The Impact of AEA Membership Engagement by Kathy Newcomer

Hello! I’m Kathy Newcomer. Serving as president of AEA this year has been an honor and privilege for many reasons. One of them is the opportunity to witness firsthand the incredible commitment and effort so many of our members exert on our behalf!

AEA members serve on TIGs, task forces and working groups and work diligently behind the scenes to move our association and profession forward on a variety of fronts. This year through these  groups our members have made many achievements that benefit us and that I want to acknowledge.

• Our Evaluation Policy Task Force (EPTF) strategically worked to develop and sustain a coalition of professional associations to provide input to the deliberations of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policy. Our EPTF provided valuable testimony, and our AEA Roadmap was cited multiple times in the final Commission’s report. The recommendations on evidence-building capacity reflected our roadmap, as well as the significant contributions of AEA member and Washington Evaluators president, Nick Hart, who was a key author!
• Our Race and Class Dialogues series led by Melvin Hall presented valuable forums for discussing how we as professional evaluators can address critical issues facing our society, and due to the dedication and time developed by Melvin and his committee, and funding provided by the Kellogg Foundation, AEA will provide an outstanding training video on this vital topic.
• Our Competencies Task Force led by Jean King moved toward completion of their multi-year effort to develop and vet a set of evaluator competencies. Members devoted an impressive amount of time conducting focus groups, surveying our membership, and consulting with evaluators globally to ensure our competencies are comprehensive, reliable and valuable.
• Our Guiding Principles Review Task Force led by former AEA President Beverly Parsons reached out extensively to our membership, including via a survey this fall, to update our association’s guidance to ethical practice.
• Many members participated in shaping our selection process for a new Executive Director under the leadership of our ED Selection chair and President-elect Leslie Goodyear through contributing valuable guidance on the job description and criteria.
• Our Membership Engagement Task Force led by Melvin Hall and Robin Miller reviewed AEA records and actions and solicited members’ input to develop a set of actionable recommendations to strengthen our association’s commitment to diversity and inclusive leadership development and membership engagement.
• Our AEA representative to IOCE Cindy Clapp-Wincek represented us across the world, and led a group of us to participate in an awe-inspiring summit of EVAL partners in Kyrgyzstan.
• My 2017 Conference Program Committee, comprised of 17 members from 7 countries, worked to develop our themes, recruit speakers and organize a video contest and sessions to ensure our conference provides a memorable learning experience for all.
• Our network of affiliates led by Leah Neubauer and Allison Titcomb worked to enhance sharing across their organizations and planned their first ever affiliates workshop for Evaluation 2017.
• Needless to say, we have all benefited immeasurably from the efforts of our TIG leaders who worked long and hard to solicit and vet conference proposals, among other important services they provide to AEA.
• And 21 working groups comprised of more than 125 AEA members work closely with our Executive Director to conduct essential association business in a variety of areas including elections, awards and international outreach.

My most important role as outgoing president is to bear witness to the achievements of so many of our members who work on our behalf with little recognition other than seeing good work accomplished to move our profession forward. THANK YOU!!!!! We truly appreciate what you have done for us!

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