Week 10: Spring Break

While restful for some, I used the extra time to revise and catch up on my grants and proposal project. My contact and I were able to do some more brainstorming and early planning. Additionally, I was able to finish the rewrites for all of my past blog postings to reflect my new project. I also completed the Moo 3-10-10 transcript.

Moo 03-10-10

Many of us will be using Spring Break to revise, rethink, and rework various aspects of our projects. Some of the main talking points were:

1. Who benefits from evaluations the most?

-sponsors

-the grant writer(s)

-the organization (submitting the proposal)

-target audiences

-future grant proposals (old ones are the basis for new ones per Rich)

2. "evaluation is rhetorical"-Rich

3. formative (w/information and details) vs. summative (summarizes effectiveness) evaluation plans

4. implementation of Gantt Charts- to record, evaluate, and manage project progression and established expectations

5. Bea pointed out, "two sets of measurements"-

a.) getting funded and b.) implementing the project

6. evaluations have both monetary and time-consuming costs involved

7. Brett recommends a formative evaluation method with G.O.T (goals/objectives/tasks)

8. Rich agreed with G.O.T. and likened the "genre" to the basic grant writing process (i.e. problem--->solution--->funder's role in solution)

9. data reporting/data dissemination should be included in the 'evaluation process' and in the 'budget'; thus demonstrating that we, the writers, have "thought it through'

10. goals/objectives must be revised and measurable so that data can be measured, collected, and analyzed

11. sustainability (p.280) is important because:

-shows seriousness

-shows project can continue when their (funder's) money runs out

-plans for and keeps project momentum

12. sustainability- Which project can take the money the furthest?

(i.e. The most bang for your buck)

13. types of sustainability:

-financial

-managerial

-technical

-environmental

-social

14. B.I.O.R.- if you have style/typographical differences with participants and want to push the issue, then BIOR!

(Blame It On Rich) :)

15. our nation, on average, hates large blocks of uninterrupted words

16. Rich said, "just remember how cool I am on evaluations"

17. Spring Break jumped out of no where and started early!