September 29th, 2025 Budget Comm Minutes
Attended (Members)
Rita Mistry
Committee Member
Attended (Members)
Dimmitri
Committee Member
Attended (Members)
Megan Hess
Committee Member
Attended (Members)
Jose Velazquez
Committee Member (Achieved Quorum)
Attended (Staff/Secretary)
Lloyd Duhon
Secretary
Attended (Guests/Staff)
Gerard Moroney
Observer (Board Chair)
Attended (Guests/Staff)
Nicolas Cerny
Observer/Collaborator
Attended (Guests/Staff)
Simo Simovic
Observer/Staff
Attended (Guests/Staff)
Lorenzo Bruno
Guest (Product Committee)
Attended (Guests/Staff)
Dave Dionisio
Guest
Absent (Members)
Jose Maria Francisco Otegui Alvarez (Pepe)
Committee Member
Absent (Members)
Mercy
Committee Member
Absent (Members)
Shunsuke Murasaki
Committee Member
Absent (Members)
Kriss Baird
Committee Member
Agenda:
Budget Committee Agenda - September 29, 2025
Finalizing the 2026 Budget Framework: Review and adoption of the two-option timeline and the Five-Stage Budgeting Process for presentation to the Intersect Board, focusing on avoiding the appearance of "gatekeeping" and confirming the committee's facilitator role.
Defining the Committee's Mandate and Oversight: Formal commitment to the adopted primary and supporting committee functions, including oversight of Intersect's own budget, and preparing the final presentation deck for the board session.
Strategic Alignment and Community Outreach: Coordinating with the Product Committee on the 2026 Roadmap timeline and structuring the next steps to gather wider community sentiment through translated surveys for upcoming Osaka/Tokyo workshops.
Decisions/Actions
Updates on Board Presentation
The committee's proposed Primary and Secondary objectives and the 2026 Budget Process Framework were presented to the board last Wednesday. The board is giving final feedback. The committee must be ready to proceed immediately once approval is given.
Chris Kowalsski to condense the Vegas governance days presentation into a two-page Japanese summary for workshops.
Community Sentiment Gathering
The committee is preparing two sets of questions for upcoming workshops in Osaka and Tokyo: 1) A wider sentiment survey via a Japanese-translated Google Form; 2) Short questions for live audience sentiment checking during the workshops. Fred Tanaka is assisting with translation.
Lloyd Duhon and Simo Simovic to finalize the survey questions and the Intersect submission method (Google Form/TypeScript).
Board Feedback on Framework
Gerard Moroney (Board Chair) confirmed the board's feedback: the timing is right for gathering community ideas, but Intersect/the committee's role must remain that of a facilitator, not a decider (to avoid the perception of picking winners and losers).
2026 Budget Framework Presentation (Rita & Nico)
Rita Mistry and Nico Cerny presented their detailed Five-Stage Budgeting Process framework (Strategic Planning, Preparation, Review/Approval, Consolidation/Voting, Execution/Monitoring), complete with RACI models for accountability.
Timeline Options for 2026 Budget
Two timeline options were presented: Option 1 (Aggressive) aiming for first payment in early June (4-week proposal window); and Option 2 (Leeway) aiming for late June payment (6-week proposal window). The compressed period for proposal submission was discussed.
Committee voted to recommend Option 2 (Late June Payment) to the board, acknowledging the need for more leeway and caution against pushback from the community by moving too fast.
Impact of Product Committee Roadmap
Lorenzo Bruno (Product Committee) updated the committee on the Vision 2030 and 2026 Roadmap work, which is intended to inform budget categories. The 2026 Roadmap is aimed to be on-chain by mid-December.
Rita Mistry and Nico Cerny to incorporate the 2026 Roadmap initiatives (expected mid-December) into the final budget template structure.
Proposal Filtering and Gatekeeping
Discussion focused on avoiding "gatekeeping" during the Review and Approval phase. Options included: a rank-choice voting system by DREPs for prioritization, limiting committee filtering to simple administrative checks (e.g., complete paperwork), or enabling a single-vote action that covers prioritization.
The committee agreed to prioritize the rank-choice methodology and simple administrative checks to limit the appearance of gatekeeping.
Consolidation and Voting Structure
The consensus remains on three rounds of voting (off-chain prioritization, Budget Info Action, and Treasury Withdrawal). Gerard Moroney emphasized that constitutional mandates require certain votes, which cannot be simplified without a constitutional change.
Trade-off: Inclusivity vs. Efficiency
The committee recognized the ongoing trade-off between allowing full inclusivity (which can be chaotic) and creating efficient, rule-based systems. The current approach aims for certainty for vendors and DREPs while preserving transparency.
External Reviewers and Executive Function
Chris Kowalsski and Dave Dionisio stressed the need for an executive function and a funded team of external reviewers to handle the complexity and volume of proposals, as current committee stipends don't cover this level of effort.
The committee must ensure the final proposal framework addresses the need for funding professional review services.
Follow-up on Board Presentation
The final presentation deck to the board will clearly articulate what is needed from the board (approval on the committee's remit and guidance on the framework), the key survey findings, and the next steps.
Lloyd Duhon to finalize the presentation deck (including remit and survey findings) and send it to Jack Briggs for board review.
Alignment with Product Committee
Lorenzo Bruno and Lloyd Duhon agreed that regular synchronization between the Budget and Product Committees is crucial, especially now.
Lorenzo Bruno and Chris Kowalsski to establish a regular synchronization meeting between the two committees.
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