Note: commenting before I’ve read the post fully because I wanted to show appreciation ASAP
As a fellow Uni organizer, I am astounded that EA Stanford grew into what it currently is in the span of one(!) year.
I’ve been lamenting the lack of similar development for my group and I sometimes resort to thinking, it’s ‘not really my fault’ because past organizers didn’t set up sustainable models. I always had the sense that was a bit dishonest but frankly, now I’m realizing that
I very much could kick my butt into gear and help grow my group,
Every time I justify not doing so because I’m working on other EA things (e.g. career planning), I need to be really honest about whether I think that’s actually the highest-impact thing to do. I think I’ve been averse to running a cost-benefit analysis on how much time is needed to make significant improvements to my group.
Relatedly, I do think my group suffers a lot from not being friends and I’ve been thinking about that a lot today. I think that’s possibly a common problem plaguing student groups at my Uni, as I had a similar experience with a non-EA group I ran, although I doubt the pandemic helped.
So excited to read this and I really laud you + EA Stanford for providing a model of a flourishing Uni group that helps build the community’s knowledge of community-building!
To clarify/set realistic expectations, much of the growth happened in our second year (2020-2021 academic year), e.g. all the things mentioned in the intro + summary bullets, the first year mostly involved getting 5-10 highly dedicated core organizers and getting SERI started. I also caveat all the things I had going in my favour (including being in the Bay, being on a CBG, and getting lucky with very dedicated and competent co-organizers).
It can be hard to sacrifice career planning/advancement for group organizing purposes, but as I mentioned in my other comment running your group well has lots of career benefits (both from within the EA community, and the skills you develop from becoming a kick-ass organizer :))!
That makes sense, thank you for expanding on the timeline! I also really appreciate your acknowledgment of other factors. My original comment (intentionally) discounted the many other factors that contribute to a group’s success, simply because I am confident that my group has a better-than-average mix of factors and so should not be at its current state.
I 100% agree that it’s not a binary trade-off and in fact, if someone is potentially interested in community-building as a career, this could be one of the highest-impact things to do. Even if not, I also agree that exclusively maximizing for EA career prospects is not necessarily the best community norm to set!
Another reflection: I think the belief in community-building as being EA is really helpful in sustaining an effective team. I am fairly confident that has played a significant role in the lack of progress my group has made.
For example, the current organizing team for my group was, as far as I know, ‘picked’ quite haphazardly. I personally just fell into leadership - I was asked to help lead the Intro Fellowship and I guess the existing team assumed I’d also be helping organize the group—and while I love EA community-building as a cause area, I don’t see it as the highest priority. Hence, I’ve gotten much more caught up in other areas such as improving institutional decisionmaking, which has led me to prioritize my personal career over organizing. I don’t know much about my other organizers but I know that, for at least one of them, that seems to hold true (except they are more oriented towards AI).
All this to say—I think the occasional reminder that this work has the potential to be very high-impact might be a low-effort yet significant way to boost an EA group’s chances of success! Similarly, if one is in the position to be selective about the next generation of leadership, selecting for people who genuinely believe that would be helpful.
Thank you for your kind words Miranda! EA group organizing can be quite difficult when others don’t see it as potentially highly impactful and the group isn’t doing so well—I hope this post can help change how useful EAs (and in particular students) think community building is, and help us do a better job at it so it feels more intuitively impactful and exciting!
The support system for organizers who want to put a lot of effort into their group is getting better and better. I’m always happy to have calls (or texts/emails) with organizers, to discuss how things could be better, and how to get your group members excited about EA and community building.
I didn’t emphasize this much in the post, but putting a lot of effort into community building has been very rewarding for me personally (on top of being good for the group and (hopefully) the world more importantly) - in terms of job opportunities, my EA network/connections/friendships, my skillset, motivation/productivity (from being inspired by the other highly dedicated EAs I surround myself with to run our group), and impact.
On board with you there! I think there’s a lot of great people already trying to do that, like yourself or Catherine Low, but perhaps to inconsistent effect. This might warrant me sitting down with my group and trying to figure out how we got motivated to organize in the first place. : )
Completely not surprised by your experience re: community building being rewarding. As someone who’s been very connected to non-EA communities in the past, I definitely think community-building doesn’t need to compromise non-community-building priorities! After all, you’re directly shaping the future of the EA community and testing the messaging of EA on-the-ground and building connections throughout. Truly, community organizers are doing so many things all at once.
Again, very inspired by your + your group’s example. So grateful for all the work you do to publicize your experiences and spread best practices!
Note: commenting before I’ve read the post fully because I wanted to show appreciation ASAP
As a fellow Uni organizer, I am astounded that EA Stanford grew into what it currently is in the span of one(!) year.
I’ve been lamenting the lack of similar development for my group and I sometimes resort to thinking, it’s ‘not really my fault’ because past organizers didn’t set up sustainable models. I always had the sense that was a bit dishonest but frankly, now I’m realizing that
I very much could kick my butt into gear and help grow my group,
Every time I justify not doing so because I’m working on other EA things (e.g. career planning), I need to be really honest about whether I think that’s actually the highest-impact thing to do. I think I’ve been averse to running a cost-benefit analysis on how much time is needed to make significant improvements to my group.
Relatedly, I do think my group suffers a lot from not being friends and I’ve been thinking about that a lot today. I think that’s possibly a common problem plaguing student groups at my Uni, as I had a similar experience with a non-EA group I ran, although I doubt the pandemic helped.
So excited to read this and I really laud you + EA Stanford for providing a model of a flourishing Uni group that helps build the community’s knowledge of community-building!
To clarify/set realistic expectations, much of the growth happened in our second year (2020-2021 academic year), e.g. all the things mentioned in the intro + summary bullets, the first year mostly involved getting 5-10 highly dedicated core organizers and getting SERI started. I also caveat all the things I had going in my favour (including being in the Bay, being on a CBG, and getting lucky with very dedicated and competent co-organizers).
It can be hard to sacrifice career planning/advancement for group organizing purposes, but as I mentioned in my other comment running your group well has lots of career benefits (both from within the EA community, and the skills you develop from becoming a kick-ass organizer :))!
That makes sense, thank you for expanding on the timeline! I also really appreciate your acknowledgment of other factors. My original comment (intentionally) discounted the many other factors that contribute to a group’s success, simply because I am confident that my group has a better-than-average mix of factors and so should not be at its current state.
I 100% agree that it’s not a binary trade-off and in fact, if someone is potentially interested in community-building as a career, this could be one of the highest-impact things to do. Even if not, I also agree that exclusively maximizing for EA career prospects is not necessarily the best community norm to set!
Another reflection: I think the belief in community-building as being EA is really helpful in sustaining an effective team. I am fairly confident that has played a significant role in the lack of progress my group has made.
For example, the current organizing team for my group was, as far as I know, ‘picked’ quite haphazardly. I personally just fell into leadership - I was asked to help lead the Intro Fellowship and I guess the existing team assumed I’d also be helping organize the group—and while I love EA community-building as a cause area, I don’t see it as the highest priority. Hence, I’ve gotten much more caught up in other areas such as improving institutional decisionmaking, which has led me to prioritize my personal career over organizing. I don’t know much about my other organizers but I know that, for at least one of them, that seems to hold true (except they are more oriented towards AI).
All this to say—I think the occasional reminder that this work has the potential to be very high-impact might be a low-effort yet significant way to boost an EA group’s chances of success! Similarly, if one is in the position to be selective about the next generation of leadership, selecting for people who genuinely believe that would be helpful.
Thank you for your kind words Miranda! EA group organizing can be quite difficult when others don’t see it as potentially highly impactful and the group isn’t doing so well—I hope this post can help change how useful EAs (and in particular students) think community building is, and help us do a better job at it so it feels more intuitively impactful and exciting!
The support system for organizers who want to put a lot of effort into their group is getting better and better. I’m always happy to have calls (or texts/emails) with organizers, to discuss how things could be better, and how to get your group members excited about EA and community building.
I didn’t emphasize this much in the post, but putting a lot of effort into community building has been very rewarding for me personally (on top of being good for the group and (hopefully) the world more importantly) - in terms of job opportunities, my EA network/connections/friendships, my skillset, motivation/productivity (from being inspired by the other highly dedicated EAs I surround myself with to run our group), and impact.
On board with you there! I think there’s a lot of great people already trying to do that, like yourself or Catherine Low, but perhaps to inconsistent effect. This might warrant me sitting down with my group and trying to figure out how we got motivated to organize in the first place. : )
Completely not surprised by your experience re: community building being rewarding. As someone who’s been very connected to non-EA communities in the past, I definitely think community-building doesn’t need to compromise non-community-building priorities! After all, you’re directly shaping the future of the EA community and testing the messaging of EA on-the-ground and building connections throughout. Truly, community organizers are doing so many things all at once.
Again, very inspired by your + your group’s example. So grateful for all the work you do to publicize your experiences and spread best practices!