Local Groups Activity: Discussing Effectiveness

Discussing Effectiveness are virtual discussions we used to host every month at Effective Altruism Israel (about three years ago, this post has been long-drafted). After I stopped being the community manager, I received funding from IF grants to continue them. There is also an option to host the meetings in person. In this post I’ll describe in explicit details how we designed it and give tips for running this yourself!

We kept updating our guidelines for this project on this document - this post is a copy of its current version.

Purpose of Discussing Effectiveness:

The purpose of the discussions is to have light and fun community meetings that don’t require advance preparation from the participants. It enables community members to meet each other through EA-related content, and we found it efficient in getting new community members motivated to take bigger steps of involvement with EA or with EA Israel. 

*Additional background and context about this project can be found in this post.

Target audience:

• Community participants that haven’t been very involved in the “core” community of EA israel. Most of them can be found on or 2,500 members facebook group, but not on slack or whatsapp groups. 

Goals and KPIs:

• 1 session a month
• 10 participants in each meetup
  • At least 20 sign-ups
• Followup
  • At least two 1-1s meetings with participants after each session
  • Or at least two onboarding to a project (like joining a crash courseor volunteering)

Content preparation:

• Choose a topic- Find a simple and wide topics that are fit for a discussion between people who have already read a lot of EA-related content and people who didn’t even see an intro lecture (For example: Cause prioritization, Moral circles, Scope insensitivity)
  • Inspiration for topics:
    • Previous sessions
      • Session 1 - Cause Prioritization
      • Session 2- Moral Circles
      • Session 3- Impact Measurements
    • Syllabuses for Fellowships
    • Past reading groups
    • Effective altruism handbook
    • Practical Ethics Course
• Write a syllabus such as this containing videos, methodologies (such as debate, competition, other interactive activities), discussion questions, and digital tools (such as Mentimeter)
• Create a presentation such as this- it makes the meeting much more professional and takes approx 10 minutes.

I believe that it’s usually good to plan for 45 minutes of facilitated content, with 15-20 minutes spare for unplanned questions and discussions.

Before session:

Before previous session

• Make a sign up sheet such as this for the next session and send it at the end of the previous session to retain the previous participants.

*It is preferred to create a sustainable sign up sheet that will connect directly to the airtable.

2 weeks before: 

• Post on facebook an invite such at this-
• You can use the design template here

• Post on whatsapp group
• Post on newsletter a message such as this

1 week before:

• Most important- add everyone who wants to join the whatsapp group to it!
• Create a zoom
  • Ask for the zoom account details from one EA Israel’s employees
  • Check if the zoom has breakout rooms
  • Check if the Zoom has “sound on” when sharing a video
• Send a google invitations to everyone (with their mails) with the zoom link inside

1 day before:

• Remind facebook members to sign up by commenting on the original post “the meeting is tomorrow, don’t forget to sign up!”
• Remind on whatsapp group
• Don’t forget to send a google invitation to everyone (with their mails) who signed up a day before!

30 minutes before:

• Remind on whatsapp group + add zoom invitation
  • Remind again when the session has started
• Open zoom and set up everything- battery for laptop, videos, first slide of presentation, breakout rooms
  • Admit participants and welcome them :)

During session:

Beginning:

• Don’t do a name round- it takes up too much time
• Welcome everyone, say you are taking 3 more minutes to let the ones who are running late join, present yourself, and start session

During:

• Try to give everyone an opportunity to talk
  • Not by calling on someone specifically.
  • Try saying “now someone who hasn’t participated yet answer my question/read aloud” and follow up with a long silence (even if it is a bit awkward). Usually someone volunteers.
    • Being comfortable with long silences is what distinguishes a good moderator as opposed to someone who only answers himself!

End of session:

• Take a screenshot (PrtSc) of the names of the participants (in order to document later on airtable)
• Tell about your local group and relevant opportunities to that specific time
• You can use slides 17-19 in here
• Invite people to schedule an in person coffee with you

After session:

• Write a summary on the CRM
• Send sign up sheet for next session in the whatsapp group + presentation of the session
• Follow ups
  • Schedule at least 2 coffees with participants after each session
  • Or at least 2 onboarding to a project (like crash course or volunteering)

Pro Tips:

• Don’t record the sessions- to make everyone comfortable
• Outreach individuals you were particularly impressed by

Thanks @Gidi Kadosh  and @EdoArad for the tips for this post, sorry I didn't post it sooner :)

Please comment if you read this and found it helpful, if you have additional questions, or have any feedback. These could help  encourage to stop fearing posting on the forum!