I really don’t want this project to mean that other projects on reform don’t happen!
The large EA organizations I’ve talked to have been taking their own looks at changes in some of these same areas. I think there could also be valuable projects led from outside the major organizations. As you point out, people and organizations will always have limitations based on their own interests and viewpoints. I think it’s important for different efforts to fill in each other’s gaps.
About the overlap between this project and the community health and special projects team: there’s a lot of overlap between these areas, but I didn’t want this project to just belong to a single team or organization. I first sketched out an idea for this project in December and spent a few months trying to get advice and see how much interest there was in doing something like this. As Ozzie says, “task force” might not be a good name for this. It was more like me saying “I think some people from across some different orgs should spend time looking at these questions in a more dedicated way than will happen by default” and gathering some people to help with that, rather than a top-down thing that someone else tasked us with.
About weaknesses of my team: I agree this wouldn’t be the right project to evaluate those, given my involvement in both. There’s a separate set of investigations into the mistakes you refer to.
About reforms on sexual misconduct: This project is exploring what organizations can do in this area, like:
Some small organizations don’t have written staff policies about harassment or conflicts of interest. What could be done to make this easier for them and encourage them to implement these policies?
What can organizations do to encourage a good culture in EA? A past example is CEA’s guiding principles.
Looking at how organizations can shape culture: via policies at events like EAG and EAGx, via trainings for group organizers, etc.
This project is focused on policy changes that organizations can make, and isn’t going to cover all the changes that might be a good idea. The gender experiences project is a different kind of project aimed at understanding where change might be needed.
Thanks, Julia and Ozzie for your clarifications on this, as well as for editing the title of the post to reflect that this is more of a project than a focus group.
My basic reaction to your comments is: clearly it’s good for “some people from across some different orgs… [to] spend time looking at these questions in a more dedicated way than will happen by default.” The more people thinking about how to reform EA organizations and institutions to prevent things like FTX, sexual misconduct, and the like from happening, the better. I also think the proposed reforms you allude to make sense.
As someone not involved in the various efforts aimed at identifying potential institutional reforms, though, a few things worry me about how these processes are being conducted.
It is hard for me to understand exactly what efforts are being undertaken to assess potential institutional reforms, who is involved in various efforts, how these efforts complement each other (or don’t), the scope of such efforts, the rationale for having different groups of actors separately consider some of the same issues, and the processes by which various projects/investigations are being conducted. My basic understanding is that there are: a) external investigations not commissioned by EA orgs, b) external investigations commissioned by EA orgs, and c) internal investigations (as referenced in this post). Different groups also seem to be working on overlapping issues (specifically, the FTX and sexual harassment stuff). It might be helpful for there to be a summary post outlining the different investigations/projects that are aiming to “implement reforms at EA organizations,” explaining the scope and timelines of various efforts (with a figure?), and justifying the processes that are being undertaken (including highlighting places where it makes sense to have multiple teams investigating the same issues or where there may still be gaps). [Edit: such a post exists, although I don’t know whether this is complete or up to date; thanks Joris P and Holly for pointing this out.]
Your comment provides some clarification on the landscape of efforts aimed at identifying institutional reforms, but makes me more confused on other points. For instance, you note that “there is a separate set of investigations” into Owen’s behavior and the CHT’s response, and acknowledge that it would not be appropriate for you to be involved in this, but also say that the present project/task force is exploring reforms related to sexual misconduct. These are related issues, especially given that the CHT is currently the main (only?) institution in the community explicitly meant to respond to sexual misconduct. I understand why you might think your involvement in the narrower (OCB) project is inappropriate, but your involvement in the broader project is appropriate, but I’m not sure I agree (though it’s hard for me to assess this, because I don’t fully understand what complementary efforts are ongoing).
The fact that it’s hard for outsiders to figure out what efforts at reform are being undertaken makes it hard for the community to assess whether such efforts are sufficient/necessary/redundant. In short: I worry about a lack of accountability.
I further worry that (inadvertently) overstating the legitimacy of some of these processes (e.g., calling the present project a “task force”) may provide a false sense of security about the sufficiency of existing efforts at institutional reform.
“It might be helpful for there to be a summary post outlining the different investigations/projects that are aiming to “implement reforms at EA organizations,”″
Thanks for raising these concerns.
I really don’t want this project to mean that other projects on reform don’t happen!
The large EA organizations I’ve talked to have been taking their own looks at changes in some of these same areas. I think there could also be valuable projects led from outside the major organizations. As you point out, people and organizations will always have limitations based on their own interests and viewpoints. I think it’s important for different efforts to fill in each other’s gaps.
About the overlap between this project and the community health and special projects team: there’s a lot of overlap between these areas, but I didn’t want this project to just belong to a single team or organization. I first sketched out an idea for this project in December and spent a few months trying to get advice and see how much interest there was in doing something like this. As Ozzie says, “task force” might not be a good name for this. It was more like me saying “I think some people from across some different orgs should spend time looking at these questions in a more dedicated way than will happen by default” and gathering some people to help with that, rather than a top-down thing that someone else tasked us with.
About weaknesses of my team: I agree this wouldn’t be the right project to evaluate those, given my involvement in both. There’s a separate set of investigations into the mistakes you refer to.
About reforms on sexual misconduct: This project is exploring what organizations can do in this area, like:
Some small organizations don’t have written staff policies about harassment or conflicts of interest. What could be done to make this easier for them and encourage them to implement these policies?
What can organizations do to encourage a good culture in EA? A past example is CEA’s guiding principles.
Looking at how organizations can shape culture: via policies at events like EAG and EAGx, via trainings for group organizers, etc.
This project is focused on policy changes that organizations can make, and isn’t going to cover all the changes that might be a good idea. The gender experiences project is a different kind of project aimed at understanding where change might be needed.
Thanks, Julia and Ozzie for your clarifications on this, as well as for editing the title of the post to reflect that this is more of a project than a focus group.
My basic reaction to your comments is: clearly it’s good for “some people from across some different orgs… [to] spend time looking at these questions in a more dedicated way than will happen by default.” The more people thinking about how to reform EA organizations and institutions to prevent things like FTX, sexual misconduct, and the like from happening, the better. I also think the proposed reforms you allude to make sense.
As someone not involved in the various efforts aimed at identifying potential institutional reforms, though, a few things worry me about how these processes are being conducted.
It is hard for me to understand exactly what efforts are being undertaken to assess potential institutional reforms, who is involved in various efforts, how these efforts complement each other (or don’t), the scope of such efforts, the rationale for having different groups of actors separately consider some of the same issues, and the processes by which various projects/investigations are being conducted. My basic understanding is that there are: a) external investigations not commissioned by EA orgs, b) external investigations commissioned by EA orgs, and c) internal investigations (as referenced in this post). Different groups also seem to be working on overlapping issues (specifically, the FTX and sexual harassment stuff). It might be helpful for there to be a summary post outlining the different investigations/projects that are aiming to “implement reforms at EA organizations,” explaining the scope and timelines of various efforts (with a figure?), and justifying the processes that are being undertaken (including highlighting places where it makes sense to have multiple teams investigating the same issues or where there may still be gaps). [Edit: such a post exists, although I don’t know whether this is complete or up to date; thanks Joris P and Holly for pointing this out.]
Your comment provides some clarification on the landscape of efforts aimed at identifying institutional reforms, but makes me more confused on other points. For instance, you note that “there is a separate set of investigations” into Owen’s behavior and the CHT’s response, and acknowledge that it would not be appropriate for you to be involved in this, but also say that the present project/task force is exploring reforms related to sexual misconduct. These are related issues, especially given that the CHT is currently the main (only?) institution in the community explicitly meant to respond to sexual misconduct. I understand why you might think your involvement in the narrower (OCB) project is inappropriate, but your involvement in the broader project is appropriate, but I’m not sure I agree (though it’s hard for me to assess this, because I don’t fully understand what complementary efforts are ongoing).
The fact that it’s hard for outsiders to figure out what efforts at reform are being undertaken makes it hard for the community to assess whether such efforts are sufficient/necessary/redundant. In short: I worry about a lack of accountability.
I further worry that (inadvertently) overstating the legitimacy of some of these processes (e.g., calling the present project a “task force”) may provide a false sense of security about the sufficiency of existing efforts at institutional reform.
“It might be helpful for there to be a summary post outlining the different investigations/projects that are aiming to “implement reforms at EA organizations,”″
Joris P mentions this in another comment: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/KTsaZ69Ctkuw6n4tu/overview-reflection-projects-on-community-reform
HTH
Thanks; sorry I missed this, and will add an edit.