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Leilani Bellamy16
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Hi Will, thank you for your question. I’ll leave my answer here and also put it on the website for future clarification.

By retreat, I mean a gathering of people with a common interest or goal, all sharing space over the course of a weekend or a week. This could be as small as 5 or as large as 50, although I believe between 15 and 30 is the sweet spot. Any more than 30 and it feels like a party, plus you most likely don’t get to know everyone there. 


Types of events I’m most excited about:  a non-exhaustive list

  • Cause-area specific retreats
  •  goal orient retreats ( as in, we’re all going to get together and work really hard for x amount of says to make headway on this problem)
  •  deep learning weeks (where people get together and read a whole textbook, or learn something hard together that they would have put off otherwise) 
  • community-building retreats with a clear goal in mind 
  • Coworking retreats
  •  bonding retreats for orgs
  •  workshop-type retreats for new EAs
  • HEA retreats targeted at getting people more involved and connected

Things that people call retreats that I’m less excited about:

  • Large summer camps (we just don’t have the capacity for this right now)
  • retreats with more than 50 people- might as well make it a mini-conference or split it into two retreats
  •  Retreats that don’t have a clear path to impact. 

I’m mostly pointing at things that make retreats worse than actually retreats I’m less excited about. However, I think as we produce more retreats I'll be able to give a more firm answer to this question.


For anyone else reading this, If the type of retreat you’re excited about isn’t on this list, please still apply for a consultation. I’d be happy to chat.


 

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by Leilani Bellamy
1 min read 10

106

CommunityBuilding effective altruismCareer choiceCommunity infrastructureFellowships and internshipsWorkshops / Retreats / Summits
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TLDR: Canopy Retreats is a new org created to help the EA community run more highly impactful retreats. If you’d like our help, fill out this form. Apply for our internship here.

 

Canopy Retreats, formerly known as EA Retreats or EARs, is a new org that aims to aid the EA community in the planning and running of mid-sized, multi-day events. We are running a hands-on, experience-based internship this summer. Read more about it here. The deadline for applying is April 26th, 2022.
 

How we plan to support the community:

  • Retreat consultation: Would you like to run a retreat but are unsure where to start? Set up a meeting and discuss your ideas with Leilani.
  • Operational Support: You’ve received funding for your retreat but lack the time/ people to manage the back-end logistics and operations needed to run the event. Apply for operational support here.
    • We are currently minimally staffed as this is a new org, but will likely be taking on 2-3 retreats this summer, and hope to support at least two retreats a month from September on.
  • Resources: Over the next five months we will be releasing a set of resources that the community can use to run their own retreats. This includes programming guides, operations air tables, and email templates.

We are excited to assist with impactful retreats that otherwise would not happen. 

 

Thank you to Lenny McCline, Aris Richardson, Akash Wasil, Sydney, Owen Cotton-Barratt, Max Daniel, and the countless others who supported me along this journey. 

Special thanks to Catherine Low for the new name!

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Jamie_Harris2
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Hey! Does Canopy Retreats still exist in any form? I see the website is down but not sure if that's because it migrated, got absorbed into a larger org, or everyone just moved onto other things. Thanks!

(In the meantime, for anyone else coming back across this post, I stumbled across "Skylark": "We plan and facilitate transformative events. We help you shape a bold vision for your community, manage every operational detail, and lead workshops". Seemingly run by EAs with testimonials all by EAs.)

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Will Bradshaw17
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This seems very promising -- thank you for taking this on for the community!

I would personally find it helpful if you could elaborate a bit on what you mean by a "retreat" here, and give a few examples of types of events that would or wouldn't fall within your remit. In my experience there are several quite different types of event that are sometimes called "retreats", so it would be helpful to get more information on which of these you are excited about running, and why.

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Leilani Bellamy16
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Hi Will, thank you for your question. I’ll leave my answer here and also put it on the website for future clarification.

By retreat, I mean a gathering of people with a common interest or goal, all sharing space over the course of a weekend or a week. This could be as small as 5 or as large as 50, although I believe between 15 and 30 is the sweet spot. Any more than 30 and it feels like a party, plus you most likely don’t get to know everyone there. 


Types of events I’m most excited about:  a non-exhaustive list

  • Cause-area specific retreats
  •  goal orient retreats ( as in, we’re all going to get together and work really hard for x amount of says to make headway on this problem)
  •  deep learning weeks (where people get together and read a whole textbook, or learn something hard together that they would have put off otherwise) 
  • community-building retreats with a clear goal in mind 
  • Coworking retreats
  •  bonding retreats for orgs
  •  workshop-type retreats for new EAs
  • HEA retreats targeted at getting people more involved and connected

Things that people call retreats that I’m less excited about:

  • Large summer camps (we just don’t have the capacity for this right now)
  • retreats with more than 50 people- might as well make it a mini-conference or split it into two retreats
  •  Retreats that don’t have a clear path to impact. 

I’m mostly pointing at things that make retreats worse than actually retreats I’m less excited about. However, I think as we produce more retreats I'll be able to give a more firm answer to this question.


For anyone else reading this, If the type of retreat you’re excited about isn’t on this list, please still apply for a consultation. I’d be happy to chat.


 

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Renan Araujo7
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Loved the name! Could you give examples of what kinds of events you aim to provide assistance for? Retreats for highly-engaged EAs (eg, most pre/post-EAG retreats, team retreats), EA intro camps, rationality camps (eg, SPARC), all of these?

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Linda Linsefors7
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From your website:

Canopy Retreats aids EA orgs and community members in the planning and running of mid-sized, multi-day retreats.

What size is "mid-sized"?

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Leilani Bellamy4
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mid-sized refers to retreats with around 30 people. but we cater to retreats between 5 and 50.

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Kris Chari6
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so exciting!!!!

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aaronmayer1
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Love this idea! 😍

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[anonymous]1
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nice new wording!

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