I think it’s very misleading to equate “would recommend the program to a friend” (>40% 10 out of 10) to >40% were 10 out of 10 satisfied with the program. These are two different things.
When I did the survey, I gave it a high mark because which of my friends wouldn’t love to spend a month in CDMX with air fare and rent covered. However, this does not mean that my satisfaction was high marks.
I would have given it a lower score for satisfaction because the program seemed unnecessarily costly by locating both a co-living space and co-working space in one of the most upscale districts in CDMX. Also, when I applied to the program, it was billed as a way to help the Mexico EA community and launch CDMX as an EA hub. The program was majority non-Mexican EAs and many of us had little interactions with the Mexican EAs. Some of this was on the participants (including myself) for not being more proactive in finding out who the Mexican EAs were, but the program should have been more hands on in fostering this.
Also the observations about food seem to miss the biggest critique I heard from participants, which was that about half of the co-working-space catered meals sponsored by the residency had meat, people didn’t hear a rationale as to why given that EA conferences are all plant-based.
In general, my sense from my time there was that participants felt there was more room for improvement than this post indicates (this my personal perception, so other participants can chime on if they agree or disagree).
I think it would be even more helpful to do an assessment of the EA Mexico community, EA LatAm community, and prospects of CDMX becoming hub 8 months after the fact to see if the residency materially changes those things.
I think EA residencies/fellowships should be subjected to a cost-effectiveness standard of if they would be better for community building than just spending all that money on community builders. In the case of the CDMX residency that was 330,000 USD, which could hire 8 full-time Latin American community builders at 40,000 per person. So to me it seems like the biggest question is if the connections made, benefits to Mexico and LatAm EA communities, and increased viability of CDMX as a hub realistically outweigh what 8 full-time community builders in LatAm would have achieved in a year.
Despite this being a critical comment, this doesn’t take away from the fact that there were many positives, such as the strong handle the organizing team had on logistics and many intercontinental relationships made.
Thank you for bringing up the issue with the survey data. I’ll review it to determine if it’s a translation or interpretation problem.
Regarding your criticisms of the program, I’m surprised because much of this information was shared with participants during the program, and some of it is also explained in this same post. The reason for canceling all planned community activities in CDMX was due to the cancellation of all effective altruism outreach activities in much of the world because of the FTX scandal. This was completely beyond the team’s control, and it’s explained in the post. Since the outreach activities were canceled, we opened the option to conduct activities within the fellowship to improve them, and we had several volunteers.
However, the program’s objective was never solely focused on the Mexican community. It was designed to strengthen the relationship between the Latin American and international communities. This information was provided in the application, and fortunately, this did happen with valuable connections, especially for individuals from mid and low-income countries who couldn’t easily make these connections elsewhere.
Regarding vegan food, it was also explained during the program that some participants requested other options, and we accommodated them because we didn’t want to force a specific diet on people who didn’t prefer it. I want to emphasize that there were always vegan options available for those who preferred them.
As for the improvements, I agree that communication from the organizing team could have been better, but I believe it’s also the responsibility of participants to read the provided information or ask the organizers for clarification.
An yes, it was an expensive program, and we made the cost public to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of similar initiatives in the future and to compare with them. However, comparing it to using the money to pay for full-time jobs doesn’t seem fair. At the time we received the grant and paid the contractors, it wasn’t a choice between one or the other; funding was available for both. In fact, several individuals involved in effective altruism had grants at that time.
I think it’s very misleading to equate “would recommend the program to a friend” (>40% 10 out of 10) to >40% were 10 out of 10 satisfied with the program. These are two different things.
When I did the survey, I gave it a high mark because which of my friends wouldn’t love to spend a month in CDMX with air fare and rent covered. However, this does not mean that my satisfaction was high marks.
I would have given it a lower score for satisfaction because the program seemed unnecessarily costly by locating both a co-living space and co-working space in one of the most upscale districts in CDMX. Also, when I applied to the program, it was billed as a way to help the Mexico EA community and launch CDMX as an EA hub. The program was majority non-Mexican EAs and many of us had little interactions with the Mexican EAs. Some of this was on the participants (including myself) for not being more proactive in finding out who the Mexican EAs were, but the program should have been more hands on in fostering this.
Also the observations about food seem to miss the biggest critique I heard from participants, which was that about half of the co-working-space catered meals sponsored by the residency had meat, people didn’t hear a rationale as to why given that EA conferences are all plant-based.
In general, my sense from my time there was that participants felt there was more room for improvement than this post indicates (this my personal perception, so other participants can chime on if they agree or disagree).
I think it would be even more helpful to do an assessment of the EA Mexico community, EA LatAm community, and prospects of CDMX becoming hub 8 months after the fact to see if the residency materially changes those things.
I think EA residencies/fellowships should be subjected to a cost-effectiveness standard of if they would be better for community building than just spending all that money on community builders. In the case of the CDMX residency that was 330,000 USD, which could hire 8 full-time Latin American community builders at 40,000 per person. So to me it seems like the biggest question is if the connections made, benefits to Mexico and LatAm EA communities, and increased viability of CDMX as a hub realistically outweigh what 8 full-time community builders in LatAm would have achieved in a year.
Despite this being a critical comment, this doesn’t take away from the fact that there were many positives, such as the strong handle the organizing team had on logistics and many intercontinental relationships made.
Thank you for bringing up the issue with the survey data. I’ll review it to determine if it’s a translation or interpretation problem.
Regarding your criticisms of the program, I’m surprised because much of this information was shared with participants during the program, and some of it is also explained in this same post. The reason for canceling all planned community activities in CDMX was due to the cancellation of all effective altruism outreach activities in much of the world because of the FTX scandal. This was completely beyond the team’s control, and it’s explained in the post. Since the outreach activities were canceled, we opened the option to conduct activities within the fellowship to improve them, and we had several volunteers.
However, the program’s objective was never solely focused on the Mexican community. It was designed to strengthen the relationship between the Latin American and international communities. This information was provided in the application, and fortunately, this did happen with valuable connections, especially for individuals from mid and low-income countries who couldn’t easily make these connections elsewhere.
Regarding vegan food, it was also explained during the program that some participants requested other options, and we accommodated them because we didn’t want to force a specific diet on people who didn’t prefer it. I want to emphasize that there were always vegan options available for those who preferred them.
As for the improvements, I agree that communication from the organizing team could have been better, but I believe it’s also the responsibility of participants to read the provided information or ask the organizers for clarification.
An yes, it was an expensive program, and we made the cost public to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of similar initiatives in the future and to compare with them. However, comparing it to using the money to pay for full-time jobs doesn’t seem fair. At the time we received the grant and paid the contractors, it wasn’t a choice between one or the other; funding was available for both. In fact, several individuals involved in effective altruism had grants at that time.