CEA update, May 2018

Posted on Tuesday, May 1st 2018
(last updated Thursday, January 14th 2021)

Hi everyone,

In summary: We recently had a change in leadership at CEA and have published our models of community building. The Boston community hosted an EAGx conference, and tickets sold out for EA Global: San Francisco.

CEO Update

I recently sent an email to this mailing list announcing that I am taking over from Tara Mac Aulay as CEO of CEA, as Tara is stepping down to work on a new EA project. In case you missed it, you can read the update in full here. This quarter, I’ll be focusing mostly on connecting with our key stakeholders. Feel free to email me directly if you have comments or questions.

Models of Community Building

This month, we’ve continued to publish more content related to our current thinking. CEA has lots of simple models of how the effective altruism community works. In this post, we set out the models, and discuss how they relate. Each model captures some facet of things and hides other important issues, which is why we find it useful to have multiple models; each highlights a different aspect of our work.

Concentric Circles Model

For example, when describing the target audience of our projects, it is useful to have labels for different parts of the EA movement. In our Concentric Circles Model, we have segmented the community into varying levels of engagement as a series of concentric circles, where the smaller, inner circles are made up of people who are most engaged. Of course, in reality, these circles aren’t so neat, but this common language serves as a shorthand and can help us communicate better internally, and make better decisions.

Funnel Model

Using the language of the Concentric Circles model, we can then use a Funnel Model to help us think about what to focus on. A standard approach in business is to think of a sales funnel, with new customers at the top and moving down through sales to repeat business at the bottom. While CEA is not in the business of selling products, we are trying to build a community, and one aspect of this is encouraging people to become more deeply engaged. The funnel metaphor, therefore, helps us think about the appropriate goals and audience for our projects, and ensure that we’re not missing anything significant.

Events

EA Global

We have released the agenda for EA Global: San Francisco taking place on 8-10 June. General admission applications have now closed, and we are at full capacity for the conference. If you missed out on a ticket, you might wish to consider applying as a volunteer or academic poster session participant. Applications for EA Global: London (end of October 2018) will open soon.

EAGx

On 21 April the Boston community hosted a successful EAGx conference, featuring speakers Bruce Friedrich, Max Tegmark, Julia Wise and others. The next event in the EAGx conference series takes place in the Netherlands on 29 June - 1 July with William MacAskill as keynote speaker.