If you bring value to your organization, have a success story to share, or would like to discuss a relevant topic that impacts your role as an evaluator, AEA wants to hear from you! We are now accepting workshop proposal submissions for the 2020 Summer Evaluation Institute, taking place June 7 – 10, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.  The deadline to submit a proposal is Monday, January 6, 2020 by 11:59 PM ET.

Submit Your Proposal

What to Expect at the Summer Evaluation Institute

The Summer Evaluation Institute features interactive workshops with a focus on the diverse issues and trends unique to evaluation professionals. A small Summer Evaluation Institute working group will choose a variety of high-caliber proposals to be presented during five rotations of half-day workshops.

Who Should Submit a Proposal? You!

Presenters at the Summer Evaluation Institute are nationally-known authors, outstanding trainers, and experts who have conducted evaluations across multiple settings. Share your best practices and expertise by submitting a proposal!

What Are We Looking For?

If you are... An experienced facilitator who teaches topics of interest to evaluators, applied researchers, grantmakers, foundation program officers, nonprofit administrators, and social science students, Someone who can effectively facilitate workshops for groups of 60+ attendees, or, An engaging, dynamic speaker with creative ideas ...then submit your workshop proposal today!

Are you Indigenous, Black, or a Person of Color in Minnesota doing evaluation work? Join us on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the community room at Gandhi Mahal for an evening of community building and discussion about establishing a community of practice to more intentionally address systems change in, through, and around our evaluation work. We will spend time getting to know each other, having an open conversation about our experiences, and sharing ideas about how a group like this could influence systems change. Join when you can and stay for as long as you can--whatever works best for your schedule.

This is a potluck so feel free to bring a snack to share if you are able (all are welcome though, with or without snacks!). 

Please note that this space/time is being co-created by/for/as folks with life experience as members of groups that are Indigenous, Black, and/or Of Color who are doing evaluation work. White accomplices can show their support/solidarity by honoring the needs, rights, and power involved in IBPOC gathering among ourselves, without them. There will be future opportunities for White accomplices to participate and engage with us in these conversations. 

Please let us know if you plan to attend the December 17th meeting (in-person or remotely) or are interested in attending future events by completing this Google Form by Sunday, December 15. Feel free to forward this invitation to other IBPOCs practicing evaluation in Minnesota who may be interested in attending.

You may find it helpful to know:

·          If you are unable to attend in person, you can attend remotely via Zoom.  Contact Carolina at Carolina@pdastats.com.  

·          Children are welcome.

·          Gandhi Mahal is accessible by the Blue Line and Bus Route 21; we are happy to try helping coordinate transportation.

·          There is a ramp at both ends of the sidewalk on 27th Avenue and the community room is wheelchair accessible; we are happy to try to pin down details and arrange for specific types of access/accommodations including alternative formats, translation, and interpretation.

·          Gandhi Mahal is a restaurant and its community room is not scent-free.

If you have any questions, please contact Carolina at Carolina@pdastats.com.  

We look forward to connecting with you!

Sincerely,

Tia Bastian (Professional Data Analysts)
Carolina De La Rosa Mateo (Professional Data Analysts)
Kassira Absar (The Improve Group)
Vidhya Shanker (Rainbow Research)

Dear evaluator,

My name is John LaVelle, I am an Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota.  I am asking you today to ask for your help on a research study on evaluator values.  My team and I are conducting this study because the values that evaluators hold are often alluded to in the scholarly literature but have not always been well defined or measured.

In this study, we will be asking questions about your individual, work, professional, and practice values, and your answers will help create an initial -not conclusive- picture of evaluator values in 2019.

Participation should take no more than 20 minutes of your time, and will remain open until December 1.  You are not required to participate, of course, but participating will help us better understand the individual values evaluators hold, and how those values influence their work.

For every survey completed, I will donate $5 to the AEA international student travel fund, up to $1000.

Preliminary results will be shared at the 2020 AEA and 2020 EES conferences.

Follow this link to participate: https://umn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6szpWpuTKEruLKR

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, and please feel free to share this invitation with your evaluation colleagues.

John and team:

Justin Hackett, Cal U Pennsylvania
Clayton Stephenson, USC
Scott Donaldson, CGU

RSVP at z.umn.edu/AEA19 

Brrr! Do you feel the fall chill?

Please help us roll out a WARM welcome to our guests for the AEA conference this November by bringing a new or gently used adult-sized hat, scarf or set of gloves to the MNEA Welcome table on the first day. 

Conference attendees who need a hat, scarf or gloves can use them to stay warm.

Any left at the end of the conference will be donated.  

Take a hat, leave a hat, lend a hand!

Experience Evaluation 2019 from the Comfort of Your Home or Office Virtual Conference Registration is Now Open!

Attending Evaluation 2019 in person is a great opportunity to learn and network with your peers, but if you can’t join us in Minneapolis, AEA offers another solution – the Virtual Conference! Last year, evaluators from more than 65 countries joined us virtually. Consider registering for our 2019 Virtual Conference experience to connect with peers from across the globe and to: Live-stream Evaluation 2019 Presidential Strand Plenaries Receive three-month access to recorded Presidential Strand sessions and all four plenary sessions after the conference Enjoy valuable evaluation content without the hassle of travel expenses The Virtual Conference costs $50 for members and $100 for non-members. Secure your spot today!

How to Register Visit the Evaluation 2019 virtual conference website to register for the event. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with an access code. During the scheduled plenary times, you can enter your code into the Virtual Conference portal and view the Evaluation 2019 plenary sessions. Please note: The Presidential Strand breakout sessions will be available post-conference.

QUESTIONS? Visit the Evaluation 2019 website for more information, or contact us at info@eval.org or 202.367.1166.

Join the MN Department of Health for a monthly
Mental Well-Being and Resilience Learning Community

 

Tuesday, October 29, 2019 from 10-Noon

Healing Illuminated: Promoting Self-Care in our Families, Schools and Communities  

 

 Rebeka Ndosi

Healing Justice Coach & Consultant, Health Practitioner, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Speaker, Film Producer

Learning and practicing self-care must happen in community and be reinforced in community.  Providing parents, teachers and other caregivers tools to self-regulate are a critical part of a trauma informed organization and community.  Healing Illuminated provides adults with these tools to heal as well as specific tools and skills to share those gifts with the young people in their lives.  Healing Illuminated provides breathing, yoga, mindfulness and other tools to adults from schools, organizations and communities across the Greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and nationwide, and is finding ways to help build them into school systems.  One example is a training they offered through a cohort of adult educators, youth workers, parents and caregivers who work with students who are labeled as having Educational Behavioral Disorder. Along with practicing mind-body tools for addressing their own stress and trauma, participants engaged in learning about the history of the EBD Special Education category and ways to incorporate simple tools into their lives, their homes, classrooms, offices and organizations in order to create a space of wholeness for themselves and the youth in their lives.…….Learn about how this work has evolved and been implemented in multiple kinds of spaces.  https://www.alifeinpractice.com/ 

Dear Colleagues,

Evaluation researchers at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are seeking evaluators who do community-based work to participate in a phone interview regarding the influence of gatekeeping on evaluation practice. If you participate, you will be asked questions regarding your work. Results of the interview will inform our growing theory of gatekeeping in evaluation practice that may play a role in promoting or limiting inclusivity. These results will be reviewed only by researchers or research assistants involved in the study and employed by UW-Madison.

If you decide to participate, you do not have to answer any question in the interview that you do not wish to answer.  The information you provide will be kept completely confidential and anonymous.  Individuals will not be identified. The interview should take about 30 - 60 minutes to complete.

I hope you will consider sharing your valuable perspective and experiences with us!

Questions concerning the project and the interviews should be directed to:

Travis R. Moore
Ph.D. Student in Civil Society & Community Research
Project Assistant with the Center for Community & Nonprofit Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cell: 512-914-4880 | trmoore2@wisc.edu