Nominations for CCv3
Nominees in each section are listed in the order in which they submitted their info; the earliest first.
Information on CCv3
Remuneration for CCv3 members will be funded by the Fund 7 proposal "Sustaining the Circle", and is $1,000 per person.
The term of office for CCv3 members is 3 months. Members may stand again for a second term in CCv4.
General ADA holders nominations
Dimitri Fernando
Experience of Project Catalyst - which roles have you fulfilled? CA Fund 6, CA and VCA Fund 7, VCA Flash Assessment Fund 7, Founder of South Asian Town Hall. Member of several groups like Cardano for Climate, Town Hall, Eastern Town Hall, Pacific Town Hall, Swarm, Catalyst Creatives, Community Listeners.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I am an ADA holder who has delegated to a stake pool. By participating in the above groups I am participating with like minded ADA holders. I am active in all the above mentioned groups on a weekly basis even though in all but the South Asian town hall, they are late night or after midnight and early morning/pre dawn meetings. That is my commitment to being part of these groups and communities. The respective members of the communities can vouch for my involvement.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? How best to satisfy our individual aspirations in the context of the best use of our ADA in the community. The infatuation with Cardano being to a large extent by developers for developers with the other communities and groups playing a peripheral role in terms of funding , and voices being heard. Sectors such as Environmental issues, Womens Issues, Childrens issues, Animal Rights, LGBTQ issues, Creative Endeavours, Mental and Emotional Health issues are not considered as vital for a thriving society. Soft skills projects are funded far less than technical projects. Funds are being allocated without accountability by the recipients. A large portion of funds allocated are for projects that never get built. THe beneficiaries are not held accountable. There is lack of transparency in these processes. Multiple ways of manipulation and gaming of funding is happening. Even in established groups there are countless projects being submitted by the same stakeholders , round after round. Voter blocs are being built to game the system. SPOs are dominating the rewards from ADA while the general ADA holders get a pittance.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? Have ability for ADA holders to reach me and discuss their individual issues or concerns, as well as put forward their ideas for improving the overall group. Group problems into groups and have those facing the problems to meet and discuss, and come up with implementable solutions.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Moving emphasis from developers to non developers and community users in different spheres. Having more access to key resource people from IOG at other Town hall meetings not only the European one. Bring about societal change by accessing the C Fund and DCF fund as a community not just where big companies can access these since they too are taking catalyst funding plus DCF funding and then dominating the markets. Why should only big companies get big funding? Why cant small companies, small community groups have access to that funding? What good is a technical centric society filled with techies only? Will that ever mainstream Cardano? I think not. Its enough time that developers had the spotlight. We need all other groups to have an chance to grow and shine as well. Otherwise this becomes a technical geekfest, nothing more. I want underrepresented geographical regions such as West Asia, North Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, Oceania, Central America , Pacific Islands, Inuit , Siberia, Mongolia, to have a voice in this community. IF you vote for me you will get a candidate who would stand for your voice to be heard and your rights represented.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Seeing a more balanced Community with equal emphasis on new developers and developments and regular users who constitute the bulk of any society. In fact create initiatives where all manner of users come on board with an 80/20 split of users to developers. Seeing causes like Environment, Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture, Sanctity of Life, Animal Rights, Creative Groups, Empowerment of Southern and Eastern Hemispheres, in terms of equality to other areas of earth, Empowerment of marginalized communities , LGBTQ initiatives and other diversity related initiatives, in various Aesthetic arts developed, People's emotional and mental well being considered as highly as technical benefits of blockchain, being formed and running smoothly.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I am mature, empathetic, a marketer and seller, a story teller, passionate about what is right, true and honorable. My ethics are never situational and I value honor, integrity and the word of an individual. I have taken on roles in groups and communities from the age of 13, 35 years ago so have experience dealing with a wide range of individuals and issues. I am an Myers Briggs Type Indicator Accredited Trainer which means I work with corproates and individuals and understand different peoples personality types and can easily work with all of them. I am also an International Coaching Federation Coach in training, which means I have training and experience in how to help people achieve their goals and solve their problems by finding their solutions rather than giving them solutions. As such whatever solutions I an the other parrticipants arrive at it will be their solution not mine, hence they will embrace and execute wholeheartedly. I will vociferously and fearlessly represent the abovementioned causes, groups and communities . If you have heard me thus far at any of the Town Hall meetings, Gimbalabs, Swarm meetings, C4C meetings, you know very well that I am not afraid to speak my mind for the betterment of the community. That is part of my core nature. I believe that Cardano can become a driver of societal change and transformation if and only if all the members of society and community have equal value.
Mark Stopka
Experience of Project Catalyst - which roles have you fulfilled? Proposer and Voter
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Twitter, Telegram, Discord stakeholder management, software development
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? Ineffective communications and lack of clarity on Circles roles, powers and responsibilities
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? Surveys, social media monitoring, office hours,...
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Improving communication from Catalyst community to general ADA community
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? More clarity into what CC is and what role it will play in overall governance of Cardano; more defined processes - Service Operations Manual of sorts
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I have 10 years of experience in IT transition & transformation projects, over 15 years in openSUSE open source project and several large M&A transactions
Cardano Cubano
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Yes, I became a community advisor and had a chance to read many proposals and learn the process and while not having the opportunity to review them I did get the opportunity to vote.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Yes. I buy and use ADA regularly. I attend spaces to learn more about Cardano.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? We need patience and allow the scientific process to work and we will come out with the most powerful, secure and trusted blackchin. Price will eventually go up so in the meantime build. Make more ADA!
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? Rugs in the NFT space and the increasing lack of decentralization due to large multipools.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Not your node, not your ADA! We need everyday ADA holders to run nodes as a way to help secure the network and by having more relays we can help increase the speed.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? More people holding ADA, more wallets, more decentralization, less rugs!
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I first bought ADA when it was .80 cents. The second time was .08 cents. I've been an ADA holder through and through. As soon as I could I created a node and while I never ran a pool I did. I created and release a NFT project on Cardano, @CardanoAmigos. Planning on filling a proposal for A Web3 space in our hometowns art district. Trying to cover the whole Cardano vertical! 😊
Funded Proposers nominations
Nebiyu Sultan
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? I am currently running a funded proposal from F5, and I'm also in the team of two other funded proposals funded in F6. I have also recommended one other funded proposal in F6 and participated in the voting rounds since fund 5.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: My participation in the Funded proposals is limited to the Eastern African Community, however i am eager to connect with, assist and represent other funded proposals from across the global community.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? Funded proposers need to understand that there is a vested interest in their project from the community. Without such an engagement with the community, it could lead to demotivation and mismanagement of funds, and in return the community to loose faith in the Catalyst process.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I hope to connect with funded proposers during various townhall breakout meetings on a regular basis. This will create the opportunity to engage with the funded proposals and allow them to air their grievances and suggestions on future improvements.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? A visual platform for the community to easily follow on the progress of each funded proposal and engage with the various teams for further collaboration and updates.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Although i do not expect to accomplish the the work i feel is needed within the 3 month time period, I would like to lay down the ground work of the needed research and feedback from the community to enable my successor to start implementation. Additionally, I would like to make sure there are at least 5 applicants for the role after my term ends.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? Having been part of several teams that have been funded before, and also having engaged with other teams that have been funded, i have noticed unaired grievances and issues that will hurt Catalyst in the long run as the community grows. I believe my listening skills will be valuable to identify these issues and concerns of the wider functional group. Through my participation in the Circle, I would like to contribute my fair share to assist funded proposers and keep Catalyst growing.
Mercy A
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Proposer. Completed Funded Proposal. Wada Coordinator
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Proposer. Completed Funded Proposals. Wada Coordinator in charge of ecosystem collaborations.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? Time requirements for executing on funded projects leaves little time participating in governance Predictability of funding to bring project to completion Timeliness of funding disbursements.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? Previous predecessors of this role have already spent time on issues gathering. I will connect with them to carry forward whatever issues haven't been addressed yet. Also plan on using any existing channels that isn't too time intensive for funded proposers to communicate issues. I'll make my tenure a team effort to enable broad outreach.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Ways to ensure Funded Proposer's voices are heard Ways to ensure that once a project has been funded, it can have predictable an timely resources to completion.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Easier impact collaborations that enhance funded projects.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I have been part of Catalyst since the beginning and have found it immensely rewarding. I find DLT governance interesting because it opens up a whole new paradigm of thinking and doing things. Governance also presents challenges and after being nominated by others for both Circle v1 and v2, I feel it's time to request a seat and add to the conversation if I am voted in.
Simon
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Ca, proposer, referrer, challenge team
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Catalyst school teacher and organiser
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? catalyst can not be a dao with a representational group since daos are anonymous.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I am well connected with the community and therefore intend to further interact with other funded proposers as well as put emerging issues up with the circle, key-stakeholders and the public if appropriate.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? 1 person 1 vote,
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Having helped change catalysts in a positive way
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? Being active in the community for a year now, working fulltime on projects i have helped build diverse groups like the swarm, C4C, Catalyst School and fulfilled duties of different roles of catalyst.
Stakepool operators nominations
Edickson Aguilera
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? I follow Catalyst closely and will soon participate as a community advisor
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I am an ambassador for the Cardano foundation and a stake pool operator with a long time in the Cardano community
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? for me decentralization is the most important
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I think we need to approach those problems from a governance point of view in order to bring the problems of our community to the Circle in an optimal way for their later resolution.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? I want to defend decentralization and network consensus
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Achieving better opportunities for single pools and improving decentralization and consensus would be the most expected results for me
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I want you to know that I am fully committed to the entire Cardano community and that I live to serve, thank you very much
Eystein Hansen
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Community advisor then Veteran Community Advisor.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Member of Cardano single pool alliance, member of operators guild, member of ISPPA. Staking pool operator since friends and family testnet and ITN.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? Aggregate data from a diverse group with different interests and finding common goals instead of what divides us.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? Telegram and Discord. Fairly known in the community and low barrier to reach out to me if there is anything an SPO wants to discuss.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? We are a diverse group with different goals we have the same main goals: Decentralization of the network, grow the global Cardano community, and make sure our voices are heard with legislators so legal frameworks grows together with this new world of oppertunities.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? I would have found a way to better aggregate SPO data and thus helping future Catalyst Circle SPO representatives.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I have been interested in the subject of governance for a long time and I made a presentation on how we as an ecosystem could do better in the 2020 Cardano summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_atG6fHW7Q
Alexandru Dragnescu
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? I am familiar with Project Catalyst (including voting system) but I can't named it a big experience.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I'm an active member on forum.cardano.org especially on Pool Operators section.. where I am offering support for other POOL OPERATORS (how to build, configure, upgrade, fix issues with the pools). also I have few useful topics like how to build a POOL, I created a script for updating nodes, etc
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? the biggest concerns for a POOL operator is to attract delegators (stake) for the pool... as u already know there are thousands of pool named SMALL pool which are supporting the decentralization by running nodes, but there is no compensation because the delegators were already delegated/staked with POOLs which are on top of the list...
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? By collecting informations frequently from the SPOs through different media (Twitter, Discord, forum, even meetings, etc)
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? The delegation process; if we can decentralize/change the delegation system the the all stake amount ~70% will be spread over all pools, this way all pools will generate blocks and rewards needed for maintaining the servers, individual projects, etc
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Decentralization of the delegation process;
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? Being a pool operator I can say that I am aware about the issues regarding the delegation process
Sergiu Cazan
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Not really:)
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Yes, running a pool since 31.05.2021
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? Difficulty in gathering new ' real fi' delegators on new small SPOs
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? A lot of Twitter/Discord/Telegram work
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Changing the world must have a lot of delegators education involved. I'm really 100% besides changing the world and replacing at least part of the broken financial system we're on will take a lot of 'RealFi' talk, education and convincing to new delegators. If network is to be secure and succesful we need people to get into Cardano with full knowledge about decentralisation, proof of stake and of course a little incentive in the form of their rewards. This last part is missing if a small SPO brings in new delegators that can't benefit from the rewards from the start. Their experience is not complete
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? More ADA staked to Single SPO pools, and preferably mission driven ones.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I'm a double economist and really understand current financial system we're working on replacing and I'm very pasionate about Cardano ecosystem. I also have a business of my own, worked previously in customer care, product management and of course people management. I belive I have the power to be objective when needed, define SMART Objectives and also listen to people when the situation demands it.
Rhys Morgan
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Yes, I have participated in Catalyst since Fund 1, Voted all the way through and submitted my own proposals. Since Fund 5 I have been a lot more present and Fund 6 started getting proposals together and In fund 7 submitted proposals, which I am currently seeing through voting right now.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Yes I have been an SPO since September 2020, I am a member of CSPA, ArmAda, Bare Metal and Carbon Neutral Cardano, All of whom I am an active member in, as well as other more closed communities such a discord and telegram channels. I am participating in multiple projects operating on both mainnet and testnet.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? At the minute there is a huge divide in the SPO community. I hope to help bridge the gap between these two sides and help people look to the future of the space in a productive way, building solutions to the problems we face
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I will engage the community in both an open forum and close spaces in the communities I am already a part of; and by sharing potential solutions/opportunities to have a discussion about addressing problems I see and fear within the SPO community.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Collaboration to help work and build together, championing each others skills to provide creative solutions in groups.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? Increased participation from SPOs in voting & proposing challenges and projects for funding.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I like to take action and get things done, both personally and as a member of a group. I want to leave Catalyst better than I joined by contributing my time and effort to increasing the exposure and reach of Catalyst beyond where it is right now.
Toolmakers & Maintainers nominations
Aharon Porath
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Yes, I have been a lurker in fund 5, and a proposer in fund 6 (not funded) and fund 7. Also I'm a challenge team member of the DAOs <3 Cardano challenge.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: As a tool builder I have been in touch and worked with catalyst members that are building tools for the use of the community, as Phil K, Victor, Tevo, Lucio and others. I haven't got the chance to work with them on specific project, but I am well acquaintance with their work on the CA tool, the voter tool etc. In addition, I am a member of the ADAGov group, and have been working with Ro and Neils over the last few months on their funded proposals projects.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? 1. How to recognized the needs of the community, identify problems in the current processes, and build the right and best tools to address those problems and answer those needs. 2. How to bring the Catalyst community members to use those tools and provide feedback. 3. How to receive updated and rich data and information that needed for better tools design.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I plan to continue track the different communication channels - discord servers, telegram group, twitter feed and other of the toolmakers and maintainers group, to participate in relevant zoom meetings, and to initiate breakout room in the town hall and swarm meetings.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community?
Push ahead decentralization of project catalyst - transfer more processes, tools building, improvements and maintenance from IOG team to the community, with the resources needed for this mission. For example -
Open the source code of the voting app and allow developers from the community to commit changes and propose improvements.
Request API of the ideascale data, and open to discussion option to use more or different idea management platforms.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? More developers will join the toolmakers community and the existing ones will be more engage and with greater sense of owning and belonging to the Catalyst and Cardano community.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? Proper disclosure - I'm a also proposer for fund 7, and hope that if our project will be funded it will be used by the catalyst community as well. I will do my best to always be transparent about it and to avoid potential conflict of interests.
Victor Larde
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Yes, I am a proposer fund 7 for One Small Town - Contributionism.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I plan to be more active in the coming month in creation of educational content for voters and also for new community members to include, contant about delegation and benefits to stake pool and others topics. I have a Youtube channel and work as a coach and formator. More than 150 people are following my training so far.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? We need more accessible videos and papers tutorials for people who don't know anything about blockchain and crypto. Specifically for third world countries who are not banked or do not trust bank anymore (more and more people). To teach them to delegate for example with step by step easy to understand tutorials is a challenge that I can take, being good pedagogue.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? Being naturally easy to approach and talk to I will be available to the community to answer their question and make connection if need be between members so help are provided by the good people. If the need of creation of any sort is necessary we will in the circle private communication channel raise them and schedule creation by the good people that are willing to do so.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Liberty, from legacy system that doesn't serve us the people. Educating my community to free themselves thanks to new technologie that blockchain offer.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? A growing community of educated people able to educate others and exponentially bring actual positive change in every day life.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? I am on a mission to serve the people.
Joey Chessher
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? I have been actively participating in the Catalyst Community for over a year. Exploring all the various activities within the Town Halls, After Town Halls, Swarms, Meetups and Chats... at first it makes your head spin, but now I feel I have found my bearings and believe I can contribute to this growing Community. I have held and staked my ADA for several years. I have Voted since Fund 5 and have been a CA (Community Advisor) in Fund 6 - 7 and vCA (Veteran Community Advisor) in Fund 7. I have participated as a member of the Challenge Team for Boosting Cardano's DeFi.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I have attended and viewed the T&M sessions, recordings and documentation to learn as much as possible about their issues and challenges. Having interacted with group members around my own T&M voting and proposal concerns has made me fully recognize the Toolmakers and Maintainers Critical and Foundational importance along with the importance of the Communities ability to reach out and communicate with its Circle Representative.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? I feel with the explosive growth in the Communities involvement with proposals and the voting process that the importance of the Toolmakers and Maintainers may have lost some of its visibility to the Community. We need to explore new ways to organize, streamline and communicate in order to find quick solutions to the Communities concerns, quick responses to their Ideas and to keep up as the number of proposals and activities seem to almost double with each Fund. Improving and enhancing the things we do as we continue to recognize how important it is that "All Voices Globally" be heard so the tools can be created by and for the Global Community.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? In the last Circle Allison introduced 'Office Hours' which I feel is a great approach for engaging individuals one on one. It also makes your availability consistent and reliable so anyone can reach out when they wish to express themselves. The Catalyst Town Hall and After Town Hall and Swarm Sessions, offer many opportunities for Community Members to come together for discussion to offer comments and get to know each other. Of course, Twitter, Telegram and Discord channels all offer a more free form of expressing ideas and challenges. We need to explore how to better represent the Global Community. More Global Groups, like the Latin American group as an example, need to be encouraged and supported by the Circle. Representing the Toolmakers and Maintainers Group as an active part of Circle v3 will give me the Voice to express the opportunities and concerns of this Global Community.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? Engaging the Global Community, reaching out to the entire world, in a variety of ways, days and times, so as to give everyone a Voice. Collecting, Organizing, Planning and taking Action on the many and varied ideas and concerns then delivering the results back to the Community so they can see progress. One of the issues that I have heard voiced and would like to Champion is to bridge the gap between developer and the non-developer community when it comes to funding the tools and mechanisms used by the Community Ecosystem. There has been a lot of discussions and debates between the technical and non-technical people that the Community should prioritize the technical needs first. We need to explore these concerns and find a balance so that both sections of the Community can mutually benefit
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? New Ideas would have been presented, Action taken on Global Community issues. Improved processes for existing tools and improved support of foundational systems and their Contributors. The encouragement of new members to become involved and contribute their voice to this community. That my activities would have been impartial, keeping the common good of the Community in the forefront of my thoughts and actions, not promoting my own agenda or proposals related to this Communities platform in order to prevent any conflicts of interest.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? Most Important! Is my understanding that Success and Achievement are accomplished by Respecting and Valuing the Ideas and Collaborative efforts of others. Communicating, Collaborating, Listening and Relating to the different views and perspectives, especially in this Global Environment with a Community who is Passionate about their ideas, will be key to navigating all the varied interests within this Catalyst Ecosystem. As a Technology Professional, Manager of Information Systems, PMP (Project Management Professional) and Six Sigma Black Belt, I take pride in maintaining a high standard of professional conduct focused on the success of the Community I serve. My experience is broad and diverse interfacing and communicating from the CEO to the End User to the Business Client. I have recruited and managed both local and remote groups of Application and Database Developers, Network Engineers and Security Specialists to create, manage and support Applications, Databases and Cloud Based Services.
Community Advisors nominations
Filip Blagojević
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? I am actively participating in Project Catalyst since Fund 2. I've been a CA in each Fund since Fund 2 and VCA in each fund since Fund 3, except Fund 7. I have actively suggested development of tools and procedures and early tested some of them, Yellow and Red Card thing for example. I was an active member of the Swarm team, actively organized the first Ideafest, held many breakout rooms and different community discussions about various subjects regarding Catalyst and governance in general. I held sessions in the Catalyst School about Catalyst in general and specific sessions for CAs and VCAs.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I've been a CA in each Fund since Fund 2 and VCA in each Fund since Fund 3, except Fund 7. I participate in Telegram discussions, especially when there is tension due to misunderstanding. I have commented and tested tools through the Funds. I held sessions for Catalyst School.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? The CA group is scaling rapidly and it is required of us to upscale our operations to preserve the quality that the voters and proposers deserve. Onboarding processes need to be quicker and more efficient, amount of knowledge necessary to be a CA is steadily growing. Different stakeholders of Cardano need to be included, especially highly technical people.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I plan to more actively participate and engage in Telegram and Discord, follow the developments in the Iterative Dropbox and ping proposers from that sheet to follow-up on their work. I plan to open a weekly Zoom call which would be an open space for CAs to come and share their thoughts and concerns. Of course, I would encourage people to message me via Discord and Telegram if they need help.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? I would particularly like to work on the financial sustainability of the CA position because I believe that is the only way to have people professionally participate for longer periods of time. I would champion the idea of educating ourselves as CAs on a daily basis - on whatever subject we lack the most.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? I would like to establish CAs in the wider Cardano community as a serious group of dedicated, respected, hardworking and honest people. I think VCAs should be regarded as sort of professionals in their work so I would go in the way of transparently and honestly displaying data that proves CAs and VCAs do an amazing job and getting better Fund after Fund.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? My activities in Catalyst moved me to quitting my job and dedicating full-time to work in and around Cardano. I am very familiar with Catalyst, but I have a pretty decent technical understanding, I am an Emurgo Academy student and I dedicate my complete work life to Cardano. I do not shy away from difficult subjects and discussions and I bring focus on the solutions and the work that needs to be done. Thank you for your consideration!
Tomi Astikainen
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? I've been a VCA, a CA, a Challenge Team member, a mentor, a proposer and a voter. Joined and became active in Fund3.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: I use about 2-4 hours a day to participate and to try and improve things in Catalyst.
Because it's the role of the CAs to help proposers and voters, I don't limit myself to the CA discussion groups only. I comment in Ideascale to link similar proposals and I help new proposers crystallise their ideas. As a Challenge Team member I have even gone to the extent to check unready proposals and, after confirmation from the proposer, I have notified IOG to withdraw them to make sure other CAs don't need to spend time in assessing draft proposals.
I operate from the standpoint of high integrity and honesty. Before assessment stage, I make sure we have proposed all necessary challenges for the next fund. When assessing proposals I don't shy away from being critical, even if it's not always in my interest to do so within the limits of the prevailing incentive model. As a proposer I flag 4-5 star assessments on my own proposals if they don't make sense. As a VCA I first focus on understanding what type of action would most benefit the community and only then choose how to use my limited resources.
I have a natural tendency of "community sensing" and connecting people to one another. I already have a good network of CA colleagues and I hope to help activate as many of them as possible in our common mission to make Catalyst the biggest and brightest open innovation platform in the world. I am confident in my ability to do so. A leader is successful when the team says "we did it".
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent?
Lately there has been a lot of divisive noise but I feel that overcoming the obstacles has made us stronger and we are becoming more unified.
We need to constantly balance between the volunteer drive and incentivised contributions. A large part of the process is still without incentives and many people get tired of contributing when they are not recognized for their efforts.
Finally, the culture of inclusion and listening for better co-innovation only becomes possible when there's enough diversity, a level playing field and a sense of true belonging. Those are some of the areas I would make sure to improve.
We have an entire "idea dropbox" as a backlog of work to be done. Based on this, IOG has outlined the next steps: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__RZNfCB3v-0jqOg1zQyStpgeL1hUaegGIhPhT-p8YI/edit?usp=drivesdk This doesn't have to be the actual roadmap for the coming funds but it's a great starting point.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle?
I'm already doing this. Anyone who has followed the Catalyst Community Advisors Telegram Group knows that I'm one of the most active participants. I am there to co-innovate, learn and connect people behind the best development ideas. Occasionally I sweep the Discord discussions too.
In this role I would also liaise with IOG and other relevant stakeholders but my key focus would still to be active listening of the CA community. Ideally we will outgrow Telegram and establish better, more structured and fruitful communication in the upcoming CA Portal.
Rather than driving my own improvement ideas, I would like to suggest a weekly recurring process that is open and transparent for anyone to join.
Example:
Each week one improvement suggestion is championed by one of the CAs and taken through the same process.
WEDNESDAY
Progress report (one slide)
Question of the week (survey link)
After Townhall to coordinate next week's work
THURSDAY
Prioritization of work
FRIDAY-SATURDAY-SUNDAY
Insights from the community
In-depth discussion (Swarm)
Draft for solution(s)
MONDAY
Finalized solution document
TUESDAY
Townhall Preparation: picking the Question of the Week and making the progress report
...and so it goes, agile and ever-evolving. The feedback to this initial idea was very good. Now all I need is a mandate to execute the plan.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? I wish to lead and facilitate the process of renewing the Catalyst process, not alone but by creating heroes and heroines in the CA community ("sub-circle of CAs").
I use agile methods and design thinking to understand what needs to be done. Then I make sure that the best people take the best initiatives forward with the community's best interests in mind.
By ushering in a new era of results oriented collaboration, my intention is to help fix one thing every week to "decrease the inventory" of what needs to be done, while allowing room for IOG, Circle and the CA sub-circle to focus on more long term development. This would make the CA contributions more visible and appreciated in the community and open doors for new leaders to emerge.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? It depends if it's three or six months. If latter, I hope to have convinced IOG they can trust the CAs' and VCAs' ability to run and develop Catalyst independently. Our collaboration tools would have improved. There'd be a process for continuous improvement that my successor can easily take over. Finally, the culture and team spirit would be on a whole new level.
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? Liked the IOG's idea regarding a CA Portal? I can probably help design and implement that, too. I design online communities for living. My current client has approximately 100,000 employees so, no, I'm not afraid to build global solutions that scale. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomiastikainen
Nadia Hopkins
Experience of Project Catalyst – which roles have you fulfilled? Yes. I have had a Daedalus Wallet since early 2019 in the Byron phase. During that time I’ve been fortunate to witness many upgrades like the Shelley Incentivized Testnet, and now in the Goguen era the Alonzo hard fork upgrades. We voted for the first time in Fund 3.
I began joining the Town Hall sessions in August, 2021 and have taken an active role in the circle groups and breakout sessions since November. I served as a Community Advisor in Fund 7. It has been enlivening getting to know other members of the community, understanding the challenges and contributing to opportunities as we expand together.
Specifically, I have become involved in: solving scaling issues in the Community Advisor/Veteran Community Advisor (CA/VCA) process, improving auditing accountability and enhancing the record keeping standards for two of the Circle groups.
I am also working with an incredible group of women in the Leadership Academy project, considering how we might fundamentally reimagine the concept of leadership and encourage greater participation in Catalyst from diverse groups of people and thinkers.
Experience in the functional group you seek to represent: Yes. I have been honored to be a member of the CA/VCA group over the past few months. In Fund 7, new challenges to the current CA/VCA process emerged that required collective attention. The group needs to come to solutions that prevent and correct problematic influences now, and plan for scaling long-term.
In addition to contributing my own ideas, I had the benefit of filling a scribe role and a co-host role for the group. Serving these roles required gaining a clear understanding of the challenges and recommendations, drawing collective insight from the sessions, from the related social channels and from the inputs made to the group’s iterative dropbox. I also spent time individually with community members who had strong opinions on specific topics.
Additionally, I have engaged in Catalyst Circle/IOHK planning sessions with CA/VCA group members, and served as a support committee member and scribe for the General ADA Holder Circle Rep.
Ultimately these experiences have helped me to facilitate discussion between differing viewpoints, ask pointed questions to generate more complete understanding and to run through potential scenarios that our decisions could achieve.
What do you see as the biggest concerns facing the functional group you hope to represent? I see this group with two main concern categories: Enhancing Group Dynamics and Identifying Actionable Solutions
Enhancing Group Dynamics
The members of this community, especially those who are volunteering extensive time to this group, are passionate about looking at the issues and solving them. The downside of this is that there has been a good amount of interpersonal conflict and frustration that is preventing us from working as productively and cooperatively as possible.
In filling this role, I would make it a priority to harness the power of differing opinions to encourage harvesting the best thinking that our conflict inspires. I expand on this more in the next question. Here are some key points:
We commit to collecting the genius despite and through the conflict.
We facilitate coming to terms with the discomfort of disagreement so that we keep all of our talent and use it
We consider all sides in getting to the bottom of the impact and implications of our collective choices
We devise ways to measure and record the outcomes of our solutions so that we can learn from these decisions.
Identifying Actionable Solutions:
The second category of concern is more tactical. We need to specifically solve these issues:
Consider the “bookends” of our group’s influence. Right before us, proposals are submitted, and the quality of these will directly influence our CA/VCA’s work, so we need to consider this input. After us, voting happens, projects are funded and then eventually audited. Our decisions affect the whole, and communication is key.
CA onboarding, training & accountability refined so people start
as they mean to continue.
Plan for engaging industry experts as CAs to assess feasibility of highly technical proposals, and merging this into our current system
Bots/nefarious influences thwarted through reputation system and verification tools
Define best standards for CA content process and submission, including criteria for use of templating and of scoring.
CAs/VCAs cultivated across funds to retain and improve talent.
VCA standards and accountability checks in place.
Review of current bonus structure to determine impact.
A more collaborative relationship built with the Challenge Teams to streamline assessments.
Measurable criteria put in place to determine the success of these decisions and chronicle the learning from what didn’t work as planned.
More will surface!
The Catalyst Circle/IOHK meetings have also produced specific plans outlining which adaptations will be undertaken by IOHK, and which will be guided by the community. An overview of these can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__RZNfCB3v-0jqOg1zQyStpgeL1hUaegGIhPhT-p8YI/edit. I include this as a cross-reference.
A key part of a Circle seat is to be a “sensor array" for opportunities/problems. How do you intend to engage with your functional group and bring existing and emerging issues in your community to the Circle? I have had several roles in my career, both as a business owner and as a Director of Development and Strategic Initiatives in several non-profit organizations, where community engagement was my key responsibility (outlined in final question). I consider the Circle Rep a service role, and I would consider myself a facilitator of the community’s involvement.
My organized approach to community engagement is: Collecting, Connecting, Critiquing, Communicating. In an effective process, each of these is happening simultaneously and feeding the others.
Collecting: Currently the CA/VCA group’s discussions are spread across several platforms and documents, which leaves space for ideas and voices to be left out. Regardless of where they originate, these ideas need to be brought to the stage and incorporated into the discussion by letting the rest of the group consider and critique their viability together. I will be a vigilant monitor of these places and aim to organize the discussions topically. Where possible, I will conduct one-on-one and small group sessions to deep dive complex issues with community members.
Connecting: I will make sure as many differing viewpoints as possible are at the table for maximum diversity of opinions and creative output. Like and opposing minded people should have an environment to come together and help the communication happen productively, focusing on the tactics being considered and not the people.
Critiquing: Opposing viewpoints should hash it out, and we go until we get to the bottom of what could happen if this or that. Because we can’t all be right all the time, when we strongly disagree, we have the opportunity to build measurement criteria that hold the opposing decision accountable.
Communicating: I am particularly strong at verifying a perspective through active listening, and summarizing it in lay terms for broad understanding. As the community comes to the point of agreement, I will condense the recommendations and be able to succinctly present them to the Circle and IOHK for consideration.
What key ideas or issues would you like to champion on behalf of your community? The first decade of my career, I worked for a firm that helped small- and medium-sized non-profits and NGOs scale to the next level. Scaling has intrinsic growing pains, which can be extremely creative and also chaotic and frustrating. I am comfortable helping people navigate this time productively.
These are key ideas I’d like to champion:
The more diversity and (consciously expressed) conflict, the richer the process and product. We should aim to be especially inclusive of the people and ideas that make us most uncomfortable.
Great solutions take time and patience, so does growth.
Experimenting can and should be happening continuously to test our hypotheses.
Empirical data and the story of impact balance each other.
We can invest more time in research and understanding.
We need an increase in the right industry tools to build bridges with new communities.
Creating something that has never existed requires letting go of our conditioning but not of our wisdom.
Everything happens in the end because of people, and each person is full of unexpected genius tapped in different ways. We as the Catalyst community can be a model for treating each other as if we are the most valuable things we have.
At the end of your term as a Circle Representative, what outcomes would represent success in your role? At the end of my term, we would have a diverse community confident to make a justifiable case for its insights, and united in creating solutions that help Catalyst scale seamlessly across the next 7 funds and beyond.
Some specific metrics/outcomes include:
Decrease in the percentage of low quality assessments. Fund 7 had approximately 20% that needed to be filtered out. As we scale, this number needs to be significantly less, ideally under 5% and decreasing.
Increase in number of engaged and successful CAs. This can be measured by number of assessments submitted and number of excellent assessments.
Trustable process for promoting VCAs and criteria for filtering decisions. Algorithmic tools that support VCAs filtering reviews.
A functional group model for mediating intense disagreement and arriving at an understanding and
recommendation that has considered all perspectives.
An interactive hub for recording discussion topics and inviting continuous public feedback over time.
Standards around project and challenge budgeting
A large core of involved members personally committed to this group for the coming year or more. Creating solutions in this specific arena will take time, as will educating new members to the group who will need to come up to speed in order to contribute (ex 1 year).
Is there anything else that you want voters to know as to why you would be a good fit for this seat on the Circle? These are some of my life and career experiences that will contribute to my capacity to serve the community in this role:
10+ years facilitating the growth and scaling of small to medium sized organizations through strategic planning and development.
10+ years as a small business owner, creating several businesses from scratch that have grossed 7 figures.
Engaged to teach Active Listening at three major universities: Haverford College, Villanova University and Temple University.
One of my businesses is a Healing Arts business where I provided therapeutics for people with complicated situations, ranging from stroke victims to major injury to high level anxiety. - I have designed curriculum and taught certification trainings for more than 10,000 professionals.
Fulbright Scholar who has lived in 2 foreign countries for more than 1 year (Germany and Austria)
I am married with a son, Duke, who is 12, and live in Pennsylvania USA.
I am comfortable with navigating the complexities of this work. I have a lot of time to devote to this and intend to do the best job possible. I believe strongly in what we are creating together, and that belief drives my stamina for the work ahead of us.
Thank you for your consideration of my submission.
Last updated