The Civics Committee meeting on Feb 19, 2026, resulted in several key decisions and action items aimed at shaping the committee's trajectory for the new year.
Decisions Made
Committee Term Alignment: The committee will transition to two-year terms to reduce the frequency of elections to once per year.
Term Extensions: Members whose terms were set to expire in October 2026 will be asked to extend their tenure until April 2027 to align with the new annual election cycle.
Budget Submission Strategy: The committee decided to push forward a draft budget with estimated costs to the Steering Committee first, rather than spending time on granular numbers that may be rejected.
Budget Ceiling: The committee agreed to use 1 million ADA as a soft "cap" or guidance figure for the Civics budget proposal.
Meeting Frequency: A supplemental working group meeting was agreed upon to finalize the budget draft before the end-of-month deadline.
Action Items
Civics Working Group Session: KØ will host a meeting on Tuesday, Feb 24 @ 11:00 CET on primary budget items and cost estimates.
Election Outreach: All Members to commit to appearing in X (Twitter) Spaces and Discord engagement sessions to encourage new applicants for the upcoming April elections.
Education Survey Methodology: RR and N will collaborate next week to transition from Google Forms to an interview-based data collection method.
Budget Document Review: MI and KØ will review the "Civics Budget 2026/2027" document, specifically Section 5 regarding Ambassador and Fellowship programs, prior to the next session.
CAP Editor Bootstrapping: TL and MD will draft a plan for the next CAP Working Group regarding how Intersect/CF/IOG can bootstrap editor roles to define workload and compensation.
Community Tooling Sync: RR and PL will connect via the app to coordinate efforts on the governance tooling mirror board and open-source collaboration.
Topic
Discussion
Notes
1. CATS Summit, Nairobi
LM provided a "TL;DR" for the Nairobi event. The third day focused on governance with workshops by MH, AD, and K. There is high community enthusiasm for involvement in civics.
Great enthusiasm noted; expect more community interest in future committee roles and exploring more ways to engage with African communities.
2. Steering Committee Updates
KØ reported on work regarding extending committee terms and dismissal policies for non-contributing members. Noted that SPOs are still voting last-minute on parameter updates.
Discussions ongoing regarding CIP implementations and parameter updates post-hard fork.
3. Committee Budget Framework
KØ shared a document for the 2027 budget. Primary focus is DRep participation rates. RR suggested DRep events. Discussion on governance health reports and education surveys.
A 1M ADA "cap" (ceiling) was suggested as guidance for the budget proposal, but is not a hard limit.
4. Constitutional Amendment Process (CAP)
Discussion on a potential grant for a CAP information flow coordinator. TL noted the need to update categories and define the scope of editor roles.
Suggestion for Intersect/CF/IOG to bootstrap editor roles initially to gauge workload.
5. 2027 Budget Timeline
MI asked about the deadline. KØ noted the goal is to have drafts by the end of the month for potential on-chain voting in March.
An extra working session is scheduled for Tuesday at 11:00 CET (10:00 UTC) to finalize items.
6. Committee Elections
LM announced six Civics seats expire in April. Terms are transitioning to 2-year cycles. Members expiring in October '26 will be asked to extend to April '27 to align schedules.
One election per year is the new goal. KØ encouraged current members to stand for re-election.
7. Education Working Group
RR suggested moving beyond Google forms to include interviews for better data collection.
Awaiting return of N next week to refine the research method.
8. Governance Actions Status
KØ updated on Net Chain Limits (NCL) (61.4% DRep approval) and the "Vanos" hard fork naming (83%). Noted transaction/memory block unit increases are enacted.
NCL remains a subject of heavy debate regarding constitutionality and the role of the CC.
9. Ledger Behavior (Technical)
TL and IH discussed a failed parameter update. The ledger correctly stopped voting because the reference was no longer the newest due to an intervening enactment.
First time this ledger behavior was observed "in the wild"; confirmed technical guardrails work as intended.
10. Observer Feedback & Tooling
PL shared info on weekly governance calls (Mondays 16:30 UTC) and a miro board tracking governance tooling. Discussions on the need for community endorsement of proposals.
Civics aims to be a facilitator, encouraging community members to pick up critical governance tasks.
