One way to think about this is as a complement to a nonprofit board. My understanding is that in the US, nonprofits usually have a largish board which advise partly on how the nonprofit’s actions might affect the wider community. As with most UK organizations, the CEA board is small, so we wanted to add in a few more voices. In neither case is the board typically suggested or drawn up by the public. Of course, anyone who wants to give us input on decisions we make is welcome to do so at hello@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
I’d like clarify that of the 3 people who are outside voices on the board, only one (Peter) did a summer internship for a CEA project years ago.
Note though that ACE was originally a part of 80k Hours, which was a part of CEA. The organizations now feel quite separate, at least to me.
Additionally, I am not paid by ACE or CEA. Being on the ACE Board is a volunteer position, as is this.
Generally, I don’t feel constrained in my ability to criticize CEA, outside a desire to generally maintain collegial relations, though it seems plausible to me that I’m in an echo chamber too similar to CEAs to help as much as I could if I was more on the outside. Generally, trying to do as much good as possible is the motivation for how I spend most of the hours in my day. I desperately want EA to succeed and increasing the chances that CEA makes sound decisions seems like a moderately important piece of that. That’s what’s been driving my thinking on this so far and I expect it’ll continue to do so.
That all said (or rambled about) here’s a preview of a criticism I intend to make that’s not related to my role on the advisory board panel: I don’t think it’s appropriate to encourage students and other very young people to take the GWWC pledge, or to encourage student groups to proselytize about it. I think the analogy to marriage is helpful here; it wouldn’t be right to encourage young people who don’t know much about themselves or their future life situations to get married (especially if you didn’t know them or their situation well yourself) and I likewise think GWWC should not encourage them to take the pledge.
Views totally my own and not my employer’s (the Open Philanthropy Project).
One way to think about this is as a complement to a nonprofit board. My understanding is that in the US, nonprofits usually have a largish board which advise partly on how the nonprofit’s actions might affect the wider community. As with most UK organizations, the CEA board is small, so we wanted to add in a few more voices. In neither case is the board typically suggested or drawn up by the public. Of course, anyone who wants to give us input on decisions we make is welcome to do so at hello@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
I’d like clarify that of the 3 people who are outside voices on the board, only one (Peter) did a summer internship for a CEA project years ago.
Apologies I had it in my head that ACE was a CEA project
Note though that ACE was originally a part of 80k Hours, which was a part of CEA. The organizations now feel quite separate, at least to me.
Additionally, I am not paid by ACE or CEA. Being on the ACE Board is a volunteer position, as is this.
Generally, I don’t feel constrained in my ability to criticize CEA, outside a desire to generally maintain collegial relations, though it seems plausible to me that I’m in an echo chamber too similar to CEAs to help as much as I could if I was more on the outside. Generally, trying to do as much good as possible is the motivation for how I spend most of the hours in my day. I desperately want EA to succeed and increasing the chances that CEA makes sound decisions seems like a moderately important piece of that. That’s what’s been driving my thinking on this so far and I expect it’ll continue to do so.
That all said (or rambled about) here’s a preview of a criticism I intend to make that’s not related to my role on the advisory board panel: I don’t think it’s appropriate to encourage students and other very young people to take the GWWC pledge, or to encourage student groups to proselytize about it. I think the analogy to marriage is helpful here; it wouldn’t be right to encourage young people who don’t know much about themselves or their future life situations to get married (especially if you didn’t know them or their situation well yourself) and I likewise think GWWC should not encourage them to take the pledge.
Views totally my own and not my employer’s (the Open Philanthropy Project).