Business Meeting #25

Proposal to Conduct an Evaluation of the NWCC

May 6, 2001

TO: NWCC Members
FR: Abby and Gabe
RE: Proposal to conduct an evaluation of the NWCC

In the course of a project, it is often a good idea to conduct an independent evaluation of the project to determine what is going well and what needs improvement. The NWCC has grown and changed over the years. We think it is time to evaluate the project and use what we learn to improve the project.

By presenting this memo we are asking for your advice, regarding whether you think the NWCC project could use an evaluation, and if you think it is timely we would appreciate your feed back and comment on the points raised below.

We are seeking your approval to move ahead with a participatory evaluation, as well as your advice and input into an evaluation. If you agree an evaluation would be useful we suggest by starting with drafting a proposal to the Steering Committee. The proposal would include one-text response to the questions outlined below and an evaluation work plan and budget. We envision using the NWCC Web site to solicit NWCC participants input as well as other low-cost efficient means of communication with users of NWCC services.

RESOLVE conducts evaluations of consensus based negotiation or collaborative endeavors. While NWCC staff could conduct a good portion of the work, some expertise from outside the NWCC staff will be needed because some of the evaluation would be about NWCC staff services. RESOLVE has colleagues with this expertise who have evaluated many other collaborative problem solving projects.

In order to conduct a thorough evaluation we need to decide the following:

First we need to decide the audience for the evaluation
We think the audience is first you, the NWCC members, including the DOE (the funders of the project). Do you agree?

Second, what is the purpose of the evaluation?
We propose that the purpose is to identify what programmatic activities, management and staffing functions are working and what needs improvement and how might the program be strengthened.

Third, in order to evaluate a project we need to articulate the "logic model" of the program.
What is the NWCC trying to accomplish?
How will we know when we have succeeded? (what are our measures of success?)
How are we doing now?

Fourth, we need to identify what kinds of questions are important to answer?
   Accountability
   Effort
   Implementation
   Efficiency
   Outcomes
   Impact

Once we have answered these questions, we can develop an evaluation framework and execute the task.