October 6th, 2025 Budget Comm Minutes

Attended (Members)	Megan Hess	Vice Chair
Attended (Members)	Dimmitri	Committee Member
Attended (Members)	Rita Mistry	Committee Member
Attended (Members)	Mercy	Committee Member
Attended (Staff/Secretary)	Lloyd Duhon	Budget Secretary
Attended (Staff/Project Mgmt.)	Simo Simovic	Staff/Project Management
Attended (Staff/Executive)	Jack Briggs	Executive/Staff (Stepped in and out)
Absent (Quorum Issue)	Kristijan Kowalsky	Committee Chair
Absent (Quorum Issue)	Jose Velazquez	Committee Member
Absent (Quorum Issue)	Jose Maria Francisco Otegui Alvarez (Pepe)	Committee Member
Absent (Quorum Issue)	Shunsuke Murasaki	Committee Member
Absent (Quorum Issue)	Kriss Baird	Committee Member

Agenda:

• Finalizing the Net Change Limit (NCL) Strategy: Discussion on the urgent need to set the 2026 NCL (targeting 300M based on treasury inflows) and securing immediate board approval to prevent funding delays.

• Progress on 2026 Budget Roadmap and Governance: Review of the consolidated Product/Budget roadmap, plans for parallel workstreams, and steps needed to ensure all governance actions are ready for the early November submission date.

• Operational and Strategic Alignment: Discussion of Intersect's evolving role, the potential for an "Administrator as a Service" revenue model, and coordinating multilingual community outreach for the budget surveys.

Decisions/Actions

Attendance & Quorum	Members Present: Megan Hess (Vice Chair), Dimmitri, Rita Mistry, and Mercy. Secretary: Lloyd Duhon. Staff: Simo Simovic, Jack Briggs. Quorum was not met (4/7 members). The committee proceeded with discussion but could not make formal decisions.
Smart Contract & Withdrawal Update (Jack Briggs)	Jack Briggs provided updates following his leave. 22 smart contracts have been successfully raised, and some vendors have already claimed their first milestones. Contracts on hold are primarily for IOG-related entities and the Intersect contract (prioritized last). The TWE (Modus) stablecoin minting process is complex, involving the creation of new USDM/USDA and requires an operational call this week.	Jack Briggs to share his strategic thoughts on the NCL and budget with the committee this week.
Net Change Limit (NCL) Strategy	Jack Briggs proposed raising the NCL soon (early November), independent of the product strategy, to avoid a protracted delay that could leave the ecosystem without an active NCL by January 1st. The suggested approach is to set a number based on treasury inflows (closer to 300 million), to be easily socialized, and then adjust later.	Lloyd Duhon to communicate the committee's consensus (go with 300M) and urgency to the board.
Budget Process Timeline & Parallel Work	Simo presented the draft 2026 budget roadmap. The goal is to submit the entire governance process action (vision, roadmap, NCL) in early November. Rita Mistry confirmed the intent was always to run the NCL in parallel with the strategy work. The committee aims to work in parallel to meet the deadlines and increase efficiency.	Simo Simovic to finalize the 2026 Budget Roadmap (one-pager) for presentation.
Product Committee Roadmap Dependency	Jack confirmed the Product Committee is aiming for one governance action covering both the 2030 Vision and the 2026 Roadmap, targeted for early November submission.	Lloyd Duhon to prepare a 30-60-90 Day Roadmap based on the 2026 plan to communicate the process clearly.
Investment in Transaction Volume	Dimmitri and Jack Briggs agreed that to increase the NCL long-term (by increasing transaction fees/volume), strategic capital investments are necessary. They cautioned against extreme austerity, advocating for a balanced number (e.g., 300M).
NCL Calculation & Auditing	Discussion centered on using treasury inflows (similar to the previously approved NCL) as the basis for the new NCL number, rounding it to the nearest manageable figure (300M). This removes emotion and relies solely on math.	Rita Mistry to share the NCL calculation figures with the CF/treasurer to align all stakeholders on the proposed 300M number.
Board Approval & Urgency	There is an urgent need for the board to approve the NCL proposal quickly, given the fast-approaching early November submission date for all governance actions.	Jack Briggs to raise the committee's aligned 300M NCL proposal and urgency with the board this week.
Parallel Working & Process Maturation	The committee emphasized the need to execute tasks (like NCL calculation and framework drafting) in parallel rather than sequentially. This is recognized as a key sign of process maturation, necessary for efficiency.
Revenue Generation / Administrator as a Service	Jack shared that inquiries have been received to use Intersect as an administrator (e.g., Waxman), but he has drawn a line on supporting any additional proposals for free. The need to productize Intersect's administration service for revenue was suggested.	This signals a strategic shift towards Intersect offering a paid "Administrator as a Service" product.
Community Outreach & Multilingual Support	Jack and Simo discussed coordinating with Chris Kowalsky and Fred Tanaka (Japan lead) to push the Japanese-translated survey to DREPs this week, meeting members where they are.	Simo Simovic to ping Fred Tanaka with the Japanese survey and Jack Briggs to follow up with Fred on its distribution.
Comms Strategy & Narrative	The committee needs to create a unified narrative around the singular governance action (budget, roadmap, NCL) and focus content on the benefits of the framework. Lloyd Duhon will prepare the anchor content (long-form narrative) and simplified visuals (e.g., 30/60/90-day plan).	Lloyd Duhon to prepare the long-form narrative anchor content and simplified visual plans (30/60/90).