When I think “community builder”, I think of someone who’s running an EA group longterm, potentially for years. I think this policy works for one-off events but how does it work for longterm community builders?
I feel like the power differential between community builders and new members decreases over time as the new member “graduates” from being a new member and becomes a longer-term members, so perhaps the policy could apply for the first few months of the member’s involvement?
Why would it be a problem for long-term community builders?
Anecdote: I used to help run a local university group in Australia. While helping run that group, I didn’t try to date or sleep with attendees. Also while running that group, I met wonderful woman in a separate context who wasn’t involved in the EA community, we entered into a relationship, and are now happily married and expecting a child.
I’ve also got lots of EA friends who’ve done community building in the past and are in really happy romantic relationships with spouses they met in a non-EA context as well.
Not sure, but my guess is the worry here is if many EA community builders end up having the vast majority of their social connections tied to the EA space this might be an issue?
Yep, I’m with Xavier here. The rule incentivizes community builders a bit to not make EA their only social bubble (which is inherently good I think). And it is not without workarounds, all of which cushion the addressed problem.
For example, it encourages local community builders to hand over event facilitation to others more often. And if the rule is publicly known, participants can take a break from events that one leader leads to get around the rule. If participants don’t know the rule, they’d get informed about its existence when they hit on an organizer. In either case, the consequence of even intentionally working around the rule would be taking it slow.
I think the model is a good idea, but would work only for those, who run workshops occasionally/outside their usual dating circle, otherwise people would be incentivized not to do so. Plus, it shouldn’t be treated as a “golden solution for all of the issues”, rather used with a fair amount of consideration for everybody involved.
When I think “community builder”, I think of someone who’s running an EA group longterm, potentially for years. I think this policy works for one-off events but how does it work for longterm community builders?
I feel like the power differential between community builders and new members decreases over time as the new member “graduates” from being a new member and becomes a longer-term members, so perhaps the policy could apply for the first few months of the member’s involvement?
Why would it be a problem for long-term community builders?
Anecdote: I used to help run a local university group in Australia. While helping run that group, I didn’t try to date or sleep with attendees. Also while running that group, I met wonderful woman in a separate context who wasn’t involved in the EA community, we entered into a relationship, and are now happily married and expecting a child.
I’ve also got lots of EA friends who’ve done community building in the past and are in really happy romantic relationships with spouses they met in a non-EA context as well.
Not sure, but my guess is the worry here is if many EA community builders end up having the vast majority of their social connections tied to the EA space this might be an issue?
If EA community organisers are ending up isolated from everyone not involved in EA, that a really big problem!
Yep, I’m with Xavier here. The rule incentivizes community builders a bit to not make EA their only social bubble (which is inherently good I think). And it is not without workarounds, all of which cushion the addressed problem.
For example, it encourages local community builders to hand over event facilitation to others more often. And if the rule is publicly known, participants can take a break from events that one leader leads to get around the rule. If participants don’t know the rule, they’d get informed about its existence when they hit on an organizer. In either case, the consequence of even intentionally working around the rule would be taking it slow.
I think the model is a good idea, but would work only for those, who run workshops occasionally/outside their usual dating circle, otherwise people would be incentivized not to do so. Plus, it shouldn’t be treated as a “golden solution for all of the issues”, rather used with a fair amount of consideration for everybody involved.