EA - EA Poland 2023 - the first update by EA Poland

Welcome 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: EA Poland 2023 - the first update, published by EA Poland on August 15, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.TL;DR: EA Poland is active and growing. Our aim is to build and maintain a supportive and empowering community that enables individuals to plan their next steps to make a positive impact. We want to achieve this by focusing on three areas: Community Building, Career Planning, and Project Incubation.IntroductionAt the beginning of June we had our first Polish EAGx, in Warsaw. We think this is a good opportunity to introduce EA Poland. Before we start, we would like to mention that this post's structure was inspired by EA Estonia's post and was prepared with the support of ChatGPT and DeepL/Writer.Quick Facts About PolandLocated in Central Europe, Poland has a population of ~38 million and has been classified by the World Bank as a high-income country since 2009. Additionally, there are up to 21 million Polish people living across the world. We love potatoes, onions, and dumplings with onions and potatoes.Quick Facts About EA PolandThe first EA meetup we know of took place in 2014, and the first group was established in Cracow, in 2015. In 2018, the Polish Foundation for Effective Altruism (FEA) was registered. We have members from all over Poland: Cracow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan, Gdansk, Katowice, Lodz...Current statusEA Poland in numbers:3 employees, with a total of 1.5 FTE (full-time equivalents; funded by the EA Infrastructure Fund)~30 volunteers (incl. group organisers)~60 highly-engaged EAs - HEAs (incl. most of the volunteers)178 members registered on our community SlackOf these, ~70 users are active on a weekly basis (figure 2)336 newsletter subscribersSocial media:2,700 Facebook fanpage followers1,100 Facebook group members515 Instagram followers893 Linkedin followers211 YouTube subscribers3 local groups (Warsaw, Cracow, Wroclaw)1 active university group (University of Warsaw) and 1 university group expected to start in 2023/2024 (AGH in Cracow)An online book club (we plan to publish a separate forum post about it)2 AI Safety Groups (on-line): technical and governance2 EA-aligned organisations (Otwarte Klatki [Anima International Poland] and Optimum Pareto Foundation)What we did last year (June 2022 - June 2023)Organisational Structure and OperationsOver the course of the past year, we channelled a lot of effort into strengthening our organisational structure and operational capacity. This includes establishing basic processes and procedures in areas such as IT, finance, and legal; reintroducing Asana for task management; and revitalising our social media and newsletter. We collectively agreed to form an executive board where two Co-Directors represent FEA for a period of two years. After this period, re-election of the Co-Directors requires approval, granted by the Active Members via a vote. To evaluate and support the work of the Co-Directors, we have set up a Supervisory Board consisting of five HEAs, elected by the Active Members (employees, volunteers, interns, groups organisers, projects coordinators).Mission, Vision, and StrategyIn 2022, we defined our strategy through a workshop and multiple group discussions. In November 2023, we will revise it and determine an action plan for the next two years. We intend to write a separate post on this topic.Organisational CultureCreating a safe and inclusive environment is a priority for EA Poland. We developed a Code of Conduct through workshops, and introduced the Safety Person role to ensure the well-being and comfort of all community members. We also conducted a comprehensive survey to examine our organisational culture, with the aim of continuous improvement and fostering a supportive community. The survey, consisting of 72 questions, had an average score of 3.55 on a s...