Monitoring and Evaluating Members
Keep in touch and provide feedback
Whether your members are around the corner or around the state, you still need to check in regularly. CNCS requires program managers to complete these forms and evaluations:
- VISTA—Members' time off; quarterly progress reports
- AmeriCorps—Activity/service logs (at least monthly); midterm and end-of-term reports
Besides the bare requirements, there are a number of things successful supervisors can do to keep members on track:
- Setting Goals and Expectations—Being clear about goals and expectations up front can help prevent a lot of problems down the road. Resources here include a goal-setting survey, forms, training ideas, and tips for collaborating with members on written expectations.
- Using the Project Plan—The project plan or VISTA Assignment Description (VAD) can be a great starting point for planning, problem solving, and developing benchmarks for monitoring and evaluation. See Demystifying Project Plans and VADs in the Planning and Documentation section for samples and resources.
- Ongoing Monitoring—Monitoring can take many forms: face-to-face meetings, service logs, informal e-mails, reports, conference calls, or individual phone conversations. Get tips on supervising from afar as well as ideas on creating your own monitoring and reporting systems.
- Performing Member Evaluations—Remember, as you evaluate members you're building relationships. Strong relationships pay off by boosting job satisfaction for both members and supervisors; improving member retention; promoting personal growth; and producing a more effective service year that ultimately benefits the community. This section has a variety of tips and evaluation forms, from quarterly to midyear and end of year.
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