Apply for the EA Workplace/Professional Group Organizer’s Retreat (Bay Area, 26–28 July)

By Jona @ 2022-06-08T09:03 (+25)

TL;DR

You can apply here for the first EA Workplace/Professional Group Organizer’s Retreat (Bay Area, 26–28 July).

Apply for our retreat!

We invite (aspiring and active) EA workplace/professional group organizers to apply for the very first EA Workplace/Professional Group Organizer’s Retreat (26–28 July) before we’ll hopefully all meet at EAG San Francisco 2022 (29–31 July) in the Bay Area.

Why should I apply?

Learn from other group organizers and EA meta-organizations about community building
Share your experience and expand your network
Reflect on your group’s goals, strategy and Theory of Change

“Bringing all group organizers together for two days was reported to be 25x more valuable for city/national group organizers than the counterfactual use of time. I would really encourage all of you to apply.”

- Rob Gledhill (CEA, Head of City/National Groups)

What will we be doing?

We will have a mix of discussion sessions (e.g., goals of groups and their strategy), Q&As with members of the EA community, 1-1 time and attendee proposed sessions
There won’t be mandatory sessions, only attend sessions if you feel like it’s the best use of your time
We are aware that many of you would have to take time off from work. So all of us will work hard so you have a maximal ROI for your time

How much is it?

Retreat costs are $500 per person (incl. accommodation & vegan food, excl. travel costs)
We really want you to attend and don’t want financial constraints to keep you from applying. We have funding available for stipends. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us about this. This will not affect your application.

Next Steps

Please apply with this short form until Sunday, 19 June. We hope to accept all of you but might need to prioritize due to limited spots available. Also, encourage other group organizers to apply personally - it’s possible that we don’t have their current contact data
We will send more detailed information to successful applicants and consider your needs when creating the agenda and inviting speakers
Below are some further resources and updates you might find interesting

If there’s anything we can help you with, Jona or Anneke are happy to support.

Appendix

The impact story for this retreat

The Centre for Effective Altruism and High Impact Professionals as well as many individuals in the EA space currently believe that workplace/professional groups can be a promising path for impact. Please note that this retreat is not a CEA commitment to heavily invest in the space, but rather a step to learn more
Retreats have been working well for professionals to engage them with high-quality content as it is hard to get their attention during busy everyday life. For example, the Effective Altruism and Consulting Network had 2 retreats in the past year with very positive overall feedback from participants
Despite many uncertainties, we believe it is worth jointly exploring the space further, sharing learnings and developing strategies that fit the individual groups

Selected helpful resources for group organizers

Updated EA Groups Resource Centre
Overview of existing groups in the EA Forum Community section (formerly EA Hub) →Add your group (if you haven’t already)
EA Forum Post series about EA workplace/professional groups
Panel on workplace and professional EA groups | EA Global: London 2021
High Impact Professionals’ website (HIP)
Altruistic Agency provides free tech support to EA orgs

Illustrative updates from workplace/professional groups

Tobias Jolly started working as a full-time community builder for Impactful Government Careers (funded by the EA Infrastructure Fund)
The Effective Altruism and Consulting Network has a Managing Director: Sarah Pomeranz (funded by the EA Infrastructure Fund)
High Impact Medicine reflected on their recent learnings
The EA Tech Network (umbrella org for tech groups) was founded
A call for action to support workplace/professional groups