I’m such a big fan of “outreach is an offer, not persuasion”.
In general, my personal attitude to outreach in student groups is not to ‘get’ the best people via attraction and sales, but to just do something awesome that seems to produce value (e.g. build a research group around a question, organise workshops around a thinking tool, write a talk on a topic you’re confused about and want to discuss), and then the best people will join you on your quest. (Think quests, not sales.)
If your quest involves sales as a side-effect (e.g. you’re running an EAGx) then that’s okay, as long as the core of what you’re doing is trying to solve a real problem and make progress on an open question you have. Run EAGxes around a goal of moving the needle forward on certain questions, on making projects happen, solving some coordination problem in the community, or some other concrete problem-based metric. Not just “get more EAs”.
I think the reason this post (and all other writing on the topic) has had difficulty suggesting particular quests is that they tend to be deeply tied up in someone’s psyche. Nonetheless l think this is what’s necessary.
I’m such a big fan of “outreach is an offer, not persuasion”.
In general, my personal attitude to outreach in student groups is not to ‘get’ the best people via attraction and sales, but to just do something awesome that seems to produce value (e.g. build a research group around a question, organise workshops around a thinking tool, write a talk on a topic you’re confused about and want to discuss), and then the best people will join you on your quest. (Think quests, not sales.)
If your quest involves sales as a side-effect (e.g. you’re running an EAGx) then that’s okay, as long as the core of what you’re doing is trying to solve a real problem and make progress on an open question you have. Run EAGxes around a goal of moving the needle forward on certain questions, on making projects happen, solving some coordination problem in the community, or some other concrete problem-based metric. Not just “get more EAs”.
I think the reason this post (and all other writing on the topic) has had difficulty suggesting particular quests is that they tend to be deeply tied up in someone’s psyche. Nonetheless l think this is what’s necessary.