The current societal and political landscape has drastically altered the field of evaluation in a short period of time, and there is little to indicate this change will slow down soon. We've seen intensified attacks on equity, shifting priorities from funders, burnout among practitioners, and the rise of AI and automation in our work. These changes demand more than technical fixes. They demand a fundamental reckoning with what evaluation is for, and whom it serves.

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It is almost as if a volcano of change has erupted.

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This can be disorienting, upsetting, filled with loss, and present new challenges for us in the field and practice of evaluation. 

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However, an eruption also presents an opportunity for newness – a reset.  During this time of seismic change, we must answer the call to assess the needs of our communities, our field, and ourselves. Now is a time of transformation in what evaluation is and looks like in this world. We need to reconsider how our vision and values shape this new perspective of both field and practice. 

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Our grounding in evaluation may differ, but those reasons and values drive us towards our evolving vision of what evaluation can be and the positive change it can make on the communities we engage with. As a collective, we have experienced the consistent trauma in our profession due to the state of our world. To not acknowledge this would be a farce to you, our EERS community. 

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We face an urgent need to reflect and take action to transform how the field of evaluation operates and responds to these threats. We are resilient.  We do good work. But our work does not exist in a vacuum. We call on you as change-makers to stand on our values and to transform the field of evaluation. We challenge you to help in shaping a vision of evaluation that is rooted in action, community, and self-affirmation to share together in our field and community of practice.