Project summary

We are a team of organisers split across the local city and university group in Brisbane, the third largest urban centre in Australia and capital of the state of Queensland. Providing a stipend

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

We aim to grow and support the EA community at the University of Queensland through three activity streams: AI Safety, Animal Advocacy and EA meta community building. We are liasing with other student clubs as well as identifying local causes and organisations which are EA adjacent and forming links with them through speaker and industry events. By setting up links with the city chapter (EA Brisbane) we also hope to develop an EA friendly ecosystem outside both in Brisbane and Australia more broadly.

How will this funding be used?

We will use it to support our two lead organisers, allowing them to spend less time engaged in paid work and more time spent doing EA related organising.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Miles Whiticker: lead organiser for EA meta and Animal Advocacy. He has been in the role since November 2023 and has ran 11 events in the first six months, with an average attendance of 9 students (event attendance ranged from 3 to 25). Has previously volunteered for EAGxAustralasia and attended the Global Challenges Project retreat in January 2023. Studying Bachelor of Secondary Teaching/Science (Physics & Maths).

Lily Stelling: lead organiser for AI Safety. Has recently completed as lead organiser for our AI Safety Technical Fundamentals course based on the BlueDot curriculum, as well as two speaker events with local AI Safety alumni Ryan Kidd (of MATS fame) and Jordan Taylor. Studying a Bachelor of Maths (Honours). Current recipient of an Open Philanthropy fellowship until 2025.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

If our ongoing student outreach and and community building efforts fail, it's likely we will still continue organising in a volunteer capacity for at least another 6-12 months, or until we graduate. The most likely failure mode looks like a retracting community, with monthly outreach of approximately 3-6 students. EA has a good (although niche) reputation amongst the student community which is unlikely to be damaged by any of our current activities.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

One of us has previously been granted the OpenPhilanthropy organiser grant. We also receive a small amount of income from local membership subscriptions (about $120 per year) and approximately $300-500 per year in university student grants. Both of us organisers are doing paid work in non-EA related areas.