Community building is the lowest hanging fruit! - It’s fruit hanging around everywhere! Pick your impact points (or fruit!) while you still can!
This is probably because 1) it requires psychological/social risks and effort (i.e. rejection can be hard 2) people who are willing to take these risks are in short supply in EA (3) It’s hard to scale it well
Small groups have (very) high retention rates, and people in small groups are very likely to become “highly engaged”.
Organising a meetup is crazy simple 1) pick a venue (maybe call ahead) 2) post a facebook event 3) invite people personally (Send them a pm!). If you’re not sure people will turn up, that’s fine! Just take a book—worst case scenario you get to have a little read and some time to yourself.
If anybody is considering running an event or starting a group, you can always ask from advice from Catherine Low! I would also be super happy to meet you (#impacthasnoborders)!
Hi Elliot, I would agree that organizing a single small meetup is pretty simple, low risk like you said, but organizing an ongoing, engaged group of people who are excited to show up again and again, and encouraging them to make high-impact life changes (like changing their area of study, career, or donating significantly) is much harder. At least it was for me. It takes ongoing motivation/commitment, good organizing skills, fresh ideas for activities or discussion topics, etc. I think we did pretty well for a few years but then moved across the country. I’m appreciative of the folks who picked up coordinating the group, but do think it was challenging for them as well.
All that said, there are some great resources out there (like Catherine Low, as you mentioned), a Facebook group for group organizers, etc. So it’s definitely doable for someone who can make that ongoing commitment. I’d just be wary of pitching it as a very simple thing to do. Organizers should be aware of what they’re getting into if they want to have a long-lasting successful group :)
Community building is the lowest hanging fruit! - It’s fruit hanging around everywhere! Pick your impact points (or fruit!) while you still can!
This is probably because 1) it requires psychological/social risks and effort (i.e. rejection can be hard 2) people who are willing to take these risks are in short supply in EA (3) It’s hard to scale it well
Small groups have (very) high retention rates, and people in small groups are very likely to become “highly engaged”.
Organising a meetup is crazy simple 1) pick a venue (maybe call ahead) 2) post a facebook event 3) invite people personally (Send them a pm!). If you’re not sure people will turn up, that’s fine! Just take a book—worst case scenario you get to have a little read and some time to yourself.
If anybody is considering running an event or starting a group, you can always ask from advice from Catherine Low! I would also be super happy to meet you (#impacthasnoborders)!
Hi Elliot, I would agree that organizing a single small meetup is pretty simple, low risk like you said, but organizing an ongoing, engaged group of people who are excited to show up again and again, and encouraging them to make high-impact life changes (like changing their area of study, career, or donating significantly) is much harder. At least it was for me. It takes ongoing motivation/commitment, good organizing skills, fresh ideas for activities or discussion topics, etc. I think we did pretty well for a few years but then moved across the country. I’m appreciative of the folks who picked up coordinating the group, but do think it was challenging for them as well.
All that said, there are some great resources out there (like Catherine Low, as you mentioned), a Facebook group for group organizers, etc. So it’s definitely doable for someone who can make that ongoing commitment. I’d just be wary of pitching it as a very simple thing to do. Organizers should be aware of what they’re getting into if they want to have a long-lasting successful group :)