In this period of cutbacks on funding and fiscal restraint, holding meetings can be expensive. One way to reduce the cost is to hold online meetings. But how do you schedule meetings when everyone is busy and in different locations? Here are three online meeting schedulers that may be helpful.
Tungle.com is located at www.tungle.com. It is a calendar and scheduler that you can sync with Google calendar or other online calendars.
Doodle.com is a simple online meeting scheduler in which you invite others to log on and each is polled on a list of meeting times that you set. See www.doodle.com
MeetingWizard.com is capable of more complex tasks including sending invitations to participants proposing alternative times, summarizing responses, updates to meeting organizer and sending confirmations. See www.meetingwizard.com
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Evaluation Follow-up as a model of Good Evaluation Practice
Michael Quinn Patton notes the importance of "walking the walk" of good evaluation practice. Here is his most recent post to Evaltalk.
Jane Davidson wrote: "I know MQP is big on insisting any evaluation contract includes time specifically set aside for formal follow-up. Perhaps he might share some of the questions he asks at that time?"
Here's a surprise: I focus first on issues of use. How were findings used? What has happened to recommendations (if some were generated)? What issues have surfaced in putting findings to use? (This opens up and circles back to how the evaluation was conducted and the kinds of issues Jane astutely surfaced in her report on synthesizing what happened in a set of evaluations -- very important observations, Jane).
Having dealt with use of findings and recs, I turn to process issues: What was particularly useful about the evaluation process? Not useful? Strengths, weaknesses, gaps? What, if any, impacts did the evaluation process have (separate from use of findings, i.e., process uses)?
I don't ask directly about the evaluator's or consultant's value-added, but comments on this inevitably emerge from the focus on findings and process uses.
As regards the value of doing this after the fact, I think of it as walking the talk of evaluation. If we expect programs to evaluate their outcomes and impacts, we need to model (i.e., role model) good evaluation by evaluating our own practice and work. And, of course, it informs our scholarship and inquiries into effective and useful evaluation, which in my case means I get to use the findings in my writings, an added cost-benefit of doing this. :)
Michael Quinn Patton
Utilization-Focused EvaluationSaint Paul, MN
MQPatton@Prodigy.net
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Here's a surprise: I focus first on issues of use. How were findings used? What has happened to recommendations (if some were generated)? What issues have surfaced in putting findings to use? (This opens up and circles back to how the evaluation was conducted and the kinds of issues Jane astutely surfaced in her report on synthesizing what happened in a set of evaluations -- very important observations, Jane).
Having dealt with use of findings and recs, I turn to process issues: What was particularly useful about the evaluation process? Not useful? Strengths, weaknesses, gaps? What, if any, impacts did the evaluation process have (separate from use of findings, i.e., process uses)?
I don't ask directly about the evaluator's or consultant's value-added, but comments on this inevitably emerge from the focus on findings and process uses.
As regards the value of doing this after the fact, I think of it as walking the talk of evaluation. If we expect programs to evaluate their outcomes and impacts, we need to model (i.e., role model) good evaluation by evaluating our own practice and work. And, of course, it informs our scholarship and inquiries into effective and useful evaluation, which in my case means I get to use the findings in my writings, an added cost-benefit of doing this. :)
Michael Quinn Patton
Utilization-Focused EvaluationSaint Paul, MN
MQPatton@Prodigy.net
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