Abstract
The five guiding principles were developed in 1994 by an AEA Board of Director’s appointed Task Force to help evaluators become more thoughtful and serious professionals. The tenets considered and articulated by the Task Force serve to clarify the role of evaluation for evaluators and their clients and to provide standards or ethical statements to help guide the conduct of professional evaluators. However, in order for many evaluators to actually use these principles, they must first be able to remember them. The present article suggests that the principles can be better remembered via a mnemonic device which employs the familiar characters from Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. For example, the Cowardly Lion lacks courage and can be associated with the evaluator’s need to consider his or her own courage in following the principle of integrity/honesty. Similarly, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man can help remind evaluators of the other principles. And if it is easier to remember the Guiding Principles, it will be easier to employ them in our work.
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