choosing-how-to-track-progress
This is one of a series of guides for collaborative environmental research and advocacy projects. "Choosing How to Track Progress" takes with the goals that the garden members prioritized for the upcoming year in the previous workshop, helps you choose how to measure progress towards the goals and points you towards fun and "field-proof" measuring activities. This guide covers how to do this on paper or on an online spreadsheet.
Planning this event
Ahead of time:
- Arrange to set aside an hour to review the goals prioritized by the garden members at the end of the previous workshop, Setting Goals.
- ???is there a group component???
Materials to have on hand:
- Depending on whether the leadership team prefers to work on paper or online, either:
- Draw a four-column x 5-row table on paper and xerox it for each garden leader
- Set up an online spreadsheet you can all use, perhaps in GoogleSpreadsheets or in ethercalc
Activity 1:
This activity is designed for you to do individually. Here are the steps you will preform:
- List your goals
- Quantify your goals into specific objectives (be specific and set numerical targets when possible)
- Design how you will work toward the goal (Ask yourself: "what will we actually do to achieve this goal?")
- Choose how to measure progress towards your objectives (each way of measuring will be called a "metric" and will either rely on some form of photographic documentation or manual tracking using the FiveBoroughFarm toolkit.
See how these four elements can be organized into a matrix:
| Goal | Objective | Program Design | Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal 1 | . | . | . |
| Goal 2 | . | . | . |
| Goal 3 | . | . | . |
Here's an sketch example that omits the first column and instead begins with Objectives:
Here's an example from an actual garden in Newark that includes multiple objectives for each goal, and adds a notes column at the end:
Activity 2:
Bring the draft matrix to review with your most involved collaborators.
Activity 3:
Once the matrix reflects your intentions fairly well, bring it to the whole group.