Welcome to the Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building (OL-ECB) TIG week on AEA365! My name is Erin Bock, Director of Research and Evaluation at The Sherwood Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska and OL-ECB TIG Program Co-Chair. Before I begin, I want to give a shout-out to my OL-ECB TIG Leadership colleagues: I’ve had a blast working with you guys.
The OL-ECB TIG team has some cool projects we’re pursuing and I’m kicking off this week setting the stage for those projects. In order to capitalize on the TIG’s momentum, the leadership team conducted a membership survey to learn more about people who choose to affiliate with the OL-ECB TIG, the needs they have within this topic area, and mechanisms they would use to get their needs met. Here’s what we learned…
Lessons Learned:
Lesson #1
The average OL-ECB TIG Member has been an evaluator for a long time, but a member of this TIG a relatively short period of time. It makes one wonder about the journey we undertake as professionals and learning that successful evaluations happen when primary intended users are comfortable with evaluative practice. This brings them to the OL-ECB’s doorstep.
Lesson #2
Among many needs, TIG members are challenged by a range of needs as well as target populations, limited time and resources, and garnering organizational leadership support for evaluation.
Lesson #3
In order to meet this need, members are looking to the TIG as a source of professional development and a place to network during the annual conference.
We have a number of initiatives planned in response to the data. Stay tuned this week to learn more. In the meantime, check out the report on the TIG’s website: http://comm.eval.org/olecb/home.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building (OL-ECB) Topical Interest Group Week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our OL-ECB TIG 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.