So, people most qualified to build community and organize meetups often happen to be people who want to do more than merely build community and organize meetups. They often want a community-adjacent job, and they move where such jobs exist.
To have sustainable rationalist communities outside of Bay Area, we need one of the following:
a) people qualified to build community and organize meetups, who are not interested in this type of job;
b) sufficiently large local community so that there are enough replacements for the people who leave;
c) community-adjacent jobs outside of Bay Area;
d) remote work in the community-adjacent jobs.
It could be different solutions for different cities. Option (a) is a question of luck, whether you have such people in your city. Option (b) is a chicken-and-egg problem, if you don’t already have a large community, it gives you no advice how to create it. Option (c) is what people in given city should think about. Option (d) is how people already in Bay Area can support them.
So, people most qualified to build community and organize meetups often happen to be people who want to do more than merely build community and organize meetups. They often want a community-adjacent job, and they move where such jobs exist.
To have sustainable rationalist communities outside of Bay Area, we need one of the following:
a) people qualified to build community and organize meetups, who are not interested in this type of job;
b) sufficiently large local community so that there are enough replacements for the people who leave;
c) community-adjacent jobs outside of Bay Area;
d) remote work in the community-adjacent jobs.
It could be different solutions for different cities. Option (a) is a question of luck, whether you have such people in your city. Option (b) is a chicken-and-egg problem, if you don’t already have a large community, it gives you no advice how to create it. Option (c) is what people in given city should think about. Option (d) is how people already in Bay Area can support them.