When I was talking about academia I wasn’t imaging a student that is almost sure to steer a field, but more of a “regular” PhD student. For example I will be finishing a PhD in environmental science soonish. I think I am doing a good job there, but when I see who is applying for EA orgs it seems somewhat unlikely that I will get into one of the main EA orgs anytime soon (or ever^^). Therefore, trying to infuse EA ideas into the general discourse in my field might be one of the few things I can do while in academia.
Regarding what local groups could do, I am still a bit unsure what is the best approach (which is why I did not include it in the post). But a few ideas floating in my head are:
Creating more opportunities for people in local group become friends, as this ensures long time engagement:
Create additional events that are only meant for people to connect with each other
Push for more 1 on 1 talks in the group, so all people in the group know each other well
Using local groups as a support network:
Help each other finding meaningful jobs
Maybe even create something like a local group fund. So everyone in the group gives some money every month and when a member of the group needs financial leeway to create something EA related he/she can get money from that fund.
Creating a tighter network in your country:
Have more and longer coutry wide networking events
Basically all the things GEAN is trying to implement
Probably some of those ideas (or all?) are already included in the bigger EA groups. However, the smaller groups that I have met so far (in Germany) are not yet so sophisticated.
Thank you for the feedback.
When I was talking about academia I wasn’t imaging a student that is almost sure to steer a field, but more of a “regular” PhD student. For example I will be finishing a PhD in environmental science soonish. I think I am doing a good job there, but when I see who is applying for EA orgs it seems somewhat unlikely that I will get into one of the main EA orgs anytime soon (or ever^^). Therefore, trying to infuse EA ideas into the general discourse in my field might be one of the few things I can do while in academia.
Regarding what local groups could do, I am still a bit unsure what is the best approach (which is why I did not include it in the post). But a few ideas floating in my head are:
Creating more opportunities for people in local group become friends, as this ensures long time engagement:
Create additional events that are only meant for people to connect with each other
Push for more 1 on 1 talks in the group, so all people in the group know each other well
Using local groups as a support network:
Help each other finding meaningful jobs
Maybe even create something like a local group fund. So everyone in the group gives some money every month and when a member of the group needs financial leeway to create something EA related he/she can get money from that fund.
Creating a tighter network in your country:
Have more and longer coutry wide networking events
Basically all the things GEAN is trying to implement
Probably some of those ideas (or all?) are already included in the bigger EA groups. However, the smaller groups that I have met so far (in Germany) are not yet so sophisticated.