Welcome to edition 32 - hear the latest updates from elections to committee reports, open source, new community hubs, governance tooling, and the upcoming Annual Members Meetings!

This week’s update is a big one, so grab a coffee (or something stronger) and read on:

Intersect elections 2024 - Final Call for Applications!

Intersect is a member-driven organization that empowers the community to shape Cardano’s future through its governing board and committees. Now is the perfect time to get involved, as applications are open for committee and board seat elections, closing on September 27, 2024.

You must be a full (paid) member* to stand and vote. You can verify your membership status or apply using the links below:

• Committee seat application
• Board seat application

* Please remember that if you are not a paid member (individual or enterprise) and have submitted an application, you must change to paid membership by September 27 for your application to be eligible.

You can find candidate bios here:

• Committee election candidates
• Board Seat election candidates

For membership details or questions, visit Intersect's knowledge base or join the Discord channel. If you are a candidate and want to promote yourself, you can do this through our candidate Discord channel. The community can also ask candidates questions through this channel.

Current applications - in numbers

The applications yet to be validated are from associates who still need to upgrade their membership.

Upcoming events and Spaces

The Membership and Community Committee (MCC) has launched its own X Account (Membership and Community Committee). There was an X Space on the 15th Sept to discuss the MCC and the upcoming elections in more detail.

And last but not least - our committee bi-weekly report has landed

The committee's bi-weekly report is available for viewing. It provides an update and an overview of all committees and their associated working group status and progress.

Cardano Foundation Joins Intersect!
This week, we are excited to announce that the Cardano Foundation has joined Intersect to enhance community governance within the Cardano ecosystem. The Foundation has been supporting and contributing to Intersect for many months already, through the hard fork working group, the parameters sub-committee and ideating on the initial settings of Cardano’s governance design. The Foundation joining Intersect is now official, and we look forward to fostering even closer ties, along with all members as we enter the Voltaire era of full community governance. 

We’re looking forward to participating in the upcoming Cardano Summit, where we will be hosting workshops, panels and keynotes focussing on Cardano in 2025. Join a special X Space hosted by the Foundation on Tuesday, September 24 at 15:00 UTC to hear more about the plans and what you can expect from the Cardano Summit this year.

Constitutional workshops 
We’ve reached the halfway milestone in the constitutional workshop series! There's still ample opportunity to participate. Check the calendar for a full schedule of upcoming workshops, and sign up for one in your area.

In the meantime, we are starting work with elected delegates and traveling alternates from completed workshops to synthesize the input and insight from the discussions, which will inform the crafting of the final Constitution. As workshops wrap up, more of these sessions will take place over the coming weeks.

Don’t forget you can find resources and information regarding constitutional workshops in the Intersect knowledge base, including the draft constitution, all workshop dates and locations, essential details for hosts and participants, and a list of elected delegates for the upcoming December convention.

Annual members’ meetings
The member summits will allow community hubs to unite local members to discuss Cardano’s product roadmap and budget and how Intersect can continue supporting Cardano’s on-chain governance into 2025. The annual member summits will also be a chance to look back at the positives and negatives of Intersect’s first year and how we can build a stronger organization together.

Read more and RSVP to an event near you.

Membership and community
This week, we hosted an X Space where we explored aspects of Cardano’s 2025 budget and took a deep dive into the procedures surrounding the board elections, including their structure breakdown & behind the scenes, and more.

We look forward to continuing the conversation in our next X space as we gear up for the final push before the voting period begins. This session will cover all the key details, ensuring everyone is fully informed about the budget, committees, and board seat elections. It’s an important moment for our community, and we are excited to keep the energy high as we approach the voting phase!

When & Where?

• The space will be live on X on September 23, at 5 pm UTC.

This week's membership stats are as follows:

Open Source
The open-source office (OSO) is thrilled to announce a successful pre-vote on behalf of the open-source committee. Over 100 registered voters participated; at least 40% were verified and helped elect Moritz Angermann, Robin Boening, Nicolas Henin, and Diane Mueller. These new committee members were introduced in today’s meeting and will continue to onboard with our remaining seats! 

This week, the OSO is returning from the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit Europe in Vienna. The team connected with big names in open source development, such as Daniela Barbosa (GM Hyperledger/LF Decentralized Trust), Dirk Hohndel (Head of OSPO Verizon), Daniel Izquierdo (Bitergia CEO), Georg Link (OS Strategist/Sales Director Bitergia).

The team also partnered with Cardano Ambassador Simon S. (Cardano After Dark) to host an after-summit event!

Our very own Christian Taylor, head of the Open Source office at Intersect, with Daniela Barbosa, the Executive Director of Hyperledger.

As we transition into Q4, the open-source team is gearing up towards the end of Q4 to provide project support services via OSO. With the assistance of our newest strategic partner Bitergia, our footprint analysis reports will be presented in early October after final review by the open source committee. 

Be sure to favorite the open-source GitBook pages and follow us on our socials for the official releases! 

Community hubs
We are excited to announce the launch of our new community hub in the USA, North America, this week! Led by AWEN, one of the first events will be hosting an annual members’ meeting event with five other community hubs. 

Our USA hub has shared their comments on the new community hub: “We are thrilled and honored to lead Intersect’s first US based community hub through Awen. We are deeply motivated to cultivate a thriving ecosystem by hosting events that drive innovation and collaboration while promoting governance that puts the community at the heart of decision-making. We’re committed to guiding the development of the technical roadmap and ensuring the stability of Cardano’s infrastructure, ensuring that the US is a strong contributor to open-source development helping advance the core technologies of Cardano.”

Our Sri Lanka hub has translated the committee and board seat elections pack into Sinhala. If you would like to take a look, you can find the pack here (as well as a Japanese translation). They have also created a ‘Get to Know Intersect’ video, which you can watch here.

Last week, the Africa hub team ran their Intersect regional hub launch in Nairobi, Kenya. The session provided an overview of the Cardano ecosystem and an introduction to Intersect and decentralized governance. Intersect’s head of membership and community hubs, Nick Cook, joined the live session to discuss the benefits of Intersect and its ambitions. Cook commented that Kenya has already made significant progress in digital payments, including adopting mobile money services and integrating blockchain-based technologies, helping to generate interest in Intersect and Cardano. You can watch the recording of the Kenya launch here.

Our LATAM hub also launched its Colombia regional hub on September 14, before the Colombia constitutional workshop with 20 participants. The regional hub manager was interviewed, and you can watch it here.

Additionally, our Japan hub held a meet-up in Osaka with 70 attendees.

This week, the following events are taking place within our community hubs:

Japan hub

• LINE Live Talk on September 20. If you would like to attend, the link is here (open ‘Intersect Japan Hub’), however access is only available in Japan

WADA (Africa) hub

• WADA Town Hall was held on September 19 at 16:00 UTC with 16 participants. The link to the recording is here (the passcode is ndH.04JD)
• Constitutional workshop to be held on September 21 at 09:00 UTC in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
• East Africa (Kenya) town hall to be held on September 21 at 17:30 UTC. The invite to attend is here

Community hubs - in numbers

Governance tooling
Constitutional Committee Portal (CC-Portal)
We’re also excited to announce the launch of the CC-Portal on Cardano mainnet, which enhances governance transparency. The portal, created by the team behind Cardano GovTool, provides the community with access to profiles of the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) members, their voting records, and the rationale behind governance decisions. Community members can explore the Interim Constitution and track its evolution.
The CC-Portal is open-source, and Intersect manages contributions. For more details, visit the portal and you can read more here.

Cardano GovTool
One of the main goals of Cardano GovTool is to make governance accessible to all. With a user-friendly interface, it is easier than ever for ada holders to engage with governance, regardless of their technical expertise. The interface simplifies the process, making it intuitive to find DReps, submit governance actions, and vote, ensuring that everyone can participate in shaping the future of Cardano.

Since its launch on mainnet earlier this month, the core maintainers have collected lots of feedback and are working with the broader community to address fixes and improvements as they are raised. Cardano GovTool is open source and maintained by our members.

Current on-chain governance stats:

• DRep Registrations: 483
• Unique Delegators: 6,209
• Vote Delegations: 6,821
• Total DRep Votes 152

To learn more about how you can start using GovTool, explore the GovTool documentation. Here, you'll find everything from step-by-step guides to detailed explanations of its features.

You can connect to the core maintainers of governance tools on the Intersect discord server via the new request channel and the new help & support channel. 

DRep pioneer program
This Saturday, September 21, marks one of the final DReps workshops for the first cohort—don’t miss out! Jenny Brito will facilitate an in-person, full-day event in North Carolina, USA. If you’d like to register, here’s the link.

If you're interested in learning more about DReps or want to learn how to register as a DRep, please visit our knowledge base. You'll find detailed information on the DRep role, responsibilities, and the registration process, along with helpful resources to guide you through becoming a part of the DRep community.

Community grants
The governance action outcomes grant deadline is fast approaching—submit your application before the closing time at 9 am UTC on September 23! This initiative aims to enhance Cardano GovTool with a new feature dedicated to governance action outcomes. 

Successful applicants may become core maintainers with a related contract. For more information and to apply, click here.

Grant recent milestones:

Cardano Curation has launched its second short video, which discusses the Voltaire era and its significance for the Cardano blockchain. The video is available in English and Spanish.

LidoNation has delivered the 5th Milestone of the DRep campaign platform grant, a production-ready version. For more information, please visit the link.

Daniela Alves and Maria Carmo have delivered their fifth and final milestone for the education and multimedia grant, culminating in 13 YouTube videos and 80 published articles. These resources focus on Cardano, decentralized governance, and Intersect, which focuses on the Portuguese-speaking community. For more information, please visit the link.

For a detailed breakdown, visit the grants page.

Intersect YouTube content
Some may have noticed that we’ve recently published more content on our Intersect YouTube channel. Check out the recent updates, such as a catch-up with our Sri Lanka hub manager, Kavinda Kavinda Kariyapperuma.

Other highlights include Intersect’s head of product Lorenzo Bruno, covering the creation of Cardano GovTool, and Beatrice Anihiri, a member of the interim constitutional committee and founder of Konsensis, who spoke about why becoming a DRep is so important.

Please subscribe to the channel here and watch for more exciting content in the coming weeks!

Delivery assurance
Delivery assurance refers to the commitment and processes between Cardano continuity suppliers to ensure the timely and reliable delivery of products, services, or projects—meeting specified requirements and expectations on behalf of the community. It involves managing risks, monitoring progress, and implementing strategies for successful and transparent delivery.

Guided by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC), the Delivery assurance team is a core function at Intersect - completing tasks outlined above on behalf of the community. The team must execute its functions to ensure Cardano's continuity plan is delivered.

Key responsibilities

• Risk Management: Identify and suggest potential mitigations for committee action.
• Progress Monitoring: Track and ensure project schedules are met and communicated with the community.
• Quality Assurance: Maintain and review quality standards for deliverables on behalf of the community.
• Stakeholder Communication: Provide regular updates and ensure clear communication to our Suppliers and Community members.
• Issue Resolution: Address and resolve delivery obstacles quickly and transparently to ensure smooth progress and maintain trust within the community.
• Flexibility in Methodology: Adapt strategies based on project and community needs and risks.
• Support the TSC: Align delivery strategies with TSC directives and community goals.
• Documentation and Reporting: Keep comprehensive records, prepare detailed reports, and ensure these are shared with the community.
• Continuous Improvement: Refine processes based on feedback from the community and past projects.

Here are the latest stats from the Delivery assurance team:

This week’s reminders
Don’t forget the committee elections. If you want to apply for a committee seat,  the deadline for upgrading your membership is September 27. For participating in annual meetings and election voting, you have until September 30 to upgrade your membership. You can learn more about the committee elections and watch the recent engagement events on our knowledge base, and you can view and ask questions on the Q&A channel on Discord.

 

Well, that’s it for this week's update. Thanks for reading! 

And finally, we’re interested in hearing more from you about subjects important to you, such as Cardano’s governance. Your ideas and suggestions are crucial to us. If you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions, please get in touch via email, X, or LinkedIn.