I think this is one of the most important comments I’ve seen on the forum since I joined.
For me personally, both it and your post on CEA have valuable information that I didn’t know prior to reading them.
I think tackling these problems (some of which have easy solutions, like making boards larger and more diverse and independent) should be one of the top things the EA community starts demanding from these orgs.
I’m gratified you find my contributions helpful Guy, thank you for the positive feedback.
I think tackling these problems (some of which have easy solutions, like making boards larger and more diverse and independent) should be one of the top things the EA community starts demanding from these orgs.
I’m somewhat skeptical that there are a lot of easy solutions here. “Making boards larger and more diverse and independent” would help in my view, but a lot depends on procedural factors (how new board members are selected, who has input into that process, what the board’s mandate is, etc) as well as cultural factors (how empowered the board feels, how much the organization engages with the board, whether stakeholders feel represented by the board, etc.) I’d argue that the advisory panel CEA created in 2017 is a good example of how simply adding more perspectives isn’t sufficient; the community had no input into the board’s composition or mission, and eventually the panel seems to have just petered out pretty quickly as CEA appears to have stopped consulting it.
In my opinion, one of the best easy starting points would be for EA organizations and individuals to investigate the EA Good Governance Project, which seems well positioned to improve governance of specific EA organizations.
The trickier, and probably more important, task is to improve community level governance. In this space, I’d argue the highest priority is starting to address the question of how governance should work at Effective Ventures . This is not an easy question, but it is a critical one due to a) the importance of EV’s work to EA; b) the implausibility (in my opinion) of EV’s current board providing good oversight to its wide-ranging projects; c) EV operating certain projects on behalf of the broader community (e.g. community health, EAG, effectivealtruism.org); and d) allegations that EA leaders including multiple EV board members were aware of SBF behaving unethically at Alameda in 2018, potentially misaligning the incentives of EV and the EA community.
Some of these factors certainly apply to other organizations. OpenPhil’s work is obviously critical to the EA community so (A) applies, and I suspect (B) does too. But OpenPhil hasn’t assumed responsibilities from the EA community so (C) doesn’t apply, which makes me somewhat sympathetic to the argument that it’s Dustin and Cari’s money and they can do whatever they want with it. So the combination of factors above is really why I think the broader governance discussion needs to start with EV.
However the EA community decides to pursue better governance, I hope it leverages existing expertise on the subject and avoids notions of “EA exceptionalism” (which I think is always problematic but particularly bad in a context like governance where EA has a poor track record). Brigid Slipka’s resignation letter from GiveWell’s board includes links to several resources, and includes a thoughtful framework of her own. I think that framework is useful for understanding EV’s governance; I’d characterize EV’s programs as in the “adolescent” stage progressing toward “mature”, while the board setup seems like it’s still at the “start-up” stage.
I think this is one of the most important comments I’ve seen on the forum since I joined.
For me personally, both it and your post on CEA have valuable information that I didn’t know prior to reading them.
I think tackling these problems (some of which have easy solutions, like making boards larger and more diverse and independent) should be one of the top things the EA community starts demanding from these orgs.
I’m gratified you find my contributions helpful Guy, thank you for the positive feedback.
I’m somewhat skeptical that there are a lot of easy solutions here. “Making boards larger and more diverse and independent” would help in my view, but a lot depends on procedural factors (how new board members are selected, who has input into that process, what the board’s mandate is, etc) as well as cultural factors (how empowered the board feels, how much the organization engages with the board, whether stakeholders feel represented by the board, etc.) I’d argue that the advisory panel CEA created in 2017 is a good example of how simply adding more perspectives isn’t sufficient; the community had no input into the board’s composition or mission, and eventually the panel seems to have just petered out pretty quickly as CEA appears to have stopped consulting it.
In my opinion, one of the best easy starting points would be for EA organizations and individuals to investigate the EA Good Governance Project, which seems well positioned to improve governance of specific EA organizations.
The trickier, and probably more important, task is to improve community level governance. In this space, I’d argue the highest priority is starting to address the question of how governance should work at Effective Ventures . This is not an easy question, but it is a critical one due to a) the importance of EV’s work to EA; b) the implausibility (in my opinion) of EV’s current board providing good oversight to its wide-ranging projects; c) EV operating certain projects on behalf of the broader community (e.g. community health, EAG, effectivealtruism.org); and d) allegations that EA leaders including multiple EV board members were aware of SBF behaving unethically at Alameda in 2018, potentially misaligning the incentives of EV and the EA community.
Some of these factors certainly apply to other organizations. OpenPhil’s work is obviously critical to the EA community so (A) applies, and I suspect (B) does too. But OpenPhil hasn’t assumed responsibilities from the EA community so (C) doesn’t apply, which makes me somewhat sympathetic to the argument that it’s Dustin and Cari’s money and they can do whatever they want with it. So the combination of factors above is really why I think the broader governance discussion needs to start with EV.
However the EA community decides to pursue better governance, I hope it leverages existing expertise on the subject and avoids notions of “EA exceptionalism” (which I think is always problematic but particularly bad in a context like governance where EA has a poor track record). Brigid Slipka’s resignation letter from GiveWell’s board includes links to several resources, and includes a thoughtful framework of her own. I think that framework is useful for understanding EV’s governance; I’d characterize EV’s programs as in the “adolescent” stage progressing toward “mature”, while the board setup seems like it’s still at the “start-up” stage.