FYI, I had applied to do this in Berkeley, but was previously turned down due to lack of data/metrics. I re-applied in the fall, and have now received a grant to help fund renting the space for REACH. I plan to do more active outreach now that I have a more stable source of funding.
In October 2018, BERI (Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative) awarded a grant of $24k toward REACH operations for 2018-2019. So far, $10k of that has been dispersed as salary for the REACH Manager, Sarah “Stardust” Spikes (me).
In November 2018, the EA Meta Fund awarded a $5k grant to for work on the REACH Panel.
In December 2018, CEA (Centre for Effective Altruism) awarded a $14k community building grant toward rent for REACH, which has been dispersed in full to the REACH Bank account.
CEA doesn’t run any regular events, community spaces, or fund people to do active community building in the Bay that I know of, which seemed odd given the density of EAs in the area and thus the marginal benefit of increased coordination there.
See my reply to casebash: my comment was not about whether it would be in general good to have a good community builder working on stuff not covered by existing orgs, but on whether it is “really quite weird” that there isn’t anyone working on it payed by this particular program.
For example, in some places, community builders may organize events like MIRIx or AI safety reading group. In Bay, people can just get in touch with MIRI or CHAI. Some local organizations organize EAGx conferences, but there is EAG in SF organized by CEA. In some places, community organizers organize shared housing, but there is a lot of rationality houses already. Etc.
In other words, for efforts which in some places take some fraction of time of one community builder, there is often a whole dedicated organization in the Bay Area.
Enough possibility space still exists that it seems worth at least experimenting to see if a professional organiser could value add, even if it were only by better advertising and promoting the opportunities that already exist. Especially now that CEA is increasing its focus on one-on-one meetups.
My model for it is the whole space of opportunities in the Bay Area is large, on the other hand, many parts are already exploited by existing organizations. Whether the remaining part warrants someone should be working on it full-time, supported particularly by community building grant, is unclear to me, but quite likely yes.
Also it may be the case if someone who the grant-makers would be excited about had applied, they would had given them support, but there weren’t such applicants. (Note that Bay Area biosec got the the grant)
Overall my comment was not about whether it would be good to have a good community builder working on stuff not covered by existing orgs, but on whether it is “really quite weird” that there isn’t anyone working on it payed by this program. IMO it is not really weird, and not really surprising. (Btw if CEA wants to hire someone todo this it, it is plausible it is better to have such person employed directly by CEA, and sitting in the office.)
Also it may be the case if someone who the grant-makers would be excited about had applied, they would had given them support, but there weren’t such applicants. (Note that Bay Area biosec got the the grant)
When I spoke to ~3 people about it in the Bay, none of them knew the grant existed or that there was an option for them to work on community building in the bay full time.
Curious to see that there isn’t a dedicated organiser in the Bay Area as that seems to be one of the regions that would be most receptive
FYI, I had applied to do this in Berkeley, but was previously turned down due to lack of data/metrics. I re-applied in the fall, and have now received a grant to help fund renting the space for REACH. I plan to do more active outreach now that I have a more stable source of funding.
How much was the grant and from which organisation?
In October 2018, BERI (Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative) awarded a grant of $24k toward REACH operations for 2018-2019. So far, $10k of that has been dispersed as salary for the REACH Manager, Sarah “Stardust” Spikes (me).
In November 2018, the EA Meta Fund awarded a $5k grant to for work on the REACH Panel.
In December 2018, CEA (Centre for Effective Altruism) awarded a $14k community building grant toward rent for REACH, which has been dispersed in full to the REACH Bank account.
(cribbed from our Patreon page)
Thanks for all that you’re doing to make REACH happen!
+1 this seems really quite weird
Why? There is a whole CEA office in the Bay Area
Also many of the things community builders are doing in other places make much less sense in Berkeley
CEA doesn’t run any regular events, community spaces, or fund people to do active community building in the Bay that I know of, which seemed odd given the density of EAs in the area and thus the marginal benefit of increased coordination there.
See my reply to casebash: my comment was not about whether it would be in general good to have a good community builder working on stuff not covered by existing orgs, but on whether it is “really quite weird” that there isn’t anyone working on it payed by this particular program.
“Also many of the things community builders are doing in other places make much less sense in Berkeley”—Could you clarify?
For example, in some places, community builders may organize events like MIRIx or AI safety reading group. In Bay, people can just get in touch with MIRI or CHAI. Some local organizations organize EAGx conferences, but there is EAG in SF organized by CEA. In some places, community organizers organize shared housing, but there is a lot of rationality houses already. Etc.
In other words, for efforts which in some places take some fraction of time of one community builder, there is often a whole dedicated organization in the Bay Area.
Enough possibility space still exists that it seems worth at least experimenting to see if a professional organiser could value add, even if it were only by better advertising and promoting the opportunities that already exist. Especially now that CEA is increasing its focus on one-on-one meetups.
My model for it is the whole space of opportunities in the Bay Area is large, on the other hand, many parts are already exploited by existing organizations. Whether the remaining part warrants someone should be working on it full-time, supported particularly by community building grant, is unclear to me, but quite likely yes.
Also it may be the case if someone who the grant-makers would be excited about had applied, they would had given them support, but there weren’t such applicants. (Note that Bay Area biosec got the the grant)
Overall my comment was not about whether it would be good to have a good community builder working on stuff not covered by existing orgs, but on whether it is “really quite weird” that there isn’t anyone working on it payed by this program. IMO it is not really weird, and not really surprising. (Btw if CEA wants to hire someone todo this it, it is plausible it is better to have such person employed directly by CEA, and sitting in the office.)
When I spoke to ~3 people about it in the Bay, none of them knew the grant existed or that there was an option for them to work on community building in the bay full time.