EA - Local EA groups: consider becoming more than a satellite group by Ada-Maaria Hyvärinen

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Local EA groups: consider becoming more than a satellite group, published by Ada-Maaria Hyvärinen on April 16, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.I recently wrote about the history of Effective Altruism Finland, the local EA group I am part of and used to work for. I suspect most readers can guess the main activities we carry out even without clicking on the post. (Spoiler: we have an intro to EA program, a career advising service, an effective donations website, support for university groups and regular EA-themed discussion events).Why do local EA groups often seem so similar to each other? I believe this is because many groups inadvertently become satellite groups. In my post, I try to explain what I mean by this, and argue that local groups should consider developing more distinctive features, even though there may be reasons to deliberately remain a satellite group.What is a satellite group?Some characteristics that would define an archetypal satellite group are:They mainly follow materials produced by other groups, such as introductory fellowship curriculaThey try to undertake activities that are inspired by other EA groups and follow "official" EA adviceThe members' goals are to eventually join another "real" EA organization or move to an EA hub "where the real EAs are" (as opposed to aiming to do things as a group locally or as a collaboration between the members of the group they are currently affiliated with)They might feel the “real EA knowledge” is possessed by other people elsewhere, and that people in their surroundings are not fit to meaningfully contribute to the EA project yetThe theory of impact of a satellite group comes from broadcasting EA material to new people and connecting their audience to other EA groups and organizations. The actual impactful stuff happens only when a group member starts doing impactful things somewhere else than in the context of the group.If you are a new group, starting out as a satellite group makes total sense. For some groups, like university groups, staying a satellite group indefinitely can also be also a good idea. However, for some groups, focusing only on satellite type of activities has also a cost of missed opportunities.Satellite activities are safe and beginner-friendlyThere are a bunch of reasons why groups might get stuck in the satellite phase, even if they intend to move towards more original activities. Satellite activities are often locally optimal: if you need to decide what you personally should do in the next couple of weeks or months, in terms of expected impact it often seems like you should focus on satellite activities. It is easy to make the case for organizing an 80 000 hours themed career planning workshop or a giving game.Satellite activities are also relatively well-regarded within the EA community. If you post on the EA forum about having organized such a career workshop or giving came, other readers will think that your group is doing the reasonable thing.This positive attitude also somewhat translates to funding. If you can show that your group has inspired many people to work for EA organizations, EA funders are more likely to provide funding for your group in the future. It is harder to prove that your members are doing impactful things if they are working on a original local project that the funders don't know much about.Furthermore, doing satellite activities can protect your group from doing obviously bad or useless things. If you can reliably organize an introductory fellowship to EA, it is guaranteed that a certain number of people will understand EA better than before. You don’t need to spend a lot of time calculating your expected impact or thinking about potential downsides: if you can execute the program well enough, you can be assured the thing you do probably...