This post is mainly from the original proposal document to rebrand EA London to EA UK.  There is now an EA UK website and newsletter since August 2022.

Summary

There are people in the UK outside of London, Oxford and Cambridge who have an interest in EA and don’t have a local group. They may miss out on chances to connect with others, stay motivated and find out about job and donation opportunities. It could be useful to set up EA UK to support this wider group of people.

Why is there no EA UK already?

Historically local EA groups have been founded where there happened to be someone with enough time to run one rather than with a larger strategy in mind. Newer organisers around the world tend to create national groups that support local groups within that country and provide a support network for everyone in their country rather than a few cities. Because EA groups in the UK were made pretty early they grew faster before the idea of national groups was as widespread.

Another contributing factor to why there is no EA UK may be that some of the support that EA country groups often provide is given by CEA and other organisations, for example most country groups have to set up a donation platform for people who want to give effectively, but this is already done in the UK by EA Funds. There is also no need to translate materials into a local language for the UK.

Why set up EA UK?

• The UK has a population of 67 million, with roughly 14% living in London, Oxford and Cambridge, the three places in the UK with paid group organisers. This means that people in the rest of the country who have an interest in EA will not have a group they can get support from
• A lot of the support that can be provided doesn’t have to be in person (1-1s, newsletter, directory, project advice)
• People move around the UK and so if there is a national group they can stay up to date with EA no matter whether they are moving to, it also could reduce the chance that people drop out of EA when they move away from or between hubs
• There will be some individuals who wont be interested in attending local group events but will want to keep up to date with what happens with EA in the UK and occasionally want to talk about donations/careers
• Even though EA London can provide support to those outside of London, people may not reach out to a group that isn’t near them unless they feel like they have permission to
• By having a national group it may lead to more local groups being set up as it is easier for people in the same place to find each other

What EA UK wont do

• Provide support to UK student groups, this is already done by CEA, Open Philanthropy and the Global Challenges Project. EA UK could act as an extra place for them to go for support, but generally would be more focused on professionals in the UK 
• Act as a layer of management between other local groups in the UK and CEA, they will still interact with CEA for support

What does this mean for EA London?

• Most things will stay the same, the website and newsletter have been rebranded to EA UK rather than EA London
• There will still be events and support for people in London

Potential Issues

• EA London, Oxford and Cambridge community members may get less support if there is more focus on a national group
• People outside of UK EA hubs may feel neglected if most of the jobs/events etc are based in hubs. Although hopefully providing more support will allow more relevant opportunities in the wider UK to be discovered and then this can be shared back to the UK community
• There may be much more demand for the support that is offered. As this is a problem of being potentially too successful we could scale back different projects, or maybe consider hiring extra people if it seems impactful
• Media enquiries may come to EA UK, which is more the domain of CEA, these will be forwarded onto CEA