Hello, I am Matt Feldmann, the principal researcher and owner of Goshen Education Consulting, Inc. and the chair-elect for the Independent Consulting TIG. My company focuses on educational evaluation and data support for clients in Southern Illinois. As an independent consultant, it is imperative to maintain a strong network of clients, colleagues, and advocates with whom you can grow and develop your business. The following are some of the "Soft skills" associated with working with clients that are frequently referenced in business literature. Lessons Learned: Form a business strategy and stick to it. Marriage of Skill, Enjoyment, and Resources. Jim Collins refers to this as the "flywheel concept" in his book, "Good to Great". After you have developed a well-considered business plan there is an additive effect to unyielding discipline to that plan. Learn more about the flywheel concept from Jim Collins here. Recognize you are in a service industry and focus on your client relationships. Harry Beckwith refocuses attention on the service industry in Selling the Invisible. The key point is that evaluation is not a commodity. From our client’s perspectives, our expertise with complicated evaluation approaches is secondary to our ability to communicate and relate the importance of our work. Jeffrey Gitomer says that you are more likely to receive your next consulting contract from an existing client in his book Little Red Book on Selling. Practice networking Karma. Recognize that your success is connected to the success of your network of clients, colleagues, and advocates. Your selfless work for others will return to you in unexpected ways. Keith Farazzi says you should not keep score with your networking relationships in his book Never Eat Alone; business development is not a zero sum game. Because we evaluation continues to be in a growth mode, evaluators should reach out to their competitors to learn from one another and to seek ways to develop cooperatively. Rad Resources: The following are the author websites for the four books referenced above and that provide excellent understanding for these and several more "soft skills." You can probably find these on audio CD, mp3, or download from your library and listen to them as you travel among your clients. Business Management - Good to Great by Jim Collins (see: http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html) Client Relationships - Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith (see: http://www.beckwithpartners.com/books/) Sales Strategy - Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer (see: https://www.gitomer.com/Jeffrey-Gitomer-Little-Red-Book-of-Selling-pluLRB.html) Networking - Never Eat Alone by Keith Farazzi (see: http://keithferrazzi.com/products/never-eat-alone) The American Evaluation Association is celebrating IC TIG Week with our colleagues in the Independent Consulting Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our IC TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

Hello! I’m Sheila B. Robinson, aea365’s Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor. It’s Independence Day in the US, the anniversary of the day our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was signed in 1776. As I thought about what topic to tackle for this week’s post, I wondered what insights a word cloud created from the text of the Declaration of Independence might yield. Since I’m familiar with two word cloud generators, I tried each of them. Here is what I created in Worldle: And here is what I created in Tagxedo: Both generators allow for some creativity with regard to color, and font. Wordle allows you to choose directionality - whether you want all text horizontal, all vertical, or some mix of the two. Tagxedo is best known for its shapes, allowing you to choose from a bank of available shapes that can help you illustrate a point. Tagxedo can also use custom fonts from popular font sites. Lesson Learned: Word clouds can be fun and have a number of appropriate applications. Use them with caution, however, as they never substitute for analysis, and can potentially detract from important themes. Stuart Henderson and Eden Segal tackle word clouds in a chapter on qualitative data visualization in a recent issue of New Directions for Evaluation.  "Word clouds create a dramatic visual, which likely accounts for their popularity," the authors posit. "Despite concerns with word clouds, their ease of creation and striking visuals make them a useful tool for evaluators if they are used sparingly and their challenges are acknowledged" (p. 57-58).  Hot Tip: Henderson and Segal also mention another word cloud generator, TagCrowd, and I decided to give that one a try as well. Here is the result: While TagCrowd has fewer opportunities for creativity, it does give the user the option to see word counts after each word. I simply checked this option as I created this one. Rad Resources: A few other aea365 authors - Susan Kistler, Stacy Carruth, Sue Griffey, Jaquelyn Christensen, and Sarajoy Pond - have also shared their perspectives on word cloud generators. Did you know there is an advanced version of wordle? Learn about this and other Wordle tips, such as how to keep word phrases intact, and how to get numbers to show in Wordle here! Read the entire article Visualizing qualitative data in evaluation research, by Stuart Henderson and Eden Segal, to understand more about qualitative data visualization. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

We are Leah Neubauer, Dominica McBride and Anthony Heard of the Chicagoland Evaluation Association. Welcome to the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG) week. We look forward to Evaluation 2015 in the Windy City. In the Exemplary Evaluation conference year, our opening Chicago week offers issues relevant to our evaluation practice, environment, and policy. Today’s post notes 2015 Chicago happenings and themes for this week address Chicago people, politics, culturally responsive assessment, and evaluator learning. As CEA President and LAWG co-chair, I’m excited for our posts. Hot Tip: What’s Important to Know about Chicago? This is a great question with unlimited, potentially conflicting answers. Many might go on about sports, politics, corruption, weather, or traffic. Chicago celebrates and critiques. For many of us urban-entrenched evaluators, our Chicago-evaluation landscape demands a knowledge base that: 1) respects and challenges history, 2) keeps timely with rapidly changing, current/controversial events, and 3) ensures just implications for our city. One way to get "Chicago-ready" is to digest some news. A short highlight reel is shared below. This is not an exhaustive or representative 2015 list. It’s designed to be both serious and light-hearted. Ultimately, we hope that you find it aligned with the celebratory and critical nature of Chicago updates. The 2015 year started quite cold for the Midwest. January saw many days of Chicagoans and school policy-makers debate the merits of weather-related school closings and Governor Bruce Rauner, the first Republican Illinois governor in 12 years, took office. February marked the 5th largest snow in Chicago history. Freezing weather continued into March with the15th Annual Polar Plunge attended by locals, tourists, and celebrities. The annual event raised 1.2 million dollars for Special Olympics. Enough weather updates, right? April saw Chicago’s first ever mayoral run-off election between Jesús G. "Chuy" García and Rahm Emmanuel. Emmanuel won. Weeks later, thousands joined for the nationwide "Fight for $15" demonstrations. In May, the great King and Blues Legend B. King was honored, Chicago was selected for President Obama’s Library , and the Chicago Public Schools CEO resigned in the wake of a federal probe. June marked the Chicago Blackhawks securing The Stanley Cup , the 46th Annual Chicago Pride Parade, and the 20th anniversary of the Paseo Boricua Flags. And this weekend, fans gather for the Grateful Dead’s "Fare Thee Well" 50th anniversary at Soldier Field or head to Jackson Park for the Annual Chosen Few Old School Reunion Picnic. Hot Tip: What to Visit When You Come to Chicago. In addition to remaining Chicago news-updated, there are many other Chicago things to plan for. Check out events and museums . Be on the AEA lookout for the local guide! We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2015 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.

Hi, my name is Dominica McBride and I’m a member of the Chicagoland Evaluation Association and the Local Affiliate Working Group, along with being the CEO of Become, Inc., a nonprofit using culturally responsive program evaluation as a tool in realizing social justice. We’re excited to welcome you all to the Windy City in November! As you prepare to come to Chicago and connect with fellow evaluators, also prepare to learn from the city. This is both a wonderful and challenging place to be an evaluator. I want to take this time to share some of the recent local issues the city and state have come up against and for you think about and prepare to share your wisdom, talent, and skill in exploring solutions. Chicago is a city of many strengths and many problems. There is much wealth but also poverty, great diversity but also segregation. There are quality city services that don’t get allocated fairly throughout the area. There is also rich culture and history in all of its 77 neighborhoods. In doing evaluation in Chicago, I have come up against these problems but also been informed and inspired by the history, cultures, and my fellow residents. Some of the problems that I have witnessed in my evaluation work are the issues of quality education, employment, and violence (not just physical violence but the perception of violence). Even though we’re on a general upswing as far as history is concerned, this year, our movement towards equity has faced a barrier. On January 12, Bruce Rauner became governor of IL. Soon after he assumed office, he cut funding to programs, like youth development, violence prevention, and youth employment. These cuts drastically influenced some of our organizational partners, one having to serve the same amount of youth with less staff. These are all areas where evaluation can play a major role in making the case for reinstating and even increasing such funds. Lessons Learned: The political climate can have a profound influence on programs, participants, and evaluation. Be prepared for political shifts to influence your work, especially if you work with marginalized communities. This may include developing relationships with politicians or ensuring that you have the resources needed to complete your mission regardless of the politics. Hot Tip: As you plan your sessions and trip, look into Chicago and its history. Read about the assets and issues. Don’t let the media sway you one way or another. Rad Resources: Check out a February article about the budget cuts that were made Get a "taste of Chicago" at http://www.choosechicago.com/ We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2015 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.

Hello fellow culturally-responsive evaluation lovers! My name is Scott Tharp and I am the Associate Director for the Center for Intercultural Programs at DePaul University. It’s a simple fact that we live in a multicultural world where multiple values and experiences are present. While some might think evaluation is inherently "neutral", it never is. Social identities (e.g. race, gender, class), experiences, value systems, and beliefs will influence the assessment process in many ways. From how you word survey questions to the assumptions that inform your data analysis, social identities matter. Because not all people are the same, we must increase our cultural competence to ensure our assessment processes effective and respectful. To define it simply, cultural competence is the level of knowledge, awareness and skill you have to engage in effective cross-cultural interactions. Pope & Reynold’s wrote a great article back in 1997 entitled Student Affairs Core Competencies: Integrating Multicultural Awareness Knowledge and Skills. While they speak from their context of higher education, the insight applies to non-profits and corporations alike. They offer specific competencies related to each of the three domains for you to consider as you continue to enhance your culturally responsive evaluation practice. Because cultural competence in assessment begins with cultivating your own cultural competence, this is where we all must begin. This is a life-long process that takes time and dedication to self-work. Here are some useful questions to help you along the way. Hot Tip #1: Start with yourself. How knowledgeable are you about your own social identities beyond a label? Are you self-aware enough to articulate how your social identities influence your values and worldview? Do you have skills for critical self-reflection that you practice daily? Many people refer to this simply as your "self-work" Hot Tip #2: Learn About Others. How knowledgeable are you about social identities different from your own? Does your knowledge extend past material culture and into their values and histories? Are you self-aware enough to identify assumptions and biases towards others? Do you have the skills to challenge your own assumptions and biases before they become stereotypes? Hot Tip #3: Consider the Systemic. How knowledgeable are you about diversity and social justice concepts and the history of social identity categories? Are you aware of social inequalities around you, or do you dismiss them as "just the way things are?" Do you have the skills to address social inequality so that you do not replicate interactions that create harm to others? Taking time to increase our knowledge, awareness and skills related to ourselves, others, and the social environment we live in will sensitize us to social and cultural differences that will lead to better data, better conclusions, and better decisions. We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2015 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.

Hello, I am Matt Feldmann, the principal researcher and owner of Goshen Education Consulting, Inc. and a member of the Local Area Working Group. My company focuses on educational evaluation and data support for clients in Illinois, which also happens to include Chicago. J While I live about 4.5 hours south of Chicago, I am still a member of the Chicagoland Evaluation Association (CEA) because of my state-wide projects that often include Chicago Public Schools and districts in the suburbs of the city. Illinois is my home and the focus of my niche practice, a topic of a previous AEA365 post from October 2012. This post expands this on my experiences as a regional evaluator and ideas for how to continue to develop your evaluation practice. Lesson Learned: Focused geographical networking. I don’t readily take on contracts outside of my service area of Illinois…and I generally prefer projects in Southwestern Illinois. The goodwill created by my good work is more likely to result in new business when I focus my efforts on a distinct group of educational leaders who know each other. "Hit ‘em where they ain’t." This baseball quote attributed to Willie Keeler was Sam Walton’s strategy when he started Walmart. While Illinois is my broad service area, I am very focused on serving Southwestern Illinois, a community that is underserved by dedicated educational evaluators and that has more than $2 billion in annual educational expenditures. Get involved with your local affiliate (or start your own). Your local affiliate is the best resource for regular professional development, opportunities for partnerships, and (importantly) competitive intelligence. Through regular interaction with the Evaluation Association of St. Louis (EASL) and occasional programs with the Chicagoland Evaluation Association I have a wonderful understanding for my place in the local educational evaluation community. These professional colleagues have been instrumental in developing my regional strategy. For instance I won’t readily pursue projects in St. Louis or Chicago where there is more competition and I am not as familiar with the educational leaders.  Hot Tip: If you are focused on an underserved community of tightly networked potential clients that you intimately understand your growth may only be limited to your availability, marketing approaches, and the creativity for types of projects that best utilize your skill set. We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2015 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.

Hello! My name is Alicia Anderson and I am a student at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in the Masters of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis Program. I am also a Leader Fellow with Become, Inc - a nonprofit team dedicated to community engagement, community involvement, and social justice. In the short time that I have been with Become, I have worked on projects consistent with Become’s core values of nourishing communities affected by poverty and injustice; most recently having the opportunity to assist with program evaluation and data collection for three Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago (BGCC) sites in neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago in which economic disparity and resource gaps have been identified. My role as part of the evaluation team included disseminating surveys and conducting interviews and focus groups with students, teachers, and parents to assess whether students have access to the best programming possible; and whether any needs and deficits are or will be addressed. Lessons Learned: As a person new to evaluation and its methodologies, this has been an eye opening and humbling experience. Though evaluation plays a key role in determining the efficacy and impact of programing, it also teaches a lot about the drive and ingenuity of others. In places where there are resource gaps, where monetary compensation does not necessarily reflect effort and commitment, staff members work hard to ensure that students have a safe environment in which to learn, grow, and play after school. Students are engaged and learn important skills and constructs such as teamwork and respect. They receive help with their homework in addition to learning about being young men and women. They are given tools and encouraged to be their best as students, as children, and as people. Hot Tip: Be prepared to be inspired as you come to Evaluation 2015, where you will have contact with many people like those at Become, working with programs like tge BGCC through evaluation and seeing steps toward social progress. For me, building a framework for the future by reaching and motivating youth at present has shaped and molded my ideas and goals for the future. I want to be among the group of people who save lives every day and don’t realize it (teachers, school staff and administration, parents, after school program managers, etc.). I want to bring out the best in others. Rad Resources: A helpful book for working with and inspiring others: Bringing Out the Best in People by Aubrey C. Daniels. We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2015 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.

My name is Anthony Heard I’m a clinical social worker at the UI Hospital and Health Sciences System here in Chicago, and Secretary of the AEA’s local affiliate: the Chicagoland Evaluation Association (CEA). Today, I hope to encourage you to check out both your local affiliate and ours. Though I co-chair a department QI Committee, evaluation is not my primary role. I have been passionate about learning evaluation practice, building capacity, and implementing evaluations in the programs I’ve worked in since I completed my graduate degree, and our local affiliate has been an integral part of my evaluation journey. Lessons Learned: If your local affiliate resembles ours, it is likely to have a diverse membership: evaluators and evaluation boosters; students and degreed experts; internal and external evaluators; private consultants and organization-based evaluators. Members tend to come from many specific program areas such as public health, mental health, education, and more. Use this to your benefit. If you’re new or not sure where to start, like I was, there are many perspectives on evaluation to learn from, and make your understanding as rich and as accurate of the full spectrum as possible. If you’re a more seasoned evaluator, we each take similar lessons from our experience at gatherings. The knowledge and experience of other members can be useful when navigating common barriers to best evaluation practice: funding, (lack of) evaluation literacy, and identifying who your real stakeholders are. Hot Tips: Make contact: Affiliates can offer both networking and professional development, and will probably respond to the needs identified by members. Our affiliate is currently focused primarily on professional development, because that’s what our members wanted. Become a member: Not only are you supporting an organization of evaluators like you, but just like the AEA proper, your local affiliate likely has like-minded professionals actively engaged who will take note that you’re engaged in the community as well, and you can possibly be on the short list when opportunities come up. Get involved: Being a member is grand, but your local affiliate also provides the opportunity to show what you know and be a community leader. You can present your work, chair a committee, or run for office. Rad Resource: Stay in tune with the Chicagoland evaluation community leading up to Evaluation 2015 by checking out our website at www.evalchicago.org. We’ll have information available on Chicago-area evaluators who are presenting at Evaluation 2015 and local events closer to the conference. We’re looking forward to November and the Evaluation 2015 annual conference all this week with our colleagues in the Local Arrangements Working Group (LAWG). Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to contribute to aea365? Review the contribution guidelines and send your draft post to aea365@eval.org.

Hello AEA members! Sheila B. Robinson, aea365’s Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor with an important message about the AEA elections. The 2016 ballot is now open for our 2016 President-elect and Board Members-at-Large. AEA member voting has been historically low. Let’s change that this year! Hot Tip: Get to know your candidates and cast your vote! These candidates are accomplished leaders not only in AEA but in their own fields as well. Do your due diligence and give them each a few minutes of your time to learn about what they have to offer our organization. They’ve worked  hard to get themselves on the ballot through a rigorous nomination process that involved a great deal of time and effort. Once you click your personalized link in the email (all ballots are absolutely anonymous) you’ll find that the ballot includes extensive personal statements thoughtfully developed by each nominee to help you make informed selections. Many of us consider AEA to be our professional home and leadership is important to who we are as an association and what we have the potential to become. Rad Resources: Our 2016 nominees (in alphabetical order in each category): Image credit: tzu kwan valino via Flickr Candidates for President (Select 1): · Rakesh Mohan · Kathryn Newcomer Candidates for Member-at-Large (Select up to 3): · Thomas Chapel · Cindy Crusto · Huilan Krenn · Stephen Maack · Dominica McBride · Rebecca Woodland Please check your email from July 8 with information on the election and a link to your ballot. You may vote at any time between now and 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, August 7. Reminder notices will be sent to those who have not cast their ballot by July 22. (Vote early to avoid the extra email!). Email info@eval.org or call the AEA office at any time with questions or concerns related to the ballot or any of your member benefits. Hot Tip: Play a role in this year’s election and make your voice heard. Let’s rock this vote! Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

My name is Girija Kaimal and I am an Assistant Professor in the Department for Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University. As an educator, evaluator, blogger and, artist, I’d like to share how my evaluation practice is informed by my artistic practice. The fields might seem unrelated but I think of art as metaphor. My colleagues and I published recently on how the arts can inform leadership practice (http://www.ijea.org/v15n4/). So then I wondered how the arts could inform evaluation as well. Lessons Learned: Tools: Each media option comes with its unique attributes. Oil pastels offer bright colors; watercolors require an absorbent base; felt-tip markers can provide detail but aren’t really useful if you want to cover large surfaces; and; if you need to erase and refine your work, then pencil or digital media are your best choices. Each media choice comes with its own set of strengths and challenges and I have to know these attributes to use the tool effectively. Choice of evaluation tools for data collection and analysis is no different. You might be skilled in a range of methods or you might be sought out for a specific specialized skill. Either ways knowing your tools is essential for artistic and/ or evaluation practice. Caring:If my paint brushes aren’t clean, my pencils not sharpened, paper not stacked and my supplies aren’t stored safely they will not be available or effective when I decide to use them. It is no different with evaluation tools. If my work files and software are not organized and saved safely, then neither my use of time nor my work will be efficient. Practice: Can I avoid doing art for months on end and then expect to be skilled when I decide to start drawing one fine day? No, like with any other skill, ongoing practice is essential to both sustain and improve skills in both artmaking and evaluation. Sharing: Artmaking is like visual journaling for me: it helps me think through problems and express complicated emotions and ideas. Sharing my work with others helps me see things that I did not or could not see on my own. It is no different in evaluation. I make it a point to share summary findings and/ or draft reports prior to any final submissions. Discovery: Starting a new project (in art or evaluation) is full of the promise of learning and discovery. At the end there is sometimes a thrilling insight or often just an incremental discovery. Regardless, each project’s process has meaning and relevance and offers lessons to be learned. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.