Meeting 1 - November 11th, 2021

Catalyst Circle Meeting 1 - November 11th, 2021

Meeting Recording

Minutes of Catalyst Circle V2 Meeting #1

Present

CCv1: Victor Corcino, Felix Weber, Lauris, Dor Garbash, Juliane Montag

CCv2: Harris Warren, Tevo Saks, Raymond Mata, Matthias Sieber, Kenric Nelson, Stephen Whitenstall, Allison Fromm

CC Admin team: Nadim Karam, Nori Nishigaya, JP, Michael Yagi, Peter Wolcott

Speaker percentages

Dor (26%), Nori (21%), Tevo (7%), Stephen (7%), Victor (6%), Lauris (5%), Felix (4%), Juliane (4%), Matthias (3%), Raymond (3%), Kenric (3%), Harris (3%), Allison (3%), Michael (3%), JP (1%), Peter (1%), Nadim (1%)

1) Welcome & Introductions (1:45)

Dor (2:05) My name is Dor; I'm the head of product governance of IOG, former Circle member, and now a mentor for Harris.

Felix (2:35) I’m Felix. Former representative for the Toolmakers and Maintainers, and now happy to support Tevo in Catalyst Circle version 2.

Lauris (2:56) I’m Lauris, I used to be here representing SPOs. Now mentoring Raymond.

Victor (3:32) My name is Victor. I was the Community Advisors’ representative in Circle v1, and I'm here to support Kenric as the representative in circle v2.

JP (3:58) JP here. I've been lurking around Catalyst for a while, and I am on the admin team.

Michael (4:20) I'm Michael; I'm part of the admin team as a secretary; I'm very involved in Cardano itself ; I’m CEO of a Cardano startup called Ikigai Technologies.

Nadim (4:45) My name is Nadim Karam; I come from a digital transformation background and I've been with the admin team for a month now.

Peter (5:05) I joined Project Catalyst in the summer; then I came on board as a secretary when CCv1 (Catalyst Circle version 1) one asked for them.

Nori (5:26) My name is Nori Nishigaya, I'm on the admin team, I'm the current facilitator for the Circle.

Raymond (5:48) I'm Ray; I'm the stakepool operator for GROW; I'm also a founding board member for SPOCRA. I'm going to be taking over for Lauris.

Kenric (6:14) I'm Kenric. I run a small business called Photrek. And one of the first activities of the business was to run ITN stakepool. I'm part of the admin team.

Stephen (6:59) I'm Stephen, I run a project called Quality Assurance DAO, and I've been with Project Catalyst since March. I'm the Catalyst Coordinator representative for version 2, replacing Juli Montag.

Allison (7:27) I'm Allison, representing the general ADA voters. I've been around Catalyst since Fund Zero.

Harris (7:56) I'm super excited to be here with Catalyst Circle.

Matthias (8:25) My name is Matthias Sieber, preferred pronouns he/him. I'm the representative for the Cardano Foundation, but I can only bring myself to the Circle today, as I have limited information on the Foundation's expectations regarding this endeavour, at least at this time.

Tevo (8:53) I’m Tevo, from Estonia. I joined in Fund 1, and been actively participating since then. I represent Toolmakers and Maintainers in CCv2.

2) CCv1 Induction (11:25)

General introduction (Victor, 12:13)

You are here representing your own groups, but you don't need to defend their interests against other groups. It’s collaborative.
Don’t have to do everything by yourself. You’re here to lead, coordinate, and inspire your groups, and to build bridges.
It's a big responsibility, but it's also an experiment. As in Catalyst overall, things may break. Don't be afraid of changing things.

Problem-sensing recommendations (18:13)

Approaches used by CCv1 to problem-sense with their communities:

Telegram
Miro boards
Using voting to rank problems
Live sessions and interactivity
After Town Hall and Swarm sessions
CCv2 can use the problem-sensing backlog created by CCv1; but they do not have to.
Use and talk to your community
If you feel you don’t know how to facilitate a problem sensing session, you can learn from others in Circle. This is a safe space to be real about what you feel comfortable & confident about.

Expectation management (25.29)

If you need help, ask the rest of Circle (Lauris, 26:13)
Look for natural collaborations e.g. Toolmakers with CAs (Felix 26:48 )
Also try working with groups that are not obvious collaborations; you might find something unexpectedly useful (Nori 27:39)
Time expectations fluctuate depending on problem statements picked up: 8-10 hours (heavy) to 2 hours (light) a week (Victor 28:24)
Meeting attendance: if you can’t attend: (Dor 32:32)
- let us know in advance;
- have someone from your group fill in for you in real time
- listen to the recording, and share your notes/input after the fact
ACTION ITEM: In future, Admin team will include in the Minutes a list of who is present, to track attendance (Nori 33:42)
CC role is to guide and advise, not to make decisions. BUT we (IOG) are working on extending its scope; it might have some decision-making power in future, even in this term. (Dor 35:07)

Process explanation (38:16)

New CC Slack channel: will be primary communication channel outside meetings for CCv2, Admin team, and CCv1 alumni (agenda planning, Fund 7 proposals discussion, etc.)
Slack integrations are available – not free, but there is budget if it’s desired.
Currently using Trello to track problem-sensing, tho this can change if people want. ACTION ITEM: To be discussed at future CCv2 meeting.
GitBook documentation of meetings will continue to be done by QA-DAO. Access to video recordings and minutes needed.
Website in progress for high-level learning about Catalyst Circle and links to public documentation; some of the GitBook info might also be there
Catalyst Circle email addresses will be set up.
- Instead of name, use role so it's transferable to CCv3
Michael is setting up Confluence for Admin team documentation. They also use Jira (40:45)
Tevo might use Miroboards to e.g. share results from problem-sensing, but not to document CC meetings
ACTION ITEM: Admin Team to add Daniel Ribar to Slack, then retire CC Telegram
Prototyping (Dor, 49:22) Catalyst is a prototype of Voltaire governance. Look for the best tools and techniques, experiment with them in Circle, and if they work, they could become part of Cardano’s canon of governance methodologies.
Accessibility (Stephen, 52:03) – Good to experiment with tools – but need to make it accessible. Sometimes proprietary tools are inaccessible.
Processes and tools for communicating the work of Circle: (52:53)
- SPOCRA uses public meetings
- one-to-one discussions with key people
- CAs use Telegram, and find it better than Discord
- reaching General Voters is harder; Voter Surveys (incentivised and non-incentivised) might help.
DECISION: share and discuss voter surveys from funds 1-5 at a future CCv2 meeting.

3) Trello board handover (1:01:02) Trello Board

Trello board structure (Dor, 1:02:43)

The columns are:

problem backlog
raw problems (NB tickets need an owner)
well defined problems
Shared with Community
Picked Up (Circle can take direct ownership, or community members can. There can be more than one group working on a problem).
Protoyping (when an actual prototype of a solution is produced by those working on it). From here, it can move to either
- “validation”, if the prototype solution is successful; and then “integrated”, when the solution becomes fully integrated into the Catalyst process
- “rejected”, if the prototype solution is unsuccessful

Discussion of Trello (1:11:24)

Can we split tasks into subtasks? (Tevo 1:11:27)
Some problems might be too specific, others too broad – CCv2 might want to discuss this during their problem-sensing (Victor 1:14:06)
Jira might be a better tool than Trello – but if we move to Jira, need a project manager. Decision: Split the Secretary role into Secretary and PM
Tools we use need to be public facing (Harris 1:17:19)
We should move to open-source tools, not proprietary (Stephen 1:18:02)
DECISION: discuss in a future meeting moving to public-facing and open-source tools
Trello cards should be moved within meetings only
CCv2 should make a fresh start at defining problems – but if a problem identified by CCv1 still resonates, keep it on the board Dor 1:20:31
Mentors can help give background info on existing cards Juliane 1:23:06
DECISION – review the Trello board in CCv2’s next meting and decide which cards to keep
Perhaps named owners of Trello cards should be the role, not the name of the individual? Undecided – person’s name might be useful for emphasis
More than one name can “own” a card
CCv1 members who are still engaged with a problem can continue to be involved; they should liaise with their CCv2 counterpart
ACTION ITEM: Admin team to invite CCv2 to the Trello board

4) Initial 30-day plan (1:27:58)

Proposals deadline (1:28:14)

Fund 7 deadline is approaching: urgency to prepare CC proposals
This time, Admin team has prepared them – CCv2 will finalise.
In future, outgoing CC team will prepare proposals to hand over to next CC team. CCv2 will do this for CCv3.

CCv2 individual plans (1:32:30)

Each CCv2 member in turn outlines their initial ideas for next 30 days.

Stephen (1:32:30) : has set up a GitHub and GitBook for the Catalyst Coordinators, to create an infrastructure for problem-sensing, document the funded process, and store information to advise funded proposers. Toolmakers might collaborate on this - it may turn into a Fund 7 funding proposal. Also will focus on auditability.
Allison (1:35:49) : interested in reaching communities that aren't engaged, maybe because of language barriers: Spanish breakout room, Eastern Town Hall. Invites input on channels or communities that are not otherwise engaged with Catalyst that I should connect to.
Kenric (1:36:47) : will focus on 2 items already on the Trello board which he is interested in and has discussed in Swarm sessions.
Matthias (1:37:18) : is trying to get input from the Cardano Foundation leadership beyond what's publicly available. Will incorporate the ambassadors’ guild group. Mentorship: Felix and Victor.
Harris (1:38:49) : will initiate sharing the analysis of feedback from Catalyst members, voter surveys, etc. Will take input from IOG itself and internal stakeholders, to see if there's problems that might be addressed here by the Circle.
Raymond (1:39:21) : wants to find ways to inform stakepool operators on how to get involved with Catalyst, e.g. as CAs. Wants to build problem-sensing tools suitable for such a large, diverse and multilingual community.
Tevo (1:40:49) : after next weekend, will hold a session for Toolmakers about sense-making, using a sense-making Miro board. Also wants to improve the onboarding process for CCv3.

Scope (1:42:30)

(Dor 1:42:30) It’s tempting to go beyond the scope of Catalyst, to the entire Cardano ecosystem; but we're not very well resourced to deal with such issues from here. So frame problem-sensing exercises as problems with Catalyst, to get problems we can actually address from within Circle.

5) Meeting feedback (1:46:36)

(Nori 1:46:36) Normally we fill out the feedback form in the meeting, but today I want to get some closing comments from everybody verbally. Feedback form completion is “homework” .

Closing remarks from everyone in turn (1:47:40)

CCv2 - happy, excited and a little nervous
CCv1 - happy, and a little emotional to be leaving;
All - offer thanks & appreciation to their own team, the other team, and the CC Admin team