Rusch - member of the Board
Rand McHenry- member of the Board
Rosie Graham - Head of People
Sanjaya Wanigasekera - Vice Chair of MCC
Mike Hornan - Observer
Thiago Nunes - Observer
Wes Perkinson - Observer
Agenda:
Update from Committees
Executive Update
Open Discussion ICS/Board
AOB & Meeting Close
Discussion/Actions
1. Opening & Purpose of the Session
The meeting marked the first monthly joint session between the Intersect Steering Committee (ISC) and Board representatives, agreed to take place at the end of each month. The goal of the session is to improve alignment, transparency, and two-way communication between committees, the executive team, and the Board.
2. Committee Updates
Civics Committee announced the conclusion of its Vice-Chair election, with Nana Safo elected pending audit/ confirmation due to voting portal issues. Increased participation was noted in the Constitutional Amendments Working Group, with momentum building around a repository-based approach to constitutional amendments inspired by, but simpler than, the CIP process.
Budget Committee reported significant progress on the 2026 budget template, including a recent usability walkthrough. Work is now moving toward development and coordination with Intersect’s delivery assurance team, with the intent to support an upcoming budget process info action.
Growth & Marketing Committee (GMC) confirmed the election of a new Vice-Chair and shared updates on ongoing enterprise presentations to the committee. These sessions are being used to inform strategic planning, with GMC positioning itself as a strategy-setting body rather than an execution arm.
Membership & Community Committee (MCC) outlined work on member benefits, renewed focus on community hubs, improved onboarding documentation, weekly open office hours, and efforts to finalize 2026 goals structured around quarterly objectives.
Open Source Committee (OSC) shared updates on finalized Q1 events, publication of a developer advocate progress report, and continued budget work, while acknowledging documentation density and welcoming feedback.
Technical Steering Committee (TSC) provided updates on the recently published chain partition incident report, ongoing hard fork readiness dependent on node availability, active CIP drafting, and challenges finalizing a Vice-Chair election.
Product Committee confirmed that the Vision & Strategy proposal has been approved on-chain and shared plans for KPI discussions at the upcoming Cardano Africa Tech Summit. Coordination with GMC on product-market-fit initiatives is ongoing.
3. Executive Director Update
The Executive Director provided an overview of priorities across four areas: team management, member services, technical coordination, and administration. Key highlights included:
Publication of the mainnet incident response report and reflections.
Ongoing work on node diversity, builder coordination, and technical resilience.
Clarification of Intersect’s role as administrator of treasury-funded projects, including milestone validation, payment controls, and contractual guardrails.
Plans to introduce spot audits for technical proposals, improve smart-contract tooling (v2), launch open APIs for treasury data, and enhance reporting for DReps ahead of the next budget process.
An update on the Critical Integrations Budget, noting active negotiations, early dispersal planning, confidentiality constraints, and openness to greater member involvement through a potential working group.
4. Committee Participation & Workload Discussion
A substantive discussion focused on committee participation, burnout, and role clarity. Concerns were raised about uneven engagement, where a small number of highly active members shoulder most of the workload, potentially discouraging broader participation. Points raised included:
The challenge of balancing volunteer time commitments with meaningful contributions.
Risks of burnout and disengagement.
The need for clearer expectations, better onboarding, and more structured use of working groups.
Suggestions to position committees as guidance and approval bodies, with staff handling more execution.
Agreement that clearer documentation, RACI models, and role definitions should be developed ahead of the April elections.
5. Governance Structure, Capacity & Planning
ISC leadership noted ongoing work to collect 2026 goals from all committees, with plans for committee-by-committee presentations starting in February. The need for an ISC-level roadmap was emphasized, especially given the upcoming concentration of major activities (hard fork, budget process, committee and CC elections).
6. Risk Management & Jurisdictional Resilience
A Board-level discussion addressed ecosystem resilience and jurisdictional risk. Topics included:
The importance of decentralization and resilience as core attributes of Cardano.
Current legal structures spanning Wyoming, Cayman Islands, and global staffing arrangements.
Active risk management practices, particularly around liabilities, treasury administration, and regulatory exposure.
Acknowledgement that while risk is actively managed, broader ecosystem-level resilience metrics or dashboards could be valuable in the future.
7. Close
The session concluded with agreement to continue monthly ISC-Board meetings, gather feedback on improving the format, and use future sessions to deepen strategic alignment. Participants noted the value of open discussion and committed to refining structure and focus over time.
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