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Running a local PauseAI Community: A Guide to Local Organizing

Why is local organizing important?

Local organizing–working with groups of volunteers in local communities to advance a cause–is the heart and soul of the PauseAI movement. Right now, we have volunteers in dozens of cities around the world , and we expect this number to grow.

Effective local organizing can be much more impactful than ineffective local organizing. We’ve seen the kind of impact that effective organizing can have, as shown by the grassroots movements that have changed the course of history. In other words, it’s important to do this right.

This guide will walk you through the ins and outs of local organizing, such as recruiting volunteers, staging events, building coalitions, and more. You should come away from this guide armed with these tools and prepared to become a local organizer.

Good luck. The future is yours.

Table of contents

Set up the basics

  1. Set up a chat group. Use a tool that’s popular in your area. WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal are all good options. Make sure there is an invite link that you can share to easily invite others.
  2. Add your group to the local-communities channel on our Discord
    . Add the invite link from that chat group in the thread on Discord. The moderators will add your local group to the communities page on this website, and use your link.
  3. Find a partner. Find someone to help you. It’s much easier and more fun to organize with a partner.
  4. Get training. There are over 70 organizations
    around the globe that can train you or your group!
  5. Reach out to your National Group if it exists!

Developing a Local Campaign Plan

One pitfall that organizers sometimes make is that they’ll start taking action without any clear plan. This can lead to unfocused organizing efforts which are less effective than they could be. As you’re thinking through the change you want to make in your community, it’s important to come up with a plan: what are your goals, and what steps are you going to take in order to get there?

Goals

What do you ultimately want to accomplish? These are your goals. Possible goals could include:

  • Raising awareness of AI risks in your community
  • Convincing elected officials to publicly support an AI moratorium
  • Building public support and generating public attention around an AI moratorium

Tactics

Working backwards from these goals, how will you accomplish them? These are your tactics. Your specific tactics come from the strategy you choose. Initial strategies can be fairly high-level, e.g. “I will build up a team of volunteers and get them to help run public outreach events.”

Possible tactics could include:

  • Working with teams of volunteers
  • Building alliances with community groups
  • Running public education events on AI risk
  • Generating letters, phone calls, and public comments to elected officials
  • Writing to news outlets
  • Meeting directly with elected officials’ offices

Personal Fit

Where do you fit into all of this? You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. Useful questions to ask yourself include:

  • How many hours per week do I want to spend on this? Knowing this can help provide a clear sense of what you can expect to accomplish on a weekly basis.
  • What are my skills? Knowing this can help you determine which aspects of your plan you want to focus on, vs. which aspects to delegate to others. Make sure you have at least some skill in the areas of the campaign that you want to implement.
  • What are my shortcomings? Answering this question can help you find volunteers who are strongest in areas where you’re weakest.

Other best practices for campaign planning

  • Make sure that each of your preferred tactics fits into your overall goal. For instance, if your goal is to convince elected officials to act and your tactics include building alliances with community groups, you should have a clear sense of why and how building alliances with community groups can lead to elected officials being convinced to act.
  • Assigning a numerical value to your goals and tactics can help make your planning more concrete. For example, your tactics might include building a team of 10 volunteers, writing 50 letters to Congressional offices, publishing 3 articles in local news outlets, etc.
  • Your campaign plan doesn’t need to be extremely specific. The overall idea is to get some clearer sense of what you’re trying to accomplish and how you envision getting there.

Sample Campaign Plan

Here is an abridged sample campaign plan, for additional guidance:

Goal: Convince my U.S. Representative and Senators to publicly support an international treaty establishing a moratorium on frontier AI development.

Strategy:

  1. Build public visibility of AI risk.
  2. Directly pressure elected officials to support an AI moratorium. (Assumption: elected officials are more likely to respond to highly-visible cause areas with substantial public pressure).

Tactics:

  • Publish 10 op-eds and letters to the editor in local newspapers.
  • Generate 50 phone calls and 50 letters from constituents to their Congressional offices.
  • Hold events, such as talks and protests, open to the public and meant to receive media coverage.
  • Meet directly with Congressional offices and introduce our policy proposals.

What I can do, as a local organizer:

  • Recruit volunteers to help implement these tactics.
  • Delegate tasks to volunteers.
  • Plan events with volunteer buy-in.
  • Schedule meetings with Congressional offices.

Recruiting Volunteers

Once you have a clearer sense of your plan, it’s time to find volunteers for your local group.

Online recruitment

Spreading the word about your group online can help you reach audiences more easily. You can create pages for your group on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and EventBrite. A general best practice is to include information about your group, its goals and initiatives, and how community members can get involved. Be sure to include posts on upcoming events and share these with your network.

Here are links to PauseAI’s Facebook page

and PauseAI NYC’s Eventbrite
page for inspiration. You can use similar structures for your local group.

You should also add events to our Luma

, so people can be notified and find it on our Events page .

One-on-one outreach

Often, the best volunteers will be people you already know – friends, classmates, coworkers, colleagues. Part of this is simply due to shared interests, part is because good organizing includes a strong social element (i.e. attending a group meeting and getting drinks afterward).

Generally, this kind of personal contact works best to move people to action and is a great way to start building your group. You can introduce PauseAI to your personal network the same way that you’d introduce any group or club you’re interested in, and get interested people more involved.

All recruitment should have a clear ask to get volunteers immediately involved – i.e. “tomorrow at 7pm I’m organizing our welcome meeting at the library– would you like to join us?”

Flyering and tabling

Flyering involves handing out flyers to passersby with more information about PauseAI and how to get involved. Tabling is similar, but you have a more visible presence (plus, you get to sit down).

This is an effective way to recruit volunteers because you get to talk to potentially dozens of people in a few hours. For more information on how to make these efforts go well, please read our flyering guide .

Remember to tailor your message to your local group. Make sure your flyers include information on upcoming events and how local volunteers can get involved.

Outreach to other groups and organizations

You are probably surrounded by many existing advocacy groups. These groups already have members who are motivated and actively volunteering– some of whom might want to get involved with PauseAI.

Types of groups to reach out to include, but are not limited to:

  • AI safety groups
    (i.e. discussion groups on AI safety).
  • Environmental and climate policy groups, including local chapters of national organizations. (These groups are already familiar with existential risk from climate change, and might be more receptive to existential risk from AI).
  • Local Effective Altruism chapters
    .
  • Labor organizations. (These groups might be concerned with job loss and automation from advanced AI systems).
  • Other advocacy groups.

Finding groups to reach out to

You can simply search the internet for groups, by searching “environmental policy groups in (my city),” or going on websites like Facebook and Meetup to find active groups. If you are a college student, your college or university might have a public list of student organizations which you can sort by category.

Crafting a compelling outreach message

When reaching out to a group, you want your initial message to:

  • explain PauseAI and your goals as a local chapter;
  • explain how your local chapter relates to the objectives of the group you’re contacting and why members might be interested;
  • close with an “ask” and some next steps. This “ask” can include requesting a meeting to discuss collaboration in more detail, asking the group to share information about PauseAI to their volunteer list, asking to speak at an upcoming group meeting, etc.

Here’s a sample message for inspiration:

Sample message to climate policy group:

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re doing well! I’m reaching out on behalf of PauseAI . We are a grassroots movement with the goal of achieving an international moratorium on the development of human-level Artificial Intelligence. We recently started a chapter in (city), and I wanted to discuss the possibility of working together on this issue.

Just as fossil-fuel companies have undermined efforts to curb emissions, so too are AI companies funding efforts to achieve human-level AI as quickly as possible, despite experts admitting

that these systems could threaten civilization. This issue intersects with climate risk more directly, since AI training runs require vast amounts of energy, often sourced from fossil fuels.

We need to pressure our elected officials to regulate these technologies. Given the work your organization has done in achieving climate policy, I thought some of your members might be interested in this opportunity.

Can you share our information with your volunteer list? Below is a link to our public page. I’d also be happy to schedule a call and discuss this further.

Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

(include link to e.g. your local group’s meetup page, plus a brief description of how volunteers can get involved.)

Speaking at group meetings

Another way to recruit volunteers from existing groups is to try to get yourself invited to speak at these groups’ meetings. This will likely come later– after you’ve exchanged a few emails with group leaders– but can be an impactful way to get your message out there.

Giving a pitch

Speaking at group meetings– or any public event– will give you the opportunity to pitch people on joining PauseAI. It’s important to have a strong and memorable pitch. These can vary in length but generally follow the same structure:

  • Introduction: Who you are and why you’re here.
    • Why are you motivated to act, as an individual? What is your story?
    • Example: I just started my city’s chapter of PauseAI, and I’m here to share more about the risks of advanced AI, how we can prevent these risks, and how you can help get involved.
  • Problem: What is the problem, and why should your audience care about it? How does the problem intersect with the interests of your audience?
    • What common values are threatened? Why should the audience be motivated to act? (You can tailor this section to the interests of your audience. For instance, if speaking to a labor group, you might want to talk more about automation/job loss from AI.)
    • Example: AI systems are advancing rapidly. AI companies have the goal of building systems more intelligent and capable than humans, despite safety experts telling us that we don’t know how to control these systems. Human disempowerment or extinction is a possible outcome of superhuman-level AI.
  • Solution: How can we fix the problem? (This section is more about the big-picture vision and less about specific tactics.)
    • Example: We need a global moratorium on frontier AI development, in order to prevent companies from racing ahead to human-level AI and to give us more time to figure out how to make these systems safe.
  • Strategy: How do we achieve our proposed solution? What does our group have to offer to help make this solution happen?
    • Example: We need to build grassroots support and buy-in from elected officials for a moratorium. We can do this by educating the public on the risks of AI and meeting with elected officials directly.
  • Urgency: Why should people get involved now? What makes this cause urgent?
    • Example: We might not have much time. As AI systems become more capable, preventing their further development will be a harder sell. Experts are telling us that human-level AI might only be a few years away, and we need policies to catch up to the rate of progress.
  • Call to Action: How can your audience get involved immediately?
    • Example: Join our local group’s meeting next Saturday to find out more about how you can get involved.

Outreach to college professors

Some of the best volunteers come from colleges and universities. College students are often eager to get involved, and colleges provide a good environment for all kinds of groups. You can reach out to college professors from relevant departments and ask them to spread the word about your group.

Many colleges and universities have public directories listing course offerings and faculty contacts. Relevant departments and courses to consider reaching out to include:

  • Computer science departments
  • Political science departments
  • Courses on AI law and policy
  • Courses on AI and society

When emailing a professor, your email can be pretty straightforward:

  1. Introduce yourself and your local PauseAI group
  2. Explain why the professor’s students might be interested in PauseAI (i.e. its relevance to the class)
  3. Ask the professor to forward information on your PauseAI chapter to their class

Here’s a sample email for more inspiration:

SUBJ: AI policy opportunity to share with students

Good morning (professor),

I hope you’re doing well. I’m reaching out on behalf of PauseAI, an organization dedicated to advancing policies to curb dangerous and unethical misuses of advanced artificial intelligence.

We have recently founded a local chapter in (city), and I thought some of your students might be interested. We will be meeting to discuss AI policy proposals, holding educational events on mitigating the dangers of AI, writing to news outlets and elected officials, and more. Further information below.

Could you share the message below with your students or others who might be interested?

I’d also be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks so much for your time.

PauseAI (City): opportunity to get involved with local AI policy chapter

Are you interested in learning more about AI policy? Curious about how we should respond to emerging AI technologies? Get involved with PauseAI (City)!

PauseAI is an international movement to mitigate the risks from powerful Artificial Intelligence until we know how to make it safe. Our city chapter will hold educational events on AI policy, spread awareness of AI risks through media, and contact our elected officials to support robust policy solutions to AI harms.

We will be meeting regularly through the summer and are looking for volunteers to get involved.

If you’re interested, please sign up here (include link)!

Working with volunteers

Once you’ve recruited a group of volunteers, it’s time to work with them on the campaign.

Characteristics of a Well-Run Local Group

A well-run group of volunteers means that every volunteer:

  • Has a clear sense of their responsibilities to make local organizing efforts go well;
  • Is plugged into the group as a whole, attends group meetings, and works well with other volunteers;
  • Works on a subset of tasks that interests them and that they enjoy;
  • Feels empowered and agentic, that they have a stake in the movement as a whole.

Having a well-run local group will require you to meet and check in with individual volunteers on a regular basis, as well as run group meetings that all volunteers can attend.

One-on-one meetings with volunteers

Early on, it’s important to meet with new volunteers who are just getting started with PauseAI. These initial meetings have several key goals:

  • Get to know volunteers on an individual level; understand their interests and motivations in joining PauseAI.
  • Provide additional context and share a vision of what your local group is trying to accomplish.
  • Determine what kind(s) of work volunteers are interested in getting involved with, and in what capacity.
  • Pitch volunteers on specific roles and responsibilities, based on their interests.

The overall goal is to come out of these meetings with 1) a clear understanding of each volunteer’s role and responsibilities and 2) specific next steps volunteers can take.

Team-wide meetings

In addition to individual meetings with specific volunteers, it’s important to get the whole group together periodically. This gives you a chance to share team-wide updates, discuss priorities, and plan events and initiatives.

Ideally, these meetings should last around an hour. Depending on volunteer interest and planned events, meetings can occur anywhere from weekly to monthly.

A good meeting both: 1) covers the group’s goals and initiatives, and how volunteers can get involved, and 2) gives volunteers the space to share their perspective and provide new ideas.

A good meeting requires good facilitation

. This includes:

  • Setting standards around decision-making – having clear expectations on how to make decisions about what to do as a group. (does there need to be unanimous agreement? majority vote? Or do you, as the facilitator, make the decision? Of course, this may depend on the importance of the decision.)
  • Regulating the flow of discussion, making sure one person isn’t dominating the conversation and that everyone has a chance to voice their perspectives.
  • Keeping the meeting focused on one item at a time until the issue is resolved.
  • Keeping the meeting on time, and ensuring that a written record is kept of any meeting notes and decisions.
  • Introducing open questions to the group to explore ideas further, and asking clarifying questions to get a better understanding of what someone is saying.

Additional meeting tools include:

  • Go-rounds: Hearing from everyone in turn on a certain question or topic.
  • Ideastorms: Give a clear question and encourage people to come up with as many ideas as possible.
  • Small groups or pairs: Give people a chance to work out their thoughts on something before returning to a large-group discussion.

Sample team meeting agenda

Here is a sample team meeting agenda for inspiration:

  • Updates from the previous week(s)
    • Each volunteer shares what they’ve been working on since the previous meeting
    • Discuss how these updates fit into the group’s overall goals
  • Discuss current priorities and strategy
    • What are the group’s current goals? Describe ongoing projects and events that volunteers can get plugged into.
    • Discuss upcoming events and initiatives - priorities for the coming weeks
    • Lay out a vision of the group’s goals, including upcoming events and projects.
  • Brainstorming session – get volunteers to share ideas for other events and initiatives that the group can take on.
  • Next steps
    • Make sure everyone has a clear sense of what they will be doing in the coming weeks in order to help the group achieve its goals.
    • Each volunteer shares what they’ll do before the next meeting.

Team member responsibilities and division of labor

As your team grows, different volunteers will want to get involved in different ways. Encouraging this is a great way to make your group stronger, so that each volunteer has their own way of contributing to the movement.

One way to enable this is with a list of roles and responsibilities that different volunteers have chosen to take on. As you learn about volunteers’ interests and how they’d like to contribute, you can pitch them on specific roles.

Here is a sample table of roles for inspiration: (This is only meant to provide an illustrative example of possible roles; different groups might have very different roles depending on their priorities and interests.)

Person Role Responsibilities Hours/week
Media outreach coordinator Writes letters to the editor and op-eds to local newspapers, and encourages others to do the same. Maintains contact with local journalists. Sends press releases prior to big events (e.g. protests) in order to ensure media coverage.
Coalition builder Reaches out to other groups to share news and information about PauseAI. Speaks at other groups’ meetings. Shares info about upcoming events and recruits attendees from other groups.
Congressional outreach specialist Plans letter-writing and phone campaigns to Congressional offices. Organizes events encouraging the public to call their Congressmembers about AI. Schedules meetings with Congressional offices to discuss PauseAI’s treaty proposal.
Events planner Plans public-facing events, e.g. protests and educational sessions. Recruits attendees from public groups, flyering sessions, etc.

Events and initiatives for local organizers

So, you have a well-organized group of volunteers, eager to get involved and with a clear sense of their responsibilities. Now what?

There are many different ways to achieve your goals as a local group. Check out our events page for ideas of the next events that are planned. Whenever you decide to organize one, don’t forget to add it there! In addition to them, the following list is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to provide inspiration as you begin planning your campaign.

Social events & having drinks

Social, fun events are a great way to build a sense of community among your volunteers. Even if you don’t make a direct impact with such an event, you are strengthening the bonds between your volunteers, which can make your group more effective in the long run. Some things you can do:

  • Happy hours: Meet at a local bar or restaurant for drinks and socializing.
  • Potlucks: Have volunteers bring food to share at a local park or community center.
  • Game nights: Host a game night at someone’s house or a local game store.
  • Movie nights: Watch a documentary or movie (maybe AI related!) together at someone’s house or a local theater.

Public teach-ins and action sessions on AI risk

Invite members of the general public to attend an open session where they can learn more about AI risk and PauseAI’s treaty proposal, followed by taking some concrete action related to PauseAI’s mission.

Actions can include e.g. writing letters or making phone calls to their Congressional office supporting AI regulation.

Sample event agenda (for an action session on Congressional outreach)

  • Introduction / social mingling
  • Presentation session
    • Introduce PauseAI
    • Discuss AI risks
    • Describe PauseAI’s treaty proposal
    • Explain the importance of Congressional outreach
  • Letter-writing session
    • Go over best practices for writing to your Congressperson
    • Have attendees hand-write letters to their Congressperson
    • Provide envelopes and stamps for attendees to mail letters
  • Invite attendees to get involved with PauseAI

Movie (documentary) screenings on AI risk

Similar to a public teach-in, but with a documentary instead of a presentation. This can be a good way to engage the public. Bonus points if you procure popcorn and snacks. Just like a teach-in, you should ask attendees to take action immediately following the screening, i.e. by writing or calling their Congressperson. See here for a list of videos and documentaries to consider screening.

Letter to the Editor Writing Workshops

Walk volunteers through how to write a Letter to the Editor (LTE) or Op-Ed to local newspapers. This works better with volunteers who are already bought into PauseAI’s mission and understand the basic arguments, rather than members of the general public.

Sample event agenda

  • Explain the importance of media outreach
  • Go over best practices for writing to media outlets
  • Have a writing session (20-30 minutes)
    • Ask volunteers to draft LTEs and provide feedback on each others’ writing
    • Ask volunteers to submit their LTEs to specific newspapers

Flyering & Tabling Sessions

Even after you have a base of volunteers, you can continue flyering and tabling to get the word out to the public. In this context, flyering and tabling can be combined with a specific “ask,” i.e. asking people to write to their elected officials about AI Flyers can be modified to include QR codes to relevant resources, such as a letter-writing guide. Please read our Flyering Guide for more information on how to do this well.

Protests

Many PauseAI chapters have already organized protests, especially in response to specific events and developments around AI. These can be a great way to promote PauseAI and gain media coverage for the cause.

Please read our Guide to Organizing a Protest to learn how to do this.

Meetings with Congressional Offices (US)

If you are in the US, organizing a meeting with your Congressional office is one of the highest-impact things you can do. You can talk directly with someone who works for your U.S. Representative or Senator, and help introduce PauseAI’s priorities on a national level.

This is also a good fit for teams of committed volunteers. It’s ideal to have multiple people attending these meetings and offering unique perspectives on why they care about AI risks and support a pause.

Please read our US Lobby Guide to learn more about how to do this well.

Note: If you live in another (democratic) country, some of the processes are likely similar, but the details may differ on accessibility of meetings and how to set these up. You can find out more about the process in your country by e.g. exploring government websites and learning how to request meetings with your elected officials.

Note: Finding space for public, in-person events

There are several ways to procure free or cheap meeting spaces, as long as you plan ahead of time. Here are some ideas.

  • Public Libraries: Many libraries offer free meeting rooms for community groups, nonprofit organizations, and educational sessions. You may need to book in advance and comply with the library’s policies.
  • Community Centers: Local community centers often have rooms available for use at no cost. These centers aim to support local activities and may prioritize local residents and community groups.
  • Universities and Colleges: Educational institutions sometimes provide free space for meetings, particularly for alumni or community-oriented events. Contact the institution’s events department or community relations office for more information.
  • Local Businesses and Cafés: Some businesses, like cafes and bookstores, have spaces that can be used for meetings during off-peak hours. It’s often expected that participants will buy something from the establishment.
  • Online Platforms: Websites like EventBrite or Facebook Groups can be resources for finding shared spaces that are available for free. Community boards often list available spaces.
  • Municipal Buildings: Town halls and other municipal buildings frequently have rooms available for public use. These are typically available free of charge but might require proof that the meeting serves a community benefit.
  • Churches and Religious Centers: Many religious centers are happy to offer their space for community or nonprofit gatherings. They might not advertise this widely, so it’s worth asking directly.
  • Parks and Outdoor Venues: For less formal meetings or gatherings, consider a local park. Ensure you check if you need a permit, especially for larger groups or special setups.

When using free spaces, it’s good etiquette to leave the space as you found it and to thank the provider. This maintains a good relationship and increases the likelihood that the space will be available for future use.

Note: Best practices for event planning

  • Invite attendees to public events. If hosting a public-facing event, it’s important to do this well in advance. You can set up a Facebook or Meetup event, promote the event by sharing it with other groups, and build attendance.
  • Make sure the address you’re providing people gives instructions beyond a street address, if needed. For instance, if you’re tabling but don’t have exact directions to your table inside the building, a surprising number of new members will just give up. A table sign (print photos at Walmart for $1 each) can also help significantly.
  • Include a social element to events. Make sure there’s time for social mingling and building a sense of community. Include unstructured time on the event agenda for people to introduce themselves and mingle.
  • You can also host 100% social events – where there is no agenda or presentation, just getting together for food or drinks. Having these events occasionally can be a good idea.
  • Always include follow-up and next steps at the end of the event. Give attendees a clear sense of what they can do, going forward, to remain involved with PauseAI.

Overcoming Obstacles in Local Organizing

Obstacle 1: Difficulty getting your group off the ground

You might have a hard time finding volunteers to begin with. Maybe the people you’re talking to don’t seem interested, your flyering sessions aren’t going well, and you can’t seem to get any existing local groups to return your emails.

How to Overcome:

  • Use your personal network as much as possible. Reach out to anyone you know who you think might be interested in getting involved, and ask them if they know anyone you might talk to. Similarly, if you know anyone in a local group, reach out to them personally.
  • Make sure you have a very strong “pitch” when flyering. If your pitch seems unfocused, weak, or tepid, this could be contributing to your lack of interest. Read this guide to learn more about developing a strong pitch.
  • Make sure you’re flyering in a high population-density area with lots of potential volunteers.
  • Make sure your messages and emails to groups are clear and direct, with a specific request. You can also send your email drafts to the PauseAI Discord and receive feedback.
  • If groups aren’t getting back to you, you might not be casting a wide enough net. Consider reaching out to more groups, even if their focus seems only loosely or tangentially related to AI.

Obstacle 2: Lack of focus

You might have an influx of volunteers who vaguely want to get involved, but don’t have a clear sense of how they want to help. This can make your team disorganized, with lots of ideas but without a clear plan to follow through.

How to Overcome:

  • Initial meetings with volunteers might not provide a clear enough sense of what their roles and responsibilities could be. In this case, you can schedule additional one-on-one meetings and dive deeper into these questions. The goals of these additional one-on-ones should be to firm up understanding of how, specifically, each volunteer can get involved, and to create a specific follow-up plan to ensure accountability.
  • If team meetings are “too much talk and not enough action,” you might need to restructure the meeting agenda to include more time at the end for concrete planning. Ask volunteers to go around the room and list what, specifically, they’ll do before the following

meeting.

  • It also helps to check in with volunteers between meetings to see how they’re doing in terms of their responsibilities, and if they have any questions or need help with anything. This can even just take the form of a quick check-in text.

Obstacle 3: your group “fizzles out” due to waning interest from volunteers

Volunteers might be initially excited to get involved but lose interest over time. This can happen because volunteers don’t feel motivated, don’t like the actions that interest them, or simply realize that volunteering isn’t for them.

Some of this is inevitable– not everyone will remain invested at all times– but much can be averted.

How to Overcome:

  • Make sure volunteers feel empowered and agentic. Volunteers need to feel that they have a stake in what’s going on, and that their insight matters. This is another reason why one-on-one meetings are so important; you can understand volunteers’ motivations and work with them accordingly. Similarly, during team meetings, always provide ample time for volunteers to propose ideas and provide feedback on plans.
  • Do fun activities together. Social events can be a great way to build a sense of community among your volunteers.
  • Make sure volunteers are involved with actions they actually enjoy. Don’t have the person who enjoys protest organizing write op-eds and the person who enjoys writing organize protests. Match tasks with the people interested in taking them on.
  • Keep a strategy of continuous recruitment. Rather than having a single recruiting burst at the beginning and then not doing any recruitment afterwards, it’s better to recruit periodically. This way, even if some people lose interest over time, you can bring new volunteers into the fold.

If you’re struggling with any aspect of local organizing, you can also discuss this in the local-organizers channel on the PauseAI Discord

, and others will be happy to help you out and provide feedback.