Food for Thought: Volunteering, how to make your time count

Food for Thought is a series of events, where we discuss philosophical and practical questions of EA in small groups over food and drinks: We are exploring effective altruism one bite at a time. EA newcomers are welcome; studying the suggested material is encouraged but not required, please RSVP.

Topic

This time around, we’d like to discuss something tangible: giving time. We’ll bring a list of different volunteering opportunities here in Berlin. Together, we’ll discuss and brainstorm how these opportunities might tangibly influence our community, society, or even the world. Can we discover volunteer work that’s genuinely more impactful than others? Is it possible to compare them meaningfully? Can we learn something more generally on how to make our time count from this discussion?

Suggested reading

There’s no recommended reading this time. However, if you know about an exciting project or are involved in one yourself, definitely bring it to the table so we can explore it together.

Where/​How/​What

Let’s meet again in Monbijoupark (the exact location will be posted before the event as soon as we’ve put our blankets down on the grass).

We start with introductions at 19:15. If you can’t make it for this time, feel free to join later, but ideally at 20:00, when we’ll do a second introduction round for those joining at that time.

What to bring

  1. Something to drink and something to eat/​snack for yourself.

  2. If you find the time to prepare or buy extra food: something vegan to share which can be eaten without plates/​cutlery would be much appreciated (this can be something very low effort but if you don’t have the time to prepare anything, feel free to drop by nevertheless).

  3. If you have one: please bring a picnic blanket.

  4. If you have some: String of lights/​fairy lights with batteries, so that it’ll still be cozy after the sun goes down.