EA Groups Newsletter
 

Here’s the latest (now monthly!) newsletter for EA Group organisers.

CEA (the Centre for Effective Altruism) and LEAN (the Local Effective Altruism Network) are collaborating to run the 2019 EA Group Survey to gather more information about the EA groups landscape. We would like to have more accurate information so that we can evaluate the kinds of programmes and services that we may be able to provide to group leaders in the future. Updated information also helps us refer people to the right place when they ask us for help connecting with effective altruists in their local communities.

If you are involved in organising an EA group could you please fill out the 2019 EA Group Survey to help us learn more about your group? The survey takes <30 minutes (or <5 if you choose only to update your contact details). We are asking for responses by June 13th. If you are no longer involved but think the group is still active, please forward the survey to the current organiser.

• You can get tickets for EAGx Australia (Sydney) here, 27th-29th September

• Julia Wise will be leading a group discussion on how to handle sensitive topics within effective altruism groups on Friday the 14th of June. RSVP to join here.

• The EA Hub has relaunched, you can use it to help find people nearby who are interested in EA. The Hub also has resources to help groups.

• The decisions have now been made for the January 2019 Community Building Grants round, making seven new grants and renewing four groups’ funding.

• The EA Meta Fund has written up the reasoning behind their grants, including grants for projects by the Geneva, Netherlands and Norway EA groups.

• You can apply for the next round of EA Meta Fund grants here.

• A document on how to make discussions in EA groups inclusive

• EA Oxford have created a community building reading list

• Risto Uuk has a post on how to make the most of EA conferences

• A podcast with Julia Galef interviewing Rob Wiblin - looking at questions like  “Should everyone try to get a job in finance and donate their income?” and “What percentage of the world should ideally follow 80,000 Hours’ advice?”

• EA St Andrews have a Personalised Effective Altruism Knowledge (PEAK) programme to help get their community up to speed on core EA ideas, combining self study and mentorship

• 80,000 Hours have released an update of their key ideas which gives a good overview or refresher of what their advice is based on

• EA Southampton have written a guide on building a presentation

• Effective Thesis have a second year update, including their new focus on matching and mentoring students to people who work in EA related areas

• Some lessons learnt from EA community building in London in 2018

• CEA’s Community Liaison and Boston EA group organiser Julia Wise gave an online presentation on ‘handling community problems’. You can see the stream here

• Catherine Low is looking for resources for the EA Hub that would be useful for groups

• Jo Duyvestyn is looking for resources for people interested in starting an EA group

• Andrew Leeke is interested in any tips people have on turning a workplace CSR committee into a more impact-based group

• If you know of any local effective animal altruism events or job opportunities, Jamie Harris is looking to collect and post these each month

• Colin Bested has asked for ideas on how EA community builders can give feedback to each other

• 80,000 Hours podcast with Tom Kalil that had some lessons for organisers, especially when thinking about how to motivate stakeholders

• Kirsten Horton with focus group data on why do EA events attract more men than women?

There have been some interesting posts on the forum recently about careers and the EA community, sparked by this post on how hard it was to get hired by an EA organisations. There are a few that I think are especially worth highlighting for group organisers.

”Getting People Excited About More EA Careers” by Sebastian Oehm

"Some people may disproportionately favour working at explicit EA organisations...Current community building may contribute to this effect in two ways: by rewarding people for wanting to work at EA orgs disproportionately and by providing less assistance in finding work at non-EA organisations."

Thoughts on 80,000 Hours research that might help with job search frustrations

• Roles outside explicitly EA organizations are most people’s best career options

• Sometimes these roles aren’t as visible to the community, including to 80,000 Hours, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t highly impactful

• Many especially impactful roles require specific skills. If none of these roles are currently a great fit for you, but one could be if you developed the right skills, it can be worth it to take substantial time to do so

• You should use 80,000 Hours to figure out what your best career is and how to get there, not what “the” best careers are

A post called “The Craft and the Community” by Richard Ngo

"For the first few years of their careers...most effective altruists should focus on building career capital...rather than doing good or working at EA organisations. However, there are social dynamics which push new grads towards working at EA orgs, which we should identify and counteract."

Also, there are useful comments by Michelle Hutchinson that add nuance to the post.

"...The vast majority of the highest impact roles will be outside EA organisations, and of course there’ll be many people who are better suited to work elsewhere. But it still seems to be the case that organisations like the Open Philanthropy Project and GiveWell are occasionally interested in hiring people 0-2 years out of university..."

"...And while there seem to be some people to whom working at EA organisations seems more appealing than it should, there are also many people for whom it seems less appealing..."

• An overview of the EA London landscape in 2019

• Evan Gaensbauer looking at how EA Vancouver has changed over time

• Colin Bested has an overview of 2018 for EA Toronto

Below are photos from various EA events around the world in the last few months. If you have any photos from events, updates you want mentioned or feedback about the newsletter share them here.

• Attendees at EAGx Nordics

• EA Singapore holding an open house event

• A photo from the University of Houston’s EA retreat led by Kierra Woodard