Have you heard the phrase, “An organization is only as good as its people?”

It’s true that the passionate and dedicated agency staff of California’s tobacco prevention projects are what drive the success of these programs. However, when these team members move on to new projects, jobs, or life paths, what happens to the program’s progress?

Many project directors and new agency staff can tell you—it’s difficult to continually start from square one! Staff turnover is a common challenge for both local lead agencies and competitive grantees working in tobacco prevention. 

Here at TCEC, we often get questions about writing up results in reports. And most of these questions center around that pesky word: Requirements.

What am I required to do?

What are we required to include?

And of course this makes sense, as we all have deliverables we are bound to submit. (For more guidance on reporting requirements, see TCEC's page on Reporting Results.)

Daylight saving time is coming to a close here in California. When we were younger, my brother would call POP-CORN, which was a phone service that you could call and hear the correct time. Did you ever do that? He would call POP-CORN right before the time change, and the automated message would answer, “At the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be…1:59 and 50 seconds.” Then 10 seconds later the chime would say, “Pacific Standard Time will be 1:00 exactly.”  

Once an intervention or evaluation activity is over, it can be important for those involved (project staff and volunteers) to reflect on what happened and discuss what worked, where there is room for improvement, and what any next steps should be. (See documenting organizational history.) Depending on how complex the activity was, this process could be fairly quick – anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or two.

What's the point of giving feedback, anyway? Will my comments actually change anything? 

If you've interacted with the Tobacco Control Evaluation Center at any point, you've undoubtedly received requests for feedback— whether on a training, a webinar, or how satisfied you were with our technical assistance.

Evaluation report writing can be an intimidating task, especially when it comes to Final Evaluation Reports (FERs). Our website has many resources that can help with FER writing and hopefully ease some of that anxiety. However, after hearing from evaluators in the field, we wanted to answer some of the questions about how FERs are scored. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and read on as we share the process with you.

Every quarter, evaluators have an opportunity to connect with other evaluators in the Tobacco Evaluator Alliance. At the last meeting, some requested additional help on FER writing, so we got together with Yaneth from the Hispanic Coordinating Center to quickly offer a FER Q/A session.  These are the main takeaways from that session and an invitation to join us for the next one.

If you’re reading this in between your marathon of writing FERs and BERs: Keep it up!  You got this! 

If you’re reading this after you’ve come up for air from sending off all the reports: Congrats!  You deserve a breather from this whirlwind of a contract!

I still cannot believe we’re at the end of another year, yet here we are!  Thank you for all the amazing effort and progress you’ve all made despite this unusual year (and more!)  2022 is just weeks away, and with that comes another year and new opportunities to put your evaluation efforts to good use.  Here are a few ways to jump into 2022 with an evaluation focus.

The limitations section in an evaluation report can feel a bit like a confessional.  When writing these, one can feel like they are admitting all the ways they got it wrong; revealing the skeletons in their evaluation closet.  It can be uncomfortable and maybe even a little disheartening.  So why do we do it?

As we head toward the end of the calendar year, we’re approaching the end of the reporting period for local lead agencies. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start writing your Final Evaluation Reports (FERs) and Brief Evaluation Reports (BERs)!

It’s also the time of year when TCEC starts receiving more questions about FERs and BERs, including a big one: What’s the difference?

Report writing can be a frustrating endeavor, especially if you have to do it alone. 

To help projects master the Final Evaluation Report (FER), TCEC hosted the first-ever FER Clinic in late April and May 2021. A small and brave cohort of evaluators and project staff convened over Zoom to discuss, collaborate, and improve on their FERs. Eight Local Lead Agencies participated, with attendees ranging from novice to very experienced, representing small and large counties alike.

The Tobacco Control Evaluation Center will be hosting the first-ever Final Evaluation Report (FER) Clinic. The clinic will happen via Zoom, during 5 sessions from 10:00 to 12:00 on April 19, 21, 26, 28, and May 3rd.

The TCEC FER Clinic is a chance for projects currently writing final evaluation reports (FERs) to receive hands-on practice and feedback on their current report due in 2021. The goal of the TCEC FER Clinic is to fine-tune your project’s FER writing process by working closely with TCEC and peers from the field.