I have been in two groups/clubs before. One was a student group, and I was only in a few short meetings. One was a book club. I also only went to a few meetings of the book club. On top of that, I socialize with virtually no one.
I have envisioned how I would facilitate a student EA group. Of course, because of the power of situations to change individual behavior, how I would actually come across and do it in actuality might be different. I thought I would start off a flyer that was a short advertisement with a promise of free pizza. The advertisement might be something like, “Come join the EA group, where we will talk about a range of topics, from global poverty to the world being taken over by AI.” Obviously, I might need more means of outreach. I didn’t explicitly lay out what that would be in my vision, since I thought it might be better to let the process of coalition-building flow naturally, and because I wasn’t sure what logistical challenges I would run into. In my vision, the group wouldn’t be bound by strict rules, but it would be productive. I thought that the sessions could have objectives and wouldn’t just be me talking by myself but involve everyone actively participating, perhaps in a back-and-forth manner and maybe with people breaking off into teams (maybe some teams assuming the role of devils’ advocates). I would want it to be easy going and a hot spot for creativity. Objectives would have been things like debating EA ideas and coming up with causes to prioritize. It would be easy going, just to be easy going, and also for the fact that students would have other obligations. They could caveat assignments/arguments with notes on things they didn’t work on for whatever reason. Then if someone else had time and wanted to, they could pick up work on that thing. I foresaw the group sessions being audio recorded. There could be a group member with the role of recording the sessions. There could be other roles too, like a logistics/supplies role, external relations role, and other roles that could make the group effectively achieve various things. Maybe I or someone else would do a presentation/speech sometimes. I figured every week there could be food and snacks.
I guess the first meeting might be mainly me giving an introductory speech. The introduction doesn’t have to be dogmatic though. I can foresee someone asking a question which turns into a group discussion which interrupts, say, 60% of everything else I had planned for the introduction. I think having the introduction cut off like that might be fine, since all the various EA topics could be addressed eventually in a roundabout way from session to session. In that event, the introductory meeting would just be more in depth than planned on a single point or issue.
I have been in two groups/clubs before. One was a student group, and I was only in a few short meetings. One was a book club. I also only went to a few meetings of the book club. On top of that, I socialize with virtually no one.
I have envisioned how I would facilitate a student EA group. Of course, because of the power of situations to change individual behavior, how I would actually come across and do it in actuality might be different. I thought I would start off a flyer that was a short advertisement with a promise of free pizza. The advertisement might be something like, “Come join the EA group, where we will talk about a range of topics, from global poverty to the world being taken over by AI.” Obviously, I might need more means of outreach. I didn’t explicitly lay out what that would be in my vision, since I thought it might be better to let the process of coalition-building flow naturally, and because I wasn’t sure what logistical challenges I would run into. In my vision, the group wouldn’t be bound by strict rules, but it would be productive. I thought that the sessions could have objectives and wouldn’t just be me talking by myself but involve everyone actively participating, perhaps in a back-and-forth manner and maybe with people breaking off into teams (maybe some teams assuming the role of devils’ advocates). I would want it to be easy going and a hot spot for creativity. Objectives would have been things like debating EA ideas and coming up with causes to prioritize. It would be easy going, just to be easy going, and also for the fact that students would have other obligations. They could caveat assignments/arguments with notes on things they didn’t work on for whatever reason. Then if someone else had time and wanted to, they could pick up work on that thing. I foresaw the group sessions being audio recorded. There could be a group member with the role of recording the sessions. There could be other roles too, like a logistics/supplies role, external relations role, and other roles that could make the group effectively achieve various things. Maybe I or someone else would do a presentation/speech sometimes. I figured every week there could be food and snacks.
I guess the first meeting might be mainly me giving an introductory speech. The introduction doesn’t have to be dogmatic though. I can foresee someone asking a question which turns into a group discussion which interrupts, say, 60% of everything else I had planned for the introduction. I think having the introduction cut off like that might be fine, since all the various EA topics could be addressed eventually in a roundabout way from session to session. In that event, the introductory meeting would just be more in depth than planned on a single point or issue.