“Legal risk” is difficult to assess because it could refer any of ten different things. But for some referrents of “legal risk,” the fact that many leaders and major organizations all have exposure to the same SBF/FTX-related legal risks would likely itself be indicative of a weakness in how EA is organized and run.
I’m just making stuff up, but I wonder if movements like EA should have a one or two organizations created to exist on what we might call lukewarm standby. Most of the time, the lukewarm-standby organization wouldn’t do much; it has a part-time staff member, some volunteer board members elected by the community (a majority of whom are not affiliated with major organizations), and a minimal fundraising campaign targeted at ordinary EA community members to ensure independence. The closest I can think of to a lukewarm-standby organization in modern life is the Selective Service System in the US (a/k/a “the draft”), although it is designed to potentially activate for a specific purpose rather than for a range of purposes.
However, in a crisis or where major organizations have conflicts, the lukewarm-standby organization could take in some funds and swell in size to handle whatever was needed. At the end of the crisis, the organization could disband if that was seen as prudent, and the community would create another one. For instance, in the current situation, there is potentially a need for an organization to strategize and coordinate surrounding the potential for clawbacks. However, from the original post it sounds like a number of organizations one might ordinarily expect to spearhead this role themselves have SBF/FTX legal risk.
“Legal risk” is difficult to assess because it could refer any of ten different things. But for some referrents of “legal risk,” the fact that many leaders and major organizations all have exposure to the same SBF/FTX-related legal risks would likely itself be indicative of a weakness in how EA is organized and run.
I’m just making stuff up, but I wonder if movements like EA should have a one or two organizations created to exist on what we might call lukewarm standby. Most of the time, the lukewarm-standby organization wouldn’t do much; it has a part-time staff member, some volunteer board members elected by the community (a majority of whom are not affiliated with major organizations), and a minimal fundraising campaign targeted at ordinary EA community members to ensure independence. The closest I can think of to a lukewarm-standby organization in modern life is the Selective Service System in the US (a/k/a “the draft”), although it is designed to potentially activate for a specific purpose rather than for a range of purposes.
However, in a crisis or where major organizations have conflicts, the lukewarm-standby organization could take in some funds and swell in size to handle whatever was needed. At the end of the crisis, the organization could disband if that was seen as prudent, and the community would create another one. For instance, in the current situation, there is potentially a need for an organization to strategize and coordinate surrounding the potential for clawbacks. However, from the original post it sounds like a number of organizations one might ordinarily expect to spearhead this role themselves have SBF/FTX legal risk.