Goal of this Guide

• To develop a network of at least five administrators consistently willing to promote your AI Safety Group’s material to students in their major.

TLDR - Key Info from this Guide

• Email advisors or administrators from a specific major politely asking if they could share included marketing material with students in their program via email.
• Use this email template, including a section explaining how AI safety is relevant to the given major.
• Target especially large or AI Safety relevant majors, aiming to contact 5 - 20 professors.
  • These include:
    • Computer Science
    • Mathematics
    • Machine Learning
    • Public Policy
    • Political Science
    • Law/Legal Studies
    • International Affairs/Relations
    • PPE (Philosophy, Politics, Economics)
• Send emails ~2 weeks before an event
• Follow up on unanswered emails 3-5 days after sending. Template here.
• Use this spreadsheet to keep track of who has shared your programs, so you can contact them in the future.

Mailing List Outreach Strategy

(Also known as “Faculty Driven Outreach”)

Motivation

Mailing list outreach outreach involves asking a staff member, usually an advisor or administrator dedicated to a specific major to promote your group to their students, typically via a newsletter or email blast.

<aside> 📈 Many AI safety groups find that mailing list outreach is their most effective form of outreach, in terms of new members per hour of organizer time (besides the activities fair). As such, establishing a solid mailing list outreach campaign seems like a first priority for any outreach push.

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Who to contact

Focus on individuals most likely to control mailing lists, this is typically administrators and major advisors.

• Start with: advising “service email” - like [email protected]
• Then: Major Advisor
• Then: Department Staff

<aside> 🔑 Always send these emails from .edu email accounts associated with your school.

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