From the AES President

Welcome to 2009. I hope that people were able to have a restful break over the festive season and returned to work with enthusiasm for the year ahead. Both natural and economic forces have provided a somewhat tumultuous start to the year with extreme weather, floods and fire. Our thoughts are with all those who have suffered loss over this time.

In a situation of economic downturn people’s thoughts may well be turning once more to value for money, picking up on the theme of last year’s Perth conference and also moving on to the theme of this year’s conference – “Evidence and Evaluation”. It is in such times that evaluation comes into its own. People will be making hard decisions about retaining or changing programs and policies. These are more likely to be based on value for money and the sort of evidence evaluators are able to provide so well. Good planning will be an imperative along with the use of the gamut of appropriate methods and techniques. We may also reflect on the utility of evaluation in its many forms and enhance our professional learning in a variety of areas to meet new challenges such as the uncertainty around changing economic circumstances and, in New Zealand, the changes resulting from a new government.

I hope that you are all planning to attend the Canberra Conference and are thinking about presentations – note that the deadline for proposals is now April - and also think about who you might nominate for the 2009 AES Awards. The Awards Committee is looking forward to being deluged with applications and reading about the diversity of members work.

Finally, we have two changes in the committee chairs as signalled at the AGM. I would like to thank John Owen for his able chairing of the publications committee especially the negotiations around our access to Evaluation and Program Planning. John has put in a lot of time and effort to ensure the smooth workings of this key committee and we welcome Darren Harris as the new chair. Scott Bayley has taken over the chair of the International Committee from Penny Hawkins who still represents Australasian interests on IOCE. Both Penny and John have had extensive involvement in a variety of roles in AES and I know there will still be many ways in which their expertise will be available to us in the future.

All the very best for the year ahead.

Associate Professor Jenny Neale - AES President

AES 2009 Canberra Conference

Mark your diaries!!

The 2009 AES International Conference will be held in the nation’s capital from 31 August to 4 September 2009.

The conference theme is Evidence and Evaluation.

The conference program will offer a range of sessions suitable for the novice right through to experts in the field of evaluation.  Full day and half day pre-conference workshops on a variety of topics will be held on Monday 31 August and Tuesday 1 September.

We have chosen the National Convention Centre in the heart of Canberra’s CBD to hold the conference. A range of accommodation options are located nearby.

The new conference website www.aesconference2009.com.au is online for submitting proposals, registering and pre-viewing the conference program.

For further information PH: 02 6285 3000 Email: aes@con-sol.com

Don’t forget to tell your colleagues and associates to mark their diaries too.
Susan Garner – 2009 Conference Convenor

AES 2009 Awards 

Awarded annually, the AES Awards for Excellence in Evaluation are an important indicator of the Society’s quality standards.

The AES Awards for Excellence in Evaluation are significant peer recognition for leading evaluators, leading evaluations and evaluation best practice in Australasia (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Region).

The award winners represent the best-in-class for each Award category. Winning an AES Award offers significant peer recognition and, in the past has proven an important contributor to professional and commercial success and to academic career progression.
There are seven AES Awards for Excellence in Evaluation which may be awarded each year. They are divided into two main categories:

Two awards that recognise individual evaluators(nominated by their peers)

- Emerging New Talent Award
- Outstanding Contribution to Evaluation Award (The ET&S Award)

Five awards that recognise organisations, project teams, evaluation projects or programs (nominated by the evaluators themselves)

- Best Evaluation Publication Award (Caulley Tulloch Award)
- Best Evaluation Study Award
- Best Evaluation Policy and Systems Award
- Community Development Evaluation Award
- Indigenous Evaluation Award

Nominations are due 30 June 2009.  For more information visit: http://www.aes.asn.au/awards/

Professor Peter Bycroft – Awards Committee (Convenor)

AES Indigenous Evaluation Strategy

Improving evaluation in Indigenous contexts has been a key priority for the AES since 2005 and the AES is keen to strengthen the growing interest in and commitment to Indigenous evaluation within the AES.

An AES Indigenous Strategy Special Interest Group (SIG) has been established on Google Groups to enable members to share information and discuss issues of interest. The SIG will be kept simple and the SIG website will be reviewed regularly to track usage and value.

The SIG site will be linked to the AES website where AES members can lodge evaluation reports, tools and resources for planning and conducting evaluations with the Indigenous community, case studies and information on effective and practical methodologies.

To join the SIG go to:
http://groups.google.com/group/aes-indigenous-evaluation-sig
If you require further information contact nea.harrison@crcah.org.au
Nea Harrison – Indigenous Strategy Special Interest Group (Convenor)

AES Workshops

The 2009 program of AES professional learning activities has begun. It includes a range of events organized by the AES regional groups, along with workshops conducted at various sites across Australia and New Zealand. This includes:

Valuing Indigenous Knowledge and Doing
One day workshop:
Presenter: Dr Fiona Cram
Melbourne 17 April

Getting Real(ist) About Evaluating Community Services
Two day workshop
Presenter: Dr Gill Westhorp
Wellington 23 & 24 April, Sydney 28 & 29 April, Brisbane 20 & 21 May, Perth 3 & 4 June, Adelaide 12 & 13 August

Report by Outcomes! Participatory Performance Story Reporting technique
One day workshop:
Presenter: Dr Jessica Dart
Canberra 29 April, Brisbane 30 April, Adelaide 12 May, Darwin 26 May

For further information and a registration form contact
aes@aes.asn.au or visit http://www.aes.asn.au/

Dr Paul Chesterton – Professional Learning Committee (Convenor)

Community Noticeboard

Training Opportunities

Clear Horizon will be running a variety of workshops during March and April. Topics include:

• Building a People Centred Program Logic - 16th & 17th March
• Meaningful Monitoring - 18th March
• Most Significant Change (MSC) - 19th & 20th March
• Participatory Evaluation - 2nd April
• How to Design an Evaluation Study - 3rd April

We happily note that Clear Horizon offers a 20% discount on training courses for Australasian Evaluation Society Members! Details available at: http://www.clearhorizon.com.au/

A 2 day workshop on the "Design, Analysis & Reporting of Surveys" is being run by Dr Jeff Coutts and Kerry Bell on the 19th-20th May 2009, in Toowoomba, Queensland. For more information and registration information, contact jeff@couttsjr.com.au (0746301297) or kerryl.bell@bigpond.com (0439775636).

ECHO (Extending the Capacity of Healthcare Organisations) has released their 2009 Training Calendar with a series of workshops tailored for professionals working in the health and community services sectors. ECHO’s training flyer is available in the ‘Of Interest’ section of the AES webpage. http://www.aes.asn.au/ofinterest/

Roberts Evaluation has a series of workshops in July covering topics such as: ‘Collecting and Analysing Qualitative Data’; ‘Introduction to Program Design and Evaluation’; and ‘Extending Community Engagement’. More information and registration forms available at http://www.robertsevaluation.com.au or email: jwaller@robertsevaluation.com.au

News Regarding WA Economic Audit

In November 2008, the new WA government initiated an Economic Audit, including among its terms of reference: “an evaluation of the existing performance metrics and options for greater transparency and accountability through improved public reporting.” 

The Economic Audit is not due to report until September 2009 so there is an  opportunity for interested stakeholders to reflect on the features of the existing system that need to be kept, and possibly strengthened. 

This may be an opportunity for "evaluators" to consider a submission that raises the profile of evaluation as a strategy to complement the performance measurement system.

Details of the audit are at the Treasury website - www.dtf.wa.gov.au

(thank you Lesley van Schoubroeck for this contribution)

Conferences – Local and Abroad

2009 ANZEA Conference. July 13-15. Hamilton, New Zealand.
Theme: Evaluation and social responsibility
http://www.anzea.org.nz/news.htm

2009 CES Conference. May 31 to June 2. Ottawa, Canada.
Theme: Value in Evaluation
http://c2009.evaluationcanada.ca/index.cgi?_lang=en

2009 AEA Conference. November 11-14. Orlando, USA.
Theme: Context and Evaluation
http://www.eval.org/eval2009/09cfp.htm

Publications News

Publications Committee Report

There is a changing of the guard in the Chair of the Publications Committee of the AES. After a five year stint I have handballed the position to Dr Darren Harris. Darren is well known in evaluation circles, especially in Victoria where he held the senior evaluation position at the Department of Human Services, before moving to becoming Associate Director of Aspex Consulting, located in Melbourne. Darren tells me that 2009 will be a settling in year for him, as he comes to grips with the vagaries of what we are offering in the publications area, and the AES more generally.

In the meantime our editors have been busy and we expect an edition of the EJA soon. A reminder that your inputs to our Stories and Reports sections of the website are needed for these areas to flourish, see the website for details about submissions. And don’t forget to use the Evaluation and Program Planning journal access on the web, the articles are well grounded and should be relevant to your work. The AES is committing significant resources to these avenues for professional learning, so we encourage you to use them.

And if you want to lobby Darren about these and other Publications related matters, his email is: darren.harrris@aspexconsulting.com.au

Best wishes
Dr John Owen – Publications Committee (Convenor)

Evaluation Resources on the Net

The Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation is a free, open access journal with interesting articles on a range of topics and reviews of books and evaluation journals. It also includes details of evaluation activities from around the world, including Australasia.

You can access the journal at:

http://survey.ate.wmich.edu/jmde/index.php/jmde_1/index

(thank you Dr June Lennie for this contribution)

Get Involved in Your Regional Branch

To contact your region representative or to access the latest reports and news on upcoming activities at your local AES branch click on the 'Regions' link on the AES website. www.aes.asn.au/regions/

Welcome New Members

Auckland

Canberra

New South Wales

Queensland

South Australia

Victoria

Western Australia

Wellington

International

Contact the E-News Editor

 If you have contributions or a notice for E-news please email the E-news editor, Brad Shrimpton bshrimpt@unimelb.edu.au