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Hi <<First Name>>,
In this month’s newsletter, we share an update about EA Virtual Programs (new programs now start every month!), a new volunteer board for those interested in animal welfare, a profile of EA Estonia, and an update from the EA Infrastructure Fund.
Finally, we are starting an overhaul of the EA Hub’s resources for EA groups and would love your help!
Joan, Harri, Catherine and Huw (Groups team, CEA)
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News
- The EA Infrastructure Fund is now accepting applications at any time. They also have a grant suggestion form, in case you have an idea how they could spend their money! You can be funded for a wide range of things, including:
- paying for organisers to work on local groups not eligible for CEA's Community Building Grants programme
- scholarships for grad school
- spending a few months visiting a major EA hub or attending EA conferences and workshops
- new EA projects, research projects, or startups
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WANBAM is accepting applications for mentees until 30 July. WANBAM connects and supports a global network of women, trans people of any gender, and non-binary people who want to pursue EA-related careers. WANBAM mentees have one-on-one meetings with a mentor for six months, and will be introduced to the organisation’s global community of people who are changing the world. Please pass this opportunity on to your group members.
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The Stanford Existential Risks Initiative has just started a multi-week virtual speaker series on US policy careers. Sign up to receive further information and event access here. The series is intended to be useful for people who want to learn which types of US policy jobs are good fits for them, and what steps they can take to prepare for these jobs.
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EA Cambridge and the Cambridge Existential Risks Initiative are collaborating with the Nuclear Threat Initiative on a summer seminar programme on nuclear existential risks, starting the week of 2 August. For more details, please see the application form here. Applications close on 21 July.
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Remember, one-off events can be found on the international EA events Google calendar, the EA online events Facebook group, or the #events channel on the EA Groups Slack (join link).
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EA Virtual Programs
EA Virtual Programs were created last year as a way for people anywhere in the world to engage intensively with the ideas of effective altruism through readings, videos, podcasts, and weekly small-group discussions. Each program has a 3-hour weekly commitment. Feedback from these programs have been great, with an average LTR (likelihood to recommend) score of 9.15/10*.
The programs will now be offered every month. The next round runs 2 August through 20 September, and the deadline to apply is 25 July.
Current offerings include an Introductory Program, an In-Depth Program, and a reading group for The Precipice, though the team plans to add more in the future.
These programs offer several great ways for you and your group to upskill:
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Kick-start new members’ EA journeys by encouraging them to join a virtual Introductory Program, if your group isn’t running a separate program. Often participants from the same location are placed in the same discussion groups, so these sessions can also build connections within your group.
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We encourage all group organisers to participate in an In-Depth Program. This will help you develop skills in communicating some of the more complex EA questions and considerations. This program is also great for more involved group members, especially those who have completed an Introductory Program.
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Facilitating an EA Virtual Program is a great volunteer opportunity for more experienced members who are interested in communicating EA to others, and can be excellent training for prospective group organisers. Although we are accepting facilitator applications on a rolling basis, you should apply here before 20 July if you want to be considered for the August-September round.
Starting in August, the Virtual Programs will be fully run by CEA, led by Yi-Yang Chua and Emma Abele, with the help of facilitators from all around the world. We’d like to thank Stanford EA and EA Oxford, who generously offered their time and expertise to get these programs off the ground!
*However, the end-of-program survey had a response rate of 30%, so the real rate of recommendation is likely to be lower.
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Upcoming Updates to Groups Resources
CEA will be working on overhauling the existing EA groups resources over the next few months to update them and make them easier to navigate.
Groups Resources Survey
We have an extremely short, anonymous survey to help us improve the resources as we work on them. Regardless of whether or not you’ve used the resources, we’d be very appreciative if you took the survey!
Take the survey here.
Help us out!
We’d also love some help from group organisers with this process! In particular, we’re looking for:
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Event content and advice from group organisers. If you’ve ever had an event or strategy work especially well for your group, we’d love to hear about it!
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Focus group participants: We’d like to get some in-depth feedback from group organisers about how they use the resources and how we can make them more useful. This would likely take no more than 1.5 hours in total.
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Volunteers: We’re looking for a few volunteers to spend about 5 hours per week on average evaluating the current resources and collecting new ones. We are particularly interested in volunteers with group organising experience, graphic design skills, or copywriting skills.
If you’re interested in any of the above, fill out this form, and we’ll get in touch about next steps.
Feel free to contact Marisa Jurczyk at marisa@centreforeffectivealtruism.org if you have any questions or comments.
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Jobs, Internships, and Volunteering
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Group Updates
- EA Anywhere is celebrating their first birthday with a big virtual party on 25 July. The event is open to everyone!
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The EA societies of the London School of Economics and Political Science, University College London, Imperial College London, and King's College London are collaborating to run fellowships this summer, including experimenting with a two-week intensive fellowship in August.
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It’s easy to pretend we understand a topic and ignore that nagging feeling that there’s something slightly amiss. So MIT EA and Stanford EA have been running “confusion dinners” to celebrate confusion and discuss topics they are confused about.
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With COVID-19 measures loosening in the Netherlands, Positive Impact Society Erasmus (PISE), pictured in the cover photo of this newsletter, is resuming in-person meetups and has run a board day and a pledge party.
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EA Blue (from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines) recently ended their academic year with an AfterpartEA: a year-end social where members of EA Blue and other members of EA Philippines got together to look back on the year, have conversations, and play games. You can view some of EA Blue's highlights from the year here, and a video commemorating their second virtual fellowship here.
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Group Spotlight: EA Estonia
"Our main activities are Lightning Talks, Introductory Fellowships, co-working sessions, and various discussion groups. When permitted, we will begin to reintroduce social events (e.g. dinners). Our highlight of the year is the annual Summer Retreat (with strawberries and sauna)."
"Before starting any project, look for people who have tried something similar in the past. The EA community is large, and so, with any project idea you might have, there is a chance someone else has already tried it and learned a lot in the process. Ask from the EA Groups Slack, search the EA Hub, or Google it. Coordination is important!"
Read more about EA Estonia
If there is an organiser or a group you’d like to see featured, fill in our feedback form with your suggestion!
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