Sheila B Robinson on A Call for Blog Posts!

Greetings loyal aea365 readers AND authors! I’m Sheila B Robinson, aea365’s Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post asking readers what they would like to read about on aea365 in 2015.

Many thanks to those who offered their comments with ideas for posts and responses to each other. Now, I’m writing to ask YOU to consider contributing a post on one of these suggested topics, or any other evaluation-related topic.

Lesson Learned: Here’s what our readers said they would like to see:

• Some comments on developing, sharing, and storing lessons learned from evaluations.
• A post, or series of posts about evaluation from the perspective of practitioners for whom their primary job is not evaluation. Perhaps tips on how to best integrate evaluation into the myriad of other, seemingly more pressing, tasks without pushing it to the back burner.
• More about observational studies and the best practices in using secondary data sources.
• More of other evaluators’ ideas for how to make evaluation more useful for finding solutions to social problems and building a better world.
• Evaluators doing research on evaluation – what are they studying and what are they learning?
• More on collective impact and experiences in evaluation of partnerships.
• Hear from evaluators of all ages and those working with diverse communities
• More about how private consultants deal with the cost of SPSS…it causes a lot of angst. The other stat packs aren’t user friendly if you have always used SPSS.
• Case studies with operational survey questions and instruments.

Hot Tip: We’d love to hear from YOU! Do you have something to share on any of these or other evaluation-related topics? Please send us a draft post for consideration.

Hot Tip: You don’t have to be an expert to contribute! Notice that none of the comments ask for “expert” opinions. Many readers want to hear from everyday evaluators working in the field. You don’t need to be doing something unusual, or cutting edge, or revolutionary. Tell us how a strategy has worked for you in evaluation. Tell us what you’re learning about and experimenting with. Tell us about a lesson you have learned recently and are now applying in your work. Tell us about a book you have read, a course you took, or an experience you had that gave you new insight. What small lesson can you offer to teach others?

Cool Trick: Please follow contribution guidelines! You can find the link right up there…yes, just look up to the top of your screen and there it is! We can only publish posts that adhere to these simple guidelines.

Get Involved: It’s time to share YOUR insights with aea365 readers! We rely on the hundreds of generous authors who have contributed (many multiple times!) over the past 5 years to keep this daily blog going. As you can imagine, collecting 365 posts each year is no small task.

Is this the year you decide to contribute? We certainly hope so, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

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.