The Middle Atlantic Region’s focus group project, led last winter by Sue Hunter, recently received attention through two venues of the American Evaluation Association: at the 2010 AEA annual conference in San Antonio and on the aea365 blog. On November 12, Sue  presented Using Appreciative Inquiry Focus Groups to Engage Members in Planning for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Middle Atlantic Region.  (Cindy Olney was a co-contributor to this presentation.) MAR used the focus group project, designed using appreciative inquiry methods, to collect network member feedback in preparation for its 2011-2016 proposal. The presentation highlighed the evaluation design and lessons learned about using the appreciative inquiry approach. The presentation abstract and PowerPoint slides are available here at the AEA Public Library.

In the run-up to the conference, AEA staff asked some presenters to submit blog entries about their conference presentations for AEA365, a tip-of-the-day blog by and for evaluators.  On AEA’s invitation, Sue and Cindy wrote a blog entry that was posted here on November 5.