This is Sarah Boyd, CEO of META Studios and President of the Atlanta-area Evaluation Association (AaEA).
AaEA is excited to sponsor this week’s AEA365 blogs and shine a spotlight on evaluation trends and best practices from the fields of education, technology, non-profit support, peacebuilding, and public health. Atlanta is home to a variety of large corporations and government entities, and our affiliate membership reflects this diversity. We are delighted to support the practice of evaluation across all fields and sectors, public and private corporations, government and non-government organizations alike.
Throughout 2019, our affiliate worked to increase member diversity through targeted outreach, enhance member engagement with tailored programming and relationship building, and increase awareness of the benefits of being a member of AaEA.
Why increase awareness of the benefits of affiliate membership?
Lesson Learned: Not all evaluators understand the relationship between local affiliates and AEA.
Membership within local affiliates is separate from membership within the national organization. The local affiliate offers intimate networking opportunities and regional support to bolster members’ pursuits of success. You can even be a member of affiliates in which you do not reside, and many affiliates – including AaEA – offer virtual programming. All local operating costs are funded through affiliate membership dues and fundraising activities.
Lesson Learned: Communication is key. We polled our members and discovered that we need a better onboarding process. In 2020, we will pilot a new member informational packet to describe the benefits of affiliate membership. We maintain ongoing communication with our members through bi-monthly email newsletters and Facebook, with a special section devoted to updates from the LAC.
Rad Resource: You can check out more about AaEA on our Wild Apricot site: https://atl-eval.wildapricot.org. There, you can sign up for our email newsletter and join our Facebook group.
I hope you enjoy this week’s posts. Happy holidays!
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Atlanta-area Evaluation Association (AaEA) Affiliate Week with our colleagues in the AaEA Affiliate. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from AaEA Affiliate members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.