American Evaluation Association (AEA) Policies

As an association, AEA follows unique governing policies with a Board of Directors as leadership. Learn more about how our association is run.

Governing Policy Manual

The Governing Policy Manual, last amended on May 22, 2018, outlines the structure of AEA, including bylaws, financial management, and more.

Bylaws

You can read the full AEA bylaws, which took effect in January of 2011 and were amended by the AEA membership in February of 2023 here.

AEA End Goals

The purpose of the Board of Directors, on behalf of the evaluation community and those it affects and influences (“owners”), is to ensure that AEA produces appropriate results (as defined in Ends Goals) and avoids inappropriate actions and situations.

The AEA End Goals are defined as:

• 1.0    The American Evaluation Association exists to contribute to the common good by improving evaluation theory, practice, and methods; increasing evaluation use promoting evaluation as a profession; and supporting the contribution of evaluation to the theory and knowledge about effective human action and equitable systems and markets, at a cost that justifies individual annual membership dues. Accordingly, and in order of priority, the American Evaluation Association invests its resources in the following:
• 1.1    Members interact to promote high-quality evaluation practice and professional leadership.
• 1.2     Members benefit from professional affiliation, leadership opportunities, and inclusion within a diverse community.
• 1.3     Members have the competencies needed to engage in high-quality evaluation that is edifying, ethical, culturally and contextually responsive, useful, and that demonstrates scholarship.
• 1.4     Student members have ample opportunities to develop the leadership skills and competencies needed to practice evaluation, and contribute to the association, and the evaluation knowledge base.
• 1.5     Evaluation contributes to increased public understanding of challenging issues and solutions.
• 1.6     The public (government, communities, and the philanthropic sector) understands the value of, engages in, and learns from evaluation.

Investment Policy

To maintain full transparency with our membership, you can read the details of our investment policy (as of 2016) here.

Strategic Plan

The working American Evaluation Association Strategic Plan outlines goals set for the association.

Whistle Blower Policy

AEA’s Whistleblower Policy (1) encourages members, directors, staff and volunteers to come forward with credible information on illegal practices or serious violations of adopted policies of AEA; (2) specifies that AEA will protect the person(s) from retaliation; and (3) identifies where such information can be reported. Read the full policy here.

Conflict of Interest Policy

The purpose of the AEA Conflict of Interest Policy is to protect the integrity of the Association and its decision-making and governance process by ensuring that actual and potential conflicts of interests that Directors (and other volunteers) may have are adequately disclosed and addressed. Read the full policy.

Strategic Use of Net Assets Outline

The Board establishes policy that sets parameters on accessing the funds within the General Reserve. Read more about the full policy.