TSCCall20260120

Hiero Technical Steering Committee Meeting

TL;DR: The TSC confirmed that the asynchronous GitVote process is working well and noted that the TSC vote to approve HIP-1313 has passed. The bulk of the meeting focused on an overview of the CNCF mentorship program model (as an input to a potential Hiero mentorship effort) and a follow-up discussion on how to structure “HCS standards/specifications” references within the HIP repository.

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Details

Organization: Hiero
Date: January 20, 2026
Time: 10:00am ET
Recording: https://zoom.us/rec/share/cWXcCTj-1F77zjYmRIK3bIxY7qwkOn_dWpWjFxL-ZujpQ5nWCdZOCdmSudbOpjc-.YADol7ROUe53Cgyg
Approx. duration: ~1h07m (based on transcript timestamps)

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TSC Attendees

• Hendrik Ebbers
• Richard Bair
• Michael Kantor
• Milan Wiercx van Rhijn

Guests

• Jessica Gonzalez (The Linux Foundation)
• Nate Waddington (CNCF)
• Michael Garber
• Keith Kowal (Hedera Hashgraph LLC)
• Giuseppe Bertone
• Alexander Shenshin
• Renata Toktar (DSR Corporation)
• Angelina Ceppaluni

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Agenda

• Short overview of last TSC call
• Any Updates/Events from Communities or members?
• Reminder to attend public community calls + bring more activity into Hiero Discord channels. (Encourage others! 💪)
• Please Welcome Nate Waddington! - > LFX Mentorship program for Hiero
• HIPs
  • Update on async HIP voting: https://github.com/hiero-ledger/tsc/issues/277
• Any escalations or community concerns?
• Any other business (AOB)

Guests

As every Hiero meeting the TSC meeting is a public meeting and everybody can attend it.
You can find all the information about the TSC meetings and all other Hiero meetings in our public calender.

Code of Conduct

As in every meeting we start with a short notice of the antitrust policy of Linux Foundation and an introduction of our Code of Conduct.

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Meeting Summary

• Format update: The team noted that agendas/minutes are now handled via a GitHub-based wiki approach rather than a PR approval process; the meeting began with a short overview of the prior TSC call instead of formal “approval of minutes.”
• Review of last TSC call highlights (per Hendrik):
  • Upcoming LF Decentralized Trust Maintainer Days and LFDT Member Summit were called out as major near-term events.
  • The TSC revisited GitVote and asynchronous voting based on recent increased usage.
  • AOB last week included discussion about how HCS standards/specifications should be organized/referenced within the HIP repository.
  • Mentorship was introduced as a continuing theme (and led into today’s guest segment).
• Community updates: No additional community/member updates were raised during the meeting.
• Mentorship discussion (guest segment): Nate Waddington shared how the CNCF runs mentorship programs and how the LFX Mentorship platform is typically used (details in “Presentations” below).
• HIPs / voting update: Hendrik reported that the asynchronous vote to approve HIP-1313 passed, with 7 votes in favor noted during the meeting recap. The TSC referenced that the GitVote workflow made it straightforward to vote directly in a GitHub issue.
• HIP pipeline: Michael Garber indicated that additional HIPs currently in review are considered priority and should be brought to the TSC for presentation/votes in the coming weeks.
• Escalations / concerns: No escalations or community concerns were raised.
• AOB — HCS standards/specifications organization in HIP repo (continuing topic):
  • Michael Garber proposed evaluating an alternative, more general “umbrella” approach (referencing Ethereum’s model as inspiration) to avoid repeated structural changes over time.
  • Michael Kantor emphasized aligning incentives and preserving visibility/ownership for specifications work, while remaining open to a “pointer/registry” approach tied into HIPs.
  • Giuseppe Bertone expressed support for organizing an “application standards / HCS standards” track in a maintainable way and asked where broader community feedback could be captured.
  • Hendrik summarized that the team should respect prior decisions already made while focusing discussion on the technical integration/structure (e.g., foldering/registry approach) and encouraged a smaller group to converge on a proposal to bring back to the TSC.
• Deferred item: Alexander Shenshin’s project proposal overview was deferred due to time and will be added to the next meeting’s agenda.

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Presentations

Mentorship programs and LFX Mentorship platform (Nate Waddington; intro by Jessica Gonzalez)

Key takeaways shared:

• CNCF runs mentorship terms multiple times per year, with a maintainer-focused “call for proposals” process; projects propose scoped work suitable for a mentee to complete over a defined term.
• Emphasis that the main value is building ongoing contributors and future maintainers, not just completing a single feature.
• Practical program mechanics discussed:
  • Typical cadence: proposal window → application window → mentor evaluation/interviews → selection → midterm evaluation → stipend release → final evaluation.
  • Encouraged requiring application tasks (e.g., repo fork/PR) and live interviews to reduce risk of AI-assisted misrepresentation.
  • Communication patterns vary by project, but mentees are encouraged to engage in existing community channels to integrate into the ecosystem.
• Hiring/industry linkage: in some cases, companies use mentorship as a pipeline (similar to internships), but mentees often participate as individuals due to full-time expectations and stipend structure.
• Alternatives to starting a bespoke program were noted (e.g., participating in broader mentorship programs like Google Summer of Code and Outreachy).

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Key Decisions

• Approved (by async vote): The TSC vote to approve HIP-1313 passed via GitVote (as reported in-meeting).
• No decision (continued discussion): No final decision was reached on the specific structure for referencing/organizing HCS standards/specifications within the HIP repository; a smaller working discussion was encouraged, with an intent to bring a recommendation back to the TSC.

Action Items / Follow-ups

• Jessica Gonzalez to follow up with Nate Waddington (and Sophie, referenced by Jessica) to continue mentorship program planning outside the meeting.
• Hendrik Ebbers / Michael Garber / Michael Kantor (and interested contributors such as Giuseppe) to continue working toward a concrete proposal on HIP-repo structure for HCS standards/specifications references and bring it back to the TSC.
• Add to next agenda: Alexander Shenshin’s project proposal overview (deferred due to time).

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Prepared by: Brandon Davenport, Dir of Product, Hgraph