19th Feb 25

Attendees:

Name	Attendance	Role	Voting Seat
Kevin Hammond	Yes	TSC Chair (IOE)	Yes
Adam Dean	Yes	TSC Vice-Chair	Yes
Markus Gufler	Yes	TSC Member (Cardano Foundation)	Yes
Johnny Kelly	Yes	TSC Member	Yes
Ben Hart	Yes	TSC Member (MLabs)	Yes
Neil Davies	Yes	TSC Member (PN Solutions)	Yes
Nicholas Clark	Yes	TSC Member (Tweag Modus)	Yes
Duncan Soutar	Yes	TSC Secretary	No
Matt Davis	No	Intersect - Tech Ops Lead	No
Christian Taylor	Yes	Intersect - Opensource Head	No
Terence ‘Tex’ McCutcheon	No	OSC Secretary	No
Abbie Yeates	Yes	Intersect - Delivery Assurance	No
Ricky Rand	Yes	IOE General Manager - Observer	No
Duncan Coutts	Yes	Welltyped - Observer	No
Lawrence Clarke	No	Intersect - Head of Core Services	No

Agenda:

Discussion Point	Discussion Points	Actions: Responsible / Note
TSC Elections	- Election process and preparation discussed. - Need for clear qualification criteria for candidates. - Debate on the optimal number of TSC seats for this election (4 or 5). - Confirmation of open seats and current members up for re-election.	- Duncan to prepare a one-page summary of TSC activities. - Duncan to create a shared document for TSC members to propose qualification questions. - TSC to finalize three qualification questions for candidates. - Update and publish the TSC's Terms of Reference.
Candidate Qualifications	- Discussion on the desired skills and experience for TSC members. - Emphasis on technical expertise, financial knowledge, and program management experience.	- TSC members to provide input on desired candidate qualifications.
Proposal Review & Categorization	- Review of proposals and categorization into different streams (tooling, core development, maintenance). - Prioritization of proposals based on community feedback and criticality.	- Further define the scope and roadmap for Hydra and Mithril. - Potentially split Hydra and Mithril into development and maintenance components. - Consider transferring "problem in search of a solution" proposals to the Product Committee.
Hydra & Mithril	- Debate on whether these projects should be considered core maintenance or require further development. - Discussion on user adoption and the need for a clear roadmap.	- Hydra and Mithril teams to provide a detailed product roadmap. - TSC to decide on the appropriate funding category for these projects.
Budget Allocation & Transparency	- Concerns raised about the high cost of the IoG maintenance contract and lack of transparency regarding fund usage. - Debate on what constitutes "maintenance" vs. new development/integration.	- Duncan to separate the IoG six-month maintenance contract from other core maintenance items in the budget. - Marcus to identify any missing maintenance items.
IoG Maintenance Contract	- Discussion on the cost and necessity of the IoG contract. - Concerns about potential overspending and lack of clear deliverables. - Clarification that the contract aims to retain key talent and ensure continuity.	- Negotiate clear deliverables and expectations for the IoG contract. - Explore ways to improve transparency and accountability for the contract.
Budget Presentation	- Adam Dean expresses discomfort with the current budget presentation, feeling it misrepresents the TSC's intentions and may appear as favoritism to those reading the spreadsheet.	- Improve the budget presentation to address concerns about transparency and accurately reflect the TSC's goals. - Consider presenting the budget in terms of FTE allocation and cost per FTE.
Budget Community Perception	- Concern that the current budget presentation may lead to negative community perception and accusations of cronyism.	- Improve communication with the community regarding the budget and the rationale behind the allocations.
Budget Review & Ratification	- TSC members need to gain comfort with the budget and understand the specifics.	- Schedule a dedicated call next week for a line-by-line budget review. - All TSC members to thoroughly review the budget document and provide feedback.
Cost Justification	- Need for clearer justification of costs and historical data to support budget allocations.	- Explore ways to obtain and present historical cost data. - Develop a clear and transparent process for justifying budget allocations.
Decentralization Challenges	- Discussion on the challenges of transitioning to a decentralized development model. - Concerns about managing costs and ensuring efficient coordination among distributed teams.	- Develop strategies to address the challenges of decentralized development.
Open Source Tooling	- Agreement to move $1 million from the non-core budget to the open-source tooling budget.	- Adam, Christian, and Duncan S. to discuss open-source tooling further.

Decisions:

• Reduce non-core budget by $1 million: This amount will be reallocated to the open-source tooling budget.

• Separate IoG's 6-month maintenance contract: In the budget presentation, this will be presented separately from other core maintenance items.

• Hold a special budget call: A dedicated call will be held next week for a detailed, line-by-line budget review.