This is an Interesting and Exciting Time to be Taking up the Role of AES President. Evaluation is growing and Developing both within Australasia and Internationally
| Author | Penny Hawkins |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X0100100202 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Subject Matter | President's Message |
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 1 (new series), No. 2, December 2001
4
from the president
The number of evaluation societies around the world
is increasing every year – from about six in 1995 to
over 30 in 2001. The AES is one of the longest
established societies, having been in existence since
1986. In 2002 and beyond, I would like to see the
AES continue to grow and mature and be a source of
strength and support for the evaluation community
locally and internationally.
The AES conference, held this year in Canberra, was
a great success. Many thanks to the hard work of
everyone who contributed. Also I would like to express
my thanks to Ralph Straton, the immediate past
President. In his two years in the role, Ralph has led
us through a period of transition to consolidation and
stability. I have appreciated his steady approach and
his support and encouragement during this time.
Thanks also to retiring Board members, you know who
you are! Your hard work and dedication keeps the
AES as an organisation alive and kicking.
In this year’s strategic plan, the priority themes are:
strengthening the regions, indigenous evaluation and
women in evaluation. An important means of
strengthening the evaluation community is building
networks amongst evaluation practitioners. In the AES
this happens mainly through the regional groups, hence
the need for an emphasis on support to the regions.
To this end the Board has initiated E-news, an
electronic newsletter for AES members. Regional
activities and news about members can be shared
throughout Australia and New Zealand through this
medium, to keep us all in touch with what’s happening
in evaluation locally and beyond. I encourage all
regions to contribute to E-news regularly.
Another aspect of evaluation that’s developing rapidly
is the field of indigenous evaluation. There has been a
lot of talk recently about capacity building in
evaluation. In Australasia, indigenous evaluation is
where I believe this needs to happen most. This has
been chosen as a priority area for the AES to support
the development both of indigenous approaches to
evaluation and also of indigenous evaluation
practitioners. We have led the world in many areas of
evaluation, let’s aim to continue this in the area of
indigenous evaluation. The Board will be identifying
mechanisms to enable this to happen over the coming
months. If you have any ideas or wish to contribute to
this aim in any way, please contact me or any member
of the Board.
The third theme area for this year is women in
evaluation. Why has this been chosen as a priority? It
was raised as an issue by Blaine Worthen in his keynote
address at the 1999 Perth conference. Blaine presented
us with some statistics relating to the relative number
of publications by women and men in evaluation
journals and pointed out that women were significantly
under-published. This presents us with a challenge.
While this may be of most interest to the academic
community, I believe it is of general relevance to the
evaluation profession. A quick headcount of the line-
up of keynote speakers at evaluation conferences
internationally tells the same story. It seems timely to
support and celebrate the endeavours of women
evaluators in Australasia and internationally.
As 2002 approaches, we are already looking forward
to the next AES conference in Wollongong in late
October. The annual conference is one of the best
opportunities for people involved in evaluation to get
together and share experiences and ideas with our peers
and extend our professional networks. AES
conferences always attract a diverse group of delegates
from a wide range of occupational and geographic
areas. This diversity is invariably a recipe for an
interesting and stimulating conference! Check the
website for details (www.aes.asn.au).
Penny Hawkins
President
This is an interesting
and exciting time to
be taking up the role
of AES President.
Evaluation is
growing and
developing both
within Australasia
and internationally.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
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