Q1. Do you have any indications of scope of administrative support, e.g. correspondence frequency (statistics), Board meeting frequency, constant number of active members, anticipated number (100?) of people involved in virtual Annual General Meeting and e- discussions, how many people do you expect to register for 2013 conference, scope of membership database etc?
A1: Don’t have statistics on correspondence by Secretariat, but expected to at least keep up by reading frequent email correspondence among the 11 IOCE Board members, and take needed action when appropriate. In addition to multiple daily email correspondence (average >100/messages/month), Board tries to organize virtual meeting via Skype every other month, plus one F2F (face-to-face) meeting each year in conjunction with some member VOPE’s conference. (Most recent was January 14, 2012, after AfrEA conference.) AGM conducted via IOCE-EvaLeaders@yahoogroups.com listserv. Currently 67 subscribers. Too early to predict numbers of participants in 2013 international conference, but I’d guess not many more than 100-150. Scope of IOCE database: Currently 126 VOPEs (national, regional or international). See website.
Q2. Do you have any available Strategic documents, other than IOCE Strategic Plan December 2008?
A2: Search www.IOCE.net. See especially http://www.ioce.net/overview/general.shtml and http://www.ioce.net/resources/ioce_documents.shtml
Q3. Is Secretariat going to be in charge of providing transcripts from virtual meetings and minutes from relevant meetings, or Secretariat role will be mainly in distributing relevant documents and managing their availability, in coordination with Secretariat Liaison officer?
A3: IOCE Board Secretary (not Secretariat) responsible for taking and writing up minutes of meetings. Secretariat’s role is only to be sure they are uploaded to correct place on website and archived.
Q4. Editorial services (3.8) - is English the only working language?
A4: IOCE Board e-discussions and meetings are in English. However, we want to make more of our documents available in other languages. Especially e-newsletters. Past ones have been translated voluntarily by Board members into Spanish, French, Russian, and Portuguese. Secretariat will not be directly responsible for doing such translations, but may be asked to help identify professional translators if/when volunteers unable to do them.
Q5. Is IOCE open to innovative solutions in the field of web maintenance and communication that would demand high level of change of existing website approach?
A5: Yes, very much so! That’s something we look for in the capabilities (and demonstrated past experiences) of those interested in taking on role of IOCE Secretariat.
Q6. Could you share any estimation related to affordable budget for Secretariat work?
A6: No pre-set budget amount. More interested in ascertaining value-for-investment. I.e. quality of services, including responsiveness, creativity.
Q7. Could you share anticipated number of Secretariat full time staff employees, or any other IOCE's need, indication or advice that could help in proposal writing?
A7: Up to those applying for this work, but I’d think it could be done by one main IOCE Liaison person backed by one person (could be outsourced) responsible for technical management of website. To be clear, this work would not require a full-time dedicated staff person; this should just be part of other responsibilities/contracts you’d retain/take on.
Q8. How many members do you currently have?
A8: As stated above, 11 Board members. Also about as many fairly active Advisors (including past Board members). Plus 67 members of the EvaLeaders listserv who serve as a rather informal Advisory Committee. Plus IOCE-Network listserv-- (currently 44 subscribers, but need to invite/engage others on the list of contacts of the 126 VOPEs on the IOCE database. See Excel spreadsheet linked from website.
Q9. How easy is it to find translators for the website material – I see that the objective is to provide material in English, French and Spanish. Is the Secretariat responsible for finding translators?
A9: See response (to other questioner) above.
Q10. Who is responsible for gathering articles for the newsletter? How often is the newsletter published?
A10: Individual Board members have taken on responsibilities for soliciting, receiving and editing content for newsletters – about 3 per year. Might need help with this in future.
Q11. What is the Secretariat involvement in the annual board election process?
A11: Only the mechanics of inviting members (representatives of VOPEs on IOCE database) to participate in AGM. Actually, Board Representatives are selected by regional VOPEs; election of Officers by Board members during annual F2F or via email/Skype by end of calendar year.
Q12. The membership application process appears fairly complex, requiring a decision regarding the amount of the fees to be paid and possibly a decision on the eligibility of the organisation for membership. Clearly the applicant would elect to pay the minimum fee. Would the Secretariat be responsible for gathering relevant information in support of the application and forwarding it to the board? Is there generally quite a delay between application and acceptance?
A12: Indeed reading past membership guidelines based on original bylaws was very complicated and confusing. In 2011 the IOCE Board proposed, and AGM confirmed, much more open and liberal definition of membership, including financial contributions. The latter are now completely voluntary, like giving to charities (at least in the US). In actuality there is not really an ‘application process’ with ‘approval criteria and mechanism’ – any VOPE can simply ask to be added to IOCE database (and thus be considered a ‘member’ of IOCE). However, having said that, we do then try to ascertain how ‘legitimate’ the new VOPE is – mainly by inviting them to respond to profile questionnaire (see examples linked from website).
Q13. How often are conferences held?
A13: The International EvalPartners Conference being planned for early 2013 (probably early February) will be the first conference directly organized by IOCE. In other cases we’ve joined with member (mostly regional) VOPEs in their conferences.
[1] Responses by Jim Rugh -- may not necessarily always reflect how members of IOCE Board might have responded.
