Reflections on a decade in the life of the Australasian Evaluation Society: 1990-1999

Abstract

The 2003 AES Conference¹ was the 21st birthday of conferences held by a group of evaluators who after a few such efforts organised themselves more formally in 1996 to become the AES, which was officially registered in Victoria in 1987. Ours was the third such regional professional society of evaluators, after the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) started in 1981 and the American Evaluation Association (AEA) formed in 1986, as the consolidation of two earlier evaluation associations: the Evaluation Network and the Evaluation Research Society.

This article is not a history of the AES. It lacks the academic rigour and research. It particularly overlooks much of the activity of the regions which are really the heart of the Society. It reflects my experiences, my perceptions, and my analysis over the ten years when I was most actively involved in the Society. Despite these deficiencies or potential biases, I hope it provides an insight into what goes into making a professional society as effective and highly regarded as the AES is, despite having had its share of trials along the way.