FYI
Dear AEA Needs Assessment TIG members,
Thank you for your membership in this TIG! It is time to begin planning for
the AEA 2018 Conference in Cleveland, OH.
The Needs Assessment TIG not only invites you to submit proposals for the
conference program, but to get involved in several other special
opportunities surrounding the conference.
1. 2018 Conference Proposal Submission
The 2018 Annual AEA Conference will be in Cleveland, OH, October 28 -
November 3. We are looking forward to needs assessment specific proposals
related to this year’s theme of: Speaking Truth to Power. We encourage TIG
members to submit proposals by 11:59 Pm ET, March 15th, 2018.
The number of submissions in part determines how much the Needs Assessment
TIG is represented at the conference. Be sure to select the Needs Assessment
TIG for review of your proposal as part of the submission process.
While we always encourage submissions that incorporate the conference theme
in the context of needs assessment, it is certainly not necessary to do so,
but presentations that tie into this theme may be showcased through the
presidential strand at the conference. Since the work of our TIG members
overlaps with other important branches of evaluation we also have the
opportunity of co-sponsoring presentations with other TIGs. While you are not
limited to these topics, we particularly encourage you to submit proposals on
the following themes:
Learning to Enhance Evaluation Practices
Share evaluation practices, including theories, methods and ethics, or
lessons in diverse professional settings.
Learning What Works and Why
Share evidence of what works and why in public policies, programs, and
projects.
Learning from Others
Share innovations from other communities that have been or could be
incorporated into evaluation practice.
Learning About Evaluation Users and Uses
Share your insights on users of our evaluations, our place in policy
decision-making, and effective strategies to increase evaluation utilization.
Speak Truth to Power
What is power? Who has it, and how can they best be influenced? What is the
power held by evaluators and evaluation?
What is truth? Whose truth? How can we best discover these truths?
And, what is speaking? Whispering? Public pronouncements? Influence?
Activism? And by whom on behalf of whom?
To submit or to get more information, go to the conference website at
http://www.eval.org/p/cm/ld/fid=602 ;<http://www.eval.org/p/cm/ld/fid=602>.
Note: You will have a login account to enter a proposal. If you do not want
to join AEA right now, you can very easily create a non-member account
entering just your name and email address.
2. Volunteer as a Proposal Reviewer
Please consider volunteering to serve as a peer-reviewer for our TIG. It is
one of the possible ways to be involved with the TIG. Last year, each
reviewer was assigned 4-5 abstracts (approximately 1 page each). Reviewing is
easy. You read the abstract, then rate each one according to standardized
criteria. To volunteer please either (1) reply to this email by March 18th or
(2) select our TIG as one for which you’d like to serve as a reviewer when
you submit your own proposal through the AEA website.
3. Generate Ideas for TIG Networking and Social Gatherings
We are very interested in developing conference networking and social
exchanges outside of the formal program, so we encourage you to communicate
with us if you have ideas about events or gatherings outside the conference
that would interest TIG members and bring them together.
4. Check out the AEA library
The AEA library is a great resource for work presented at previous
conferences. If you presented at Evaluation 2017, be sure you have submitted
your presentation to the library using the Participation menu Public ELibrary
<http://comm.eval.org/browse/communitylibraries>.
5. Check out our TIG Website and Listserv
The information in the call for proposals can always be found on the AEA
website, which is public, so you may invite colleagues outside of AEA to
participate in the conference too.
http://comm.eval.org/needsassessment/home ;
<http://comm.eval.org/needsassessment/home> For practitioners, students,
researchers, and others who are interested in the topic of needs assessment
(including non-AEA members), we have created an email group (listserv). You
can post questions, share articles, and find experts by posting to this
mailing list. To Join, send an email to
<needsassessment-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:needsassessment-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> with the subject line
"Subscribe".
We are looking forward to seeing you in Cleveland, OH. !
Sincerely,
Lisle
Needs Assessment TIG leaders Contact Info:
Lisle Hites, Chair
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Email: lhites@xxxxxxx <mailto:lhites@xxxxxxx>
Hsin-Ling (Sonya) Hung, Co-Chair
Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Health Disparities
Email: hsinling.hung@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:hsinling.hung@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Ryan Watkins, Program Chair
George Washington University
Email: rwatkins@xxxxxxx <mailto:rwatkins@xxxxxxx>
Yi-Fang Lee, Program Co-Chair
National Taiwan Normal University
Email: ivana@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:ivana@xxxxxxxxxxx>
