Scene setting for the evaluation workshop is crucial. Fetterman suggests that this take place in “an open session with as many staff members and participants as possible.” Fetterman, 2001. East Oxford Action's experience of facilitated workshops such as these are they are best when the numbers are limited to about fifteen. This raises problems for large programmes. Our experience is also that the process of inviting people to the workshop offers an opportunity for control – ie only inviting people who will support your point of view. Whilst all measures are taken to prevent this – through explaining the evaluation process to those doing the invitations – it is also useful to keep an eye open for this during the workshop and perhaps do some follow-up work if appropriate.
An agreement by all those involved to subscribe to openness and mutual respect needs to be established at the beginning – the evaluator making clear that everyone is equal. East Oxford Action has experienced problems with this, for example where cultural barriers prevent one group from speaking in front of another. Another example is that of a project evaluation taken with people with mental health problems, where it was felt that a fully mixed workshop would be too stressful for those involved. In this circumstance we ran a series of workshops with the different groups (if the participants are likely to be intimidated by the process), whilst ensuring that the different groups heard what each other are saying and eventually run a mixed group workshop once trust had been built up. With regeneration programmes made up of several projects delivering different elements of the programme, it is necessary to undertake several workshops looking at the overall aim and the projects' aims.
The choice of time and venue for the evaluation workshop is also important – where possible it should be designed to suit the needs of everyone, but where this is not possible to suit the needs of the most vulnerable in the group.
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