Hi all, my name's Mike and I live in Seoul, South Korea.
I'm currently studying Korean at a language program in the city and am supporting EA South Korea as it becomes a more active local group. Also on career hiatus, I'm trying to determine what my next move should be to do the most good I can and am open to many ideas, making the decision difficult. :D But regenerative finance (blockchain/ cryptocurrency for good) and biosecurity sound particularly appealing.
I studied electrical engineering in college and worked three jobs since then in the fields of test/ measurement and manufacturing as tech support/ training instructor, software developer, and project manager/ sales. In school, I started studying German, which I speak fluently (~C1 CEFR) having lived in Germany for almost three years. I also speak some Castilian/ Spanish (B1), Italian (A2) and Korean (A1).
Thanks again Brian! Again, quite helpful to hear your perspective :D
We had a bit of a strikeout with our first social meetup last week with 0 attendees aside from the organizers XD It may be this was a fluke, but it also may be that until the group's better established and members have built up relationships with each other, more structured structured meetings will draw more people in.
We'll see what happens at our discussion group next week! :D
Thanks for answering my questions and the links! The additional info is much appreciated :D
We'll be submitting an application for group support funding in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for it!
Mind if I bug you to answer my 5th question too? We're planning on having a monthly social gathering, so I'm wondering if you found there to be any downsides to having them more regularly.
5. Why did you have so few general social meetups?
Thank you so much for documenting your experience growing EA Philippines from its start on the forum! This was super helpful and provided extremely relevant info for us. I'm helping the nascent EA South Korea and we're trying to increase engagement in the group here by holding regular meetings and and having some core EA content translated into Korean to make EA more accessible to Koreans.
I have some questions if you wouldn't mind answering if you can find the time (and if you can still remember :P)!
was: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/groups-mentorship-and-funding
now: https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/group-support-funding
I'm also curious to know if anyone is or has worked on an elevator pitch for EA and agree that capturing someon's attention/ interest enough to convince them to read through a full article is tricky. The idea of increasing someone's engagement with EA in a step-by-step manner is definitely worth consideration. Any info on efforts like this would be greatly appreciated!
I came back to this post specifically to ask the same question as your point 1. - why "project" was used? I'd love hear to hear the reasoning!
Made a bio and I agree with the other comments. Thanks for the suggestion and taking time to make a post on the subject!