I would be concerned about the power-centralizing effect of organizational consolidation. Although there is some material here about how to mitigate that effect (e.g., forming things like “Focused Research Organizations”), the overall effect of following this perspective would seem to be power-centralizing.
In legislative appropriations talk, you’ll hear the term “revenue-neutral” thrown about a lot; it means that any tax cuts and spending increases are offset elswhere in the package so that the total effect on budgetary balance is neutral. I’m curious about whether/how some of the advantages described in this article could be achieved in a power concentration-neutral manner.
My best guess would be to merge a bunch of small organizations into a larger org that is legally set up as a society with a membership of 50-500 (not open membership), whose members elect the board (and new members if they see fit), and whose bylaws prohibit granting membership to anyone recently affiliated with one of the major power centers.
On my side, I like the idea of a lot of EA power being decentralized, but I also would very much like us to be able to quickly coordinate on major changes, as seems best.
One way of doing this is having a small group in charge, but have that group voted on by a much larger group in regular intervals.
I would be concerned about the power-centralizing effect of organizational consolidation. Although there is some material here about how to mitigate that effect (e.g., forming things like “Focused Research Organizations”), the overall effect of following this perspective would seem to be power-centralizing.
In legislative appropriations talk, you’ll hear the term “revenue-neutral” thrown about a lot; it means that any tax cuts and spending increases are offset elswhere in the package so that the total effect on budgetary balance is neutral. I’m curious about whether/how some of the advantages described in this article could be achieved in a power concentration-neutral manner.
My best guess would be to merge a bunch of small organizations into a larger org that is legally set up as a society with a membership of 50-500 (not open membership), whose members elect the board (and new members if they see fit), and whose bylaws prohibit granting membership to anyone recently affiliated with one of the major power centers.
I’m also be curious about this line of thinking.
On my side, I like the idea of a lot of EA power being decentralized, but I also would very much like us to be able to quickly coordinate on major changes, as seems best.
One way of doing this is having a small group in charge, but have that group voted on by a much larger group in regular intervals.