I’ve got a bunch of different ideas, some of which are about creating a local rationalist culture, which depending on how they pan out might be a sequence of blog posts. I also have some tips for what worked well in Vancouver, and they might work even better at a community center.
In Vancouver, having a Facebook group has helped. Not everyone is into FB for any number of reasons, so mailing lists or a Discord server also works. Keeping people in touch with online as well as offline keeps local people who can’t make it out in person so often but are invested in the community in the loop, and it helps promote bonds between people.
The biggest thing might be posting housing opportunities, and even pinning a post in our Facebook group about requests for housemates/housing, which has helped several local community members find new roommates. It’s helped contribute to increase the number of rationalist sharehouses in Vancouver from 1 to 3 in 8 months. Using an online group as a digital bulletin board for housing opportunities has helped local rationalists get more involved in the community, creates more rationalist spaces, and helps the houses in question retain a community culture over time. We haven’t tried it for things like rationalists sharing employment opportunities with each other, but supposedly trying to create a virtual bulletin board could help create more opportunities for material mutual support/exchange between rationalists. Of course at REACH or another rationality community center (hi Seattle!), you can also do this with a literal bulletin board.
In the Vancouver rationality/LW FB group I made two polls: one for what periods of day and day of the weeks people we’re most available for doing things; and another for what kinds of activities different people wanted to do with other people. This worked well with Facebook groups because visually FB group polls immediately tell you what the most popular choices are, and shows you the names and profiles of people who all picked the same poll options. In both polls everyone could choose multiple options. I then cross-referenced the two polls, and grouped together people who wanted to do the same thing with other rationalists at the same time as each other. That way I was able to organize online several meetups in parallel, for lots of different people, dramatically increasing the number of local community members who were able to attend a meetup which suited their interests and availability. Using this polling system created more diversity and quantity of things rationalists did together locally. Also it tended to produce more frequent, smaller gatherings which were more focused, instead of big, generic social events which I expect don’t gel well with a significant minority of rationalists.
Someone doesn’t have to use FB group polls like I did to figure out when to create a system for matching different kinds of rationalists to the kinds of meetups they would want to attend. Someone could do it with Survey Monkey or a Google form. The key part is sending individual rationalists invitations to events organized based on their expressed preferences, instead of only organizing generic events intended to accommodate everyone’s interests at the same time. I was the person who did the survey, but I didn’t organize all the meetups. I mean, I set them up online, but the hosts or facilitators who were other community members who either volunteered or to whom I delegated some event organization. This created a suite of available events/activities for rationalists to choose from. The final part I never got around too was incorporating this into for everyone to browse, so people who didn’t fill out the survey or who wanted to try something new could figure out what they try. But I think I should’ve done that, and I’d suggest the same to anyone else who tries. Again, this fits well into a rationality community center because everyone knows where the things on the calendar are (the community center), which simplifies things.
I’ve got a bunch of different ideas, some of which are about creating a local rationalist culture, which depending on how they pan out might be a sequence of blog posts. I also have some tips for what worked well in Vancouver, and they might work even better at a community center.
In Vancouver, having a Facebook group has helped. Not everyone is into FB for any number of reasons, so mailing lists or a Discord server also works. Keeping people in touch with online as well as offline keeps local people who can’t make it out in person so often but are invested in the community in the loop, and it helps promote bonds between people.
The biggest thing might be posting housing opportunities, and even pinning a post in our Facebook group about requests for housemates/housing, which has helped several local community members find new roommates. It’s helped contribute to increase the number of rationalist sharehouses in Vancouver from 1 to 3 in 8 months. Using an online group as a digital bulletin board for housing opportunities has helped local rationalists get more involved in the community, creates more rationalist spaces, and helps the houses in question retain a community culture over time. We haven’t tried it for things like rationalists sharing employment opportunities with each other, but supposedly trying to create a virtual bulletin board could help create more opportunities for material mutual support/exchange between rationalists. Of course at REACH or another rationality community center (hi Seattle!), you can also do this with a literal bulletin board.
In the Vancouver rationality/LW FB group I made two polls: one for what periods of day and day of the weeks people we’re most available for doing things; and another for what kinds of activities different people wanted to do with other people. This worked well with Facebook groups because visually FB group polls immediately tell you what the most popular choices are, and shows you the names and profiles of people who all picked the same poll options. In both polls everyone could choose multiple options. I then cross-referenced the two polls, and grouped together people who wanted to do the same thing with other rationalists at the same time as each other. That way I was able to organize online several meetups in parallel, for lots of different people, dramatically increasing the number of local community members who were able to attend a meetup which suited their interests and availability. Using this polling system created more diversity and quantity of things rationalists did together locally. Also it tended to produce more frequent, smaller gatherings which were more focused, instead of big, generic social events which I expect don’t gel well with a significant minority of rationalists.
Someone doesn’t have to use FB group polls like I did to figure out when to create a system for matching different kinds of rationalists to the kinds of meetups they would want to attend. Someone could do it with Survey Monkey or a Google form. The key part is sending individual rationalists invitations to events organized based on their expressed preferences, instead of only organizing generic events intended to accommodate everyone’s interests at the same time. I was the person who did the survey, but I didn’t organize all the meetups. I mean, I set them up online, but the hosts or facilitators who were other community members who either volunteered or to whom I delegated some event organization. This created a suite of available events/activities for rationalists to choose from. The final part I never got around too was incorporating this into for everyone to browse, so people who didn’t fill out the survey or who wanted to try something new could figure out what they try. But I think I should’ve done that, and I’d suggest the same to anyone else who tries. Again, this fits well into a rationality community center because everyone knows where the things on the calendar are (the community center), which simplifies things.