This Thanksgiving, we at The Seasteading Institute would like to give thanks for our volunteers. We have a two-person staff and we could not make an impact without the help from our volunteers.
Website
We rely on three dedicated volunteers to keep our website beautiful, updated, and running. They meet every other week to discuss projects and spend hours every week keeping our complicated Frankenstein’s monster of a WordPress site humming along. Thank you to Spencer Flagg for your beautiful designs and WordPress knowledge, to Ervan Darnell for digging into the stickiest of wickets, and to Matthew Fiorenza for improving our reach.
Special thanks to Joe Christopher for setting up our Google Analytics and helping us to interpret the data.
Ambassadors
Ambassadors are volunteers committed to promoting the seasteading vision and representing the organization. We rely on the Ambassadors to take the lead in planning projects to introduce new audiences to seasteading. We recently started hosting monthly Ambassador video calls for sharing ideas and collaborating on projects. The monthly calls have inspired more ideas than we could ever hope to implement!
The Ambassador Program would not work if not for our Lead Ambassador, Katie Chowne. Katie interviews several potential Ambassadors every month, keeps track of everyone’s interests and skill-sets, and organizes monthly Ambassador calls and every other project that Ambassadors work on. Thank you, Katie, for your dedication and enthusiasm.
A few Ambassadors who have fully taken on the challenge of leadership:
Margo Duesterhaus recommended we host a book club for people to read Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians by Joe Quirk together. Then she volunteered to host the book club! We had five good discussions with seasteading supporters. They enjoyed the discussions so much that we are now hosting monthly Seasteading Social online meetings. All thanks to Margo for taking the initiative on the book club.
Jia Christopher has been a long-time supporter of seasteading. She has raised funds for us on Facebook and helped us reach new audiences. She even recruited her niece to help with a website project!
Jessica Love took on the challenge of becoming our first commission-based fundraiser. She has also been tireless in connecting us with new volunteers and Ambassadors.
Translations
Ambassador Benoit Robein created the French Seasteaders Twitter account and is always available to respond to requests from French-speaking people who have questions about seasteading.
Volunteer Maxwell Joslyn created the 海洋定居事业中文版 Twitter account for Mandarin-speakers.
Thank you to Benoit and Maxwell for helping us to reach people who don’t speak English!
Data Analysis
One of the first things new supporters do when they learn about seasteading is to complete the Floating City Survey. Ambassador Will Perkins processed the data from thousands of survey responses and produced a beautiful report that we can share with potential investors and government officials. This report will help us prove that seasteading is a viable industry.
Legal Support
The immediate challenge for seasteaders is not technological, it’s legal. Tom W. Bell to the rescue! Tom is our legal advisor. He has traveled (before the pandemic) at a moment’s notice to meet with government officials in other countries and has interpreted baroque regulations. Most recently, Tom wrote a paper detailing why a seastead flag is necessary for the next step in the seasteading movement. If you would like to join our team of amazing volunteers, send an email to .
