When to Start a Breakout
Start a breakout when:
- ▸There's active development or open questions to address
- ▸It can't fit responsibly in the ACD agenda
- ▸There's enough interest that multiple participants will attend
Responsibilities
- ▸Get the right people to attend and keep discussions productive
- ▸Curate the agenda - surface open spec questions, parameter changes, competing proposals, and implementation blockers. Publish the agenda in the GitHub issue before the call so participants can come prepared
- ▸Facilitate, don't dictate - you source agenda items and keep things moving, but participants should feel comfortable pushing back and raising alternatives
Examples of breakout series include ePBS (EIP-7732), PeerDAS, and FOCIL.
How to Set Up a Breakout Call
1Contact Protocol Support
Reach out to Josh (@joshdavislight on Discord/Telegram, josh.davis@ethereum.org) or nixo (@nixo.eth on Discord, nixo@ethereum.org).
Provide:
- Title
- Cadence (weekly, biweekly, etc.)
- Reason for the breakout
- Associated EIP(s)
- Target fork (if relevant)
- Your GitHub username
Wait for Protocol Support to confirm creation of your series before proceeding to step 2.
You can use your own Zoom or the EF zoom-bot, which provides transcripts, an AI summary, and YouTube upload. The EF zoom-bot requires someone with an @ethereum.org email to be assigned host.
2Schedule the First Meeting
Once Protocol Support confirms your series, create a new issue in ethereum/pm and choose the Protocol Call template.
- Title format:
<Call Name> #N, <Date> - Add the UTC date, time, and agenda items
- Select your call series from the dropdown
- Check Autopilot Mode (recommended) — it applies preconfigured defaults for duration, recurrence, Zoom, and calendar
Only uncheck Autopilot if you need to customize settings for a specific meeting (duration, custom Zoom link, livestream, etc.).
