December 15th, 2025 Budget Comm Minutes
Budget Committee Weekly Meeting — December 15th, 2025
Date: December 15, 2025 Time: 07:58 EST Meeting Type: Public “Contributor-style” meeting (watchers allowed; participation by contributor role only)
Attendees: Dave Dionisio, Eric Helms (SCATDAO), Georgia Hutton (Delivery Assurance), Jack Briggs (Intersect), Kriss Baird, Kristijan Kowalsky, Lloyd Duhon, Megan Hess (Chair), Otávio Lima, Simo Simovic (PM), Thomas Lindseth
Quorum: Confirmed (Chair + voting members present)
1. Opening and Meeting Structure Update
Lloyd opened the meeting and confirmed that the committee has shifted to a “Contributor-style” meeting configuration, consistent with other Intersect committee practices:
Meetings are publicly viewable (anyone may join as a watcher).
Only contributors can participate actively unless elevated by hosts.
Committee members, Intersect staff, and executives are treated as contributors by default.
This configuration establishes a consistent transparency baseline while maintaining orderly participation.
2. Net Change Limit (NCL) — 2026–27 Proposal Status and Board Direction
2.1 Board Approval to Socialize
Lloyd reported positive news from Jack: the proposed 18-month, 350M ADA NCL is approved to proceed into socialization.
This approval was received immediately as the meeting began and resets next steps:
Prepare the governance action for a socialization phase.
Publish to the forum for community feedback.
Target an on-chain launch on/around January 5 (subject to the extension timeline and epoch accuracy).
2.2 Socialization Plan
The committee will support the socialization with:
A refreshed blog post aligned to the final NCL text and rationale.
Scheduled X posts and amplification by committee members.
Continued clarity that additional NCL changes can be raised later if strategic opportunity requires it.
2.3 Sequencing with Related Governance Actions (Jack)
Jack noted the broader sequence being pursued to reduce cognitive load:
NCL socialization now → NCL on-chain early next cycle
2030 Vision & Mission from Product Committee before Christmas
KPIs potentially as an additional Info Action in January
Budget Process Framework / Budget Process Info Action (BPIA) after the above (targeting February timing, leading into March process start)
Jack and Lloyd noted that sequencing is intended to reduce friction and increase adoption.
3. Final Polish Pass on the NCL Document
The committee conducted a final review to remove ambiguity, technical pitfalls, and future interpretive risk.
3.1 Key Edits and Clarifications
Edits and decisions made during review included:
Stablecoin liquidity budget figure: clarified as ~50M ADA in approved budget actions not yet withdrawn (not 35M).
Rationale wording: improved to reduce personal framing and increase institutional clarity:
Replace “our” with neutral phrasing (“this proposal”, “the recommendation”).
Remove redundant “based on modeling” language and use projected treasury inflows consistently.
3.2 Epoch and Date Handling
The group aligned on making the proposal robust against technical objections:
Epoch references were corrected to align with the extension:
Start epoch updated to 613 (not 605) after the extension, with an end at epoch 713 (100 epochs total).
End date corresponds approximately to July 3, 2027 (start of epoch 714), but the group emphasized that epochs are the canonical reference.
Thomas’s guidance: avoid over-reliance on calendar dates because epoch length could vary. Outcome: retain epochs as primary reference; optionally use “approximately” if any dates are shown for readability.
3.3 CC (Constitutional Committee) Opinion Language
Thomas raised a risk scenario:
Although CC is not constitutionally required to vote on NCL, CC members could later state an NCL is unconstitutional and use that position when evaluating Budget Info Actions.
To pre-empt future conflict, Thomas recommended:
Add a sentence encouraging CC members to raise their opinion via rationale on the NCL.
Committee agreed to include softened language:
“While not required, Constitutional Committee members are encouraged to raise their opinion via rationale on this Net Change Limit.”
This preserves constitutional correctness while reducing future procedural risk.
3.4 Superseding / Continuity Clause
Thomas confirmed the draft includes a continuity mechanism:
Even if superseded later, the NCL remains valid through the defined period, and the structure reduces the risk of the ecosystem entering a no-NCL period again.
4. Decision: Advance NCL to Socialization
With no objections recorded, Lloyd took directive to:
Deliver the updated NCL document to Ryan for forum formatting and socialization launch.
Align the public blog and social content to the final version.
Proceed toward the planned on-chain deployment following the extension timeline.
5. Budget Process Info Action (BPIA) — Remaining Work and Scheduling
After the NCL polish pass:
Committee confirmed there is still time to refine the Budget Process Info Action.
A working session will occur on Wednesday to continue edits and polish.
The committee will use remaining time before holiday break to finalize narrative alignment between process text, blog content, and governance sequence.
6. Communications and Process Readiness (Discussion Highlights)
6.1 Anticipated Proposal Volume Increase
Kriss Baird raised an operational concern:
Proposal volumes may increase materially vs. last cycle (e.g., 200 → 250+, potentially more).
Vendors now have had a year of runway to prepare Treasury proposals, increasing likely submission load.
Recommendation: begin process comms earlier and provide clearer pathway so DReps are not bottlenecked.
Jack agreed that January should include a renewed push to re-socialize the budget framework and process changes, giving proposers a multi-month runway before March.
6.2 Facilitation Model
There was discussion about whether Intersect/BC would require a neutral facilitation partner (as with Voltage Control previously).
General position:
The committee believes it can now credibly serve as neutral facilitator, supported by:
Socialization phases
AMAs / town halls
Tooling support (including PRDMS for proposal feedback and provenance)
**6.3 Ranking and Budget Fit
** Lloyd reiterated that Ecclesia ranking will allow approved proposals to be prioritized if total approved spending exceeds the NCL cap.
7. Action Items
Apply final edits to NCL document: stablecoin budget number, epoch corrections (613–713), rationale language cleanup
Lloyd & Simo
Align all references to 100 epochs; remove ambiguous phrasing
Add CC “encouraged to provide rationale” sentence
Lloyd & Simo
Use soft language (“while not required… encouraged…”)
Deliver NCL doc to Ryan for forum formatting and socialization
Lloyd
Begin socialization phase over holiday period
Align blog post and scheduled X posts to final NCL narrative
Lloyd
Resurface and update existing blog with final story/rationale
Continue BPIA refinement in Wednesday working session
Committee
Use additional time window created by extension
8. Adjournment
Lloyd closed by recognizing this as the last weekly meeting of 2025 for voting processes, with one remaining Wednesday working session before holiday break.
Meeting concluded at approximately 00:53:32.
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