Click here to read the full 2016
Washington Evaluators Annual Report

Dear Washington Evaluators Members,

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Washington Evaluators (WE), we would like to thank you for your membership, and for your participation in Washington Evaluators in 2016. The past year has been an energizing and productive year for WE.

When 2016 began with David assuming the Presidency of WE, he informed the WE Board of his several strategic priority areas for the organization over the year:

• Communicate and enhance the value of membership to WE members and potential members. WE has always been and remains committed to not only supporting our members, but also supporting the field of evaluation in the Washington, DC area. This meant that many of our events, including Professional Development Brown Bags and high visibility networking events were made available to members and non-members alike. For 2016, we wanted members and non-members to know that membership is valued and reasonably priced. During 2016, we worked to better articulate member benefits. We created a couple of “WE member only” events, including:
  
• • Access to a Discussion with Michael Quinn Patton (cohosted with the Alliance for Peacebuilding) and
  • A Visiting Evaluator Meet-and-Greet with Data Visualization Expert Stephanie Evergreen.

Do you have any ideas for future member-only events? Be sure to let us know!

• Expand opportunities for evaluation graduate students and new evaluators. As the first Chair of AEA’s Graduate Student and New Evaluator Topical Interest Group, David has always been committed to providing professional development and networking opportunities for graduate students and new evaluators, our profession’s next generation. With the Board’s support, David called upon the WE University Ambassadors to join him for a Brown Bag titled Transitioning from School to Work: Preparing Evaluation Students and New Evaluators for the Profession. The Brown Bag was very well attended, with participation by numerous students in addition to the stellar panel of AEA Past-presidents and AEA’s President-elect (and WE Past-president) Kathy Newcomer. The session became a catalyst for an equally well-attended AEA session and a WE supported DC area Student Evaluation Conference scheduled for 2017.

• Expand the active engagement of WE members and volunteers. As a registered volunteer organization of professional evaluators (VOPE), Washington Evaluators has always recognized that activities cannot occur without the long-term commitment of WE’s elected and appointed Board members, and the many volunteers with ongoing or one-time involvement in WE activities. Activities for 2016 included a WE member Meet-and-Greet networking event targeted at newer WE members. WE also provided expanded volunteer leadership opportunities with a Bylaw revision that members approved in 2015 that established a new Communications Committee and reinforced the role of the Membership and Communications Committees. Many of the new features of WE, including our Friday Email Blasts, were made possible by Communications Chair Melba Reed's ingenuity and creativity in designing the responsibilities of the new committee. 
  
  For all their work over the past year, we would like to thank:
• • Brian Yoder, 2016 WE Past President, who previously served as WE President twice;
  • Stephanie Cabell, 2016 WE Secretary and 2017 WE President–Elect;
  • Dow Maneerattana, 2016 Treasurer;
  • Giovanni Dazzo, 2016 Program Chair;
  • Robin Kelley, 2016 Membership Chair;
  • Melba Reed, 2016 Communications Chair; and
  • the many volunteers who served on WE committees.

We invite you to explore volunteering with WE in 2017, either on a standing committee, as part of a short-term task force or working group, or by volunteering to help with a one-time activity.

• Continue and enhance WE’s work with AEA: With the AEA headquarters based in Washington, DC and the AEA conference occurring every four years in DC, WE has a unique relationship with AEA, and WE members have multiple opportunities to contribute both nationally and locally to the evaluation community. Thanks to the initiative of the Board starting in late 2013, WE agreed to serve as a pilot for development of complementary membership development activities. David was asked to participate in the first of its kind presentation to AEA staff on the field of evaluation, fielding questions and addressing such issues as what distinguishes evaluation from research, evaluator skill sets and background, evaluation methods and approaches, and whether evaluation makes a difference (of course it does!). WE was the first affiliate to assist the new AEA management company with the annual conference in 2013, and is looking forward to once again assisting with the 2017 conference being chaired by WE Past President and 2017 AEA President Kathy Newcomer.

• Participate as a leading VOPE with other AEA affiliates: WE continued to be represented by Nick and David on the Local Affiliate Collaborative (LAC), a gathering of AEA affiliates from across the United States. Nick served on the Board of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, David and Nick participated in a 2016 LAC AEA conference session on communities of practice, and David providing guidance that led to the establishing the Maine Evaluation Society.

We invite you to review the attached 2016 annual report, and look forward to your continued participation in and support of our community of practice.

Sincerely,               

David J. Bernstein, 2016 WE President
Nicholas R. Hart, 2017 WE President

Click here to read the full 2016
Washington Evaluators Annual Report