Hi! This is Anne Vo from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and John LaVelle from Claremont Graduate University (CGU). We are the Co-directors of the Southern California Evaluation Association (SCEA), a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Today marks the launch of the SCEA-themed week on aea365 so we will be providing an overview of what you can expect to see this week along with a few tips about some interesting things to do during your visit to Southern California!
Hot Tip – Did You Know: Southern California is a booming locale for evaluation. As of the last census, there were almost 10 million residents in Greater Los Angeles proper. Countless programs, institutions, and agencies exist in Los Angeles. In an effort to capture the diverse landscape of evaluation practice in LA, we put out a call to SCEA members asking them to contribute (1) their thoughts about practicing evaluation in Southern California and (2) ideas about something that is uniquely LA that you might be interested in experiencing during your time here!
Hot Tip – Preview of the Week: This week, you will be hearing from a diverse group of evaluators who highlight a broad range of lessons learned, tips, and rad resources from the various experiences that they have garnered from the evaluations that they conduct. Contributing SCEA members include:
- Bonnie Richards on Valuing in the Social Services
- Leslie Fierro & Deanna Rossi on Evaluating State Asthma Programs
- Bill Shennum & Kate LaVelle on the Multiple Uses of Multiple Data Sources
- Connie Hoskins on Managing a Project Remotely
- Kara Crohn on the AEA Annual Conference Fieldtrip and Using Multiple Methods to Check Your Assumptions
- Celina Chao & Patricia Quinones on Maintaining Organizational Memory (posted on August 11, 2011)
Hot Tips: Southern California has its own hustling and bustling rhythm of life, but we also believe in the importance of balancing work and play. Here are a few ideas of fun things to do during the AEA Conference while you’re visiting! For each, we’ve noted an approximate distance from the Hilton Anaheim, the Headquarters hotel for Evaluation 2011.
- Play a round at the Anaheim Hills Golf course (http://playanaheimgolf.com/) ~3 miles
- Enjoy a nice dinner at Downtown Disney (http://disneyland.disney.go.com/downtown-disney/) ~ 0.7 miles
- Test your agility at Rock City Climbing Center (http://www.rockcityclimbing.com/) ~10 miles
- If you’re adventurous and have the time on Saturday night, head over to Santa Monica to experience Opaque: Dining in the Dark (http://www.darkdining.com) ~40 miles
- Visit UCLA (~40 miles) or CGU (~30 miles) – we’ll all be at the conference, but we’d love to see you!
Please note that these ideas do not constitute an official endorsement from SCEA.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating this week with our colleagues at the Southern California Evaluation Association (SCEA), an AEA affiliate. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from SCEA 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.