I find the discourse on this quite confusing.
In the thread you linked to defending the purchase of Wytham Abbey, it’s suggested that CEA shouldn’t be criticized for the Wytham Abbey purchase as it was carried out by a separate organization in EVF. It’s then suggested EVF shouldn’t be criticized because EVF merely accepted a gift from a third party organization.
My understanding of the the sequence of events is:
Owen, a trustee of EVF, acting in his capacity as an advisor to the CEA (an organization under the control of EVF), asked fellow EVF Trustee Claire Zabel to fund the purchase of Wytham Abbey through Open Phil. Once funding was secured, Owen brought the purchase to the other three EVF Trustees of for approval.
In response to commentary on Wytham Abbey, Owen provides: “So EVF made two decisions here: they approved fiscal sponsorship, agreeing to take funds for this new project; and they then followed through and bought the property with the funds that had been earmarked for that. The second of these is technically a decision to buy the building (and was done by a legal entity at the time called CEA), but at that point it was fulfilling an obligation to the donor, so it would have been wild to decide anything else.”
Separate from any analysis of if Wytham Abbey was a worthwhile investment, the organizational concerns the Wytham Abbey purchase highlighted seem important to discuss.
Between the organizational conflation of CEA and EVF, and multiple EVF Trustees working in multiple capacities, I don’t even understand who is supposed to be subject to criticism.
I stayed at an EA House last summer and had a very positive experience (you can read about my positive testimonial here).
I shared this idea in the original spreadsheet, but I think it deserves more attention: using EA houses or a similar platform to facilitate home exchanges for effective altruists who work remotely.
There are many effective altruists who work remotely, and many of them would benefit from being able to spend time in different cities, whether for work, community engagement, or personal enjoyment. However, working remotely in new cities can be very expensive, largely due to high accommodation costs.
At the same time, many people cannot host on EA houses because they only have one room or bed available in their home, which is otherwise occupied when they are at home. By creating a home exchange platform, we can increase the supply of potential places to stay and provide a lot of additional utility for those who would benefit from it.