Secretariat support for Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation — memberships, conferences, governance, communications and donor reporting.
IOCE uses Voluntary Organization for Professional Evaluation as an umbrella term for all kinds of groups interested in advancing evaluation as a profession — national and regional evaluation societies and associations, and the networks that connect them. They operate at sub-national, national, regional and international levels, and their members include evaluators, the people who commission evaluations, academics, students and policymakers.
Routinely. Only a handful of the very largest reach the scale that justifies employing a permanent office team; below that, contracting the secretariat to a professional provider is common and well established, particularly among regional societies. The alternative for most is leaving it on the board.
Yes, and most engagements start that way. Usually with whichever function is consuming the most volunteer time — commonly memberships or the annual conference — and grow from there if it works.
VOPE budgets vary enormously and we scope to what is actually available. A few functions handled properly is better value than everything handled thinly, and we would rather tell you which two matter most.
No. A secretariat executes; it does not govern. Strategy, positions and priorities stay with the board — we handle the work that has to happen regardless of who holds office this year.
That is much of the point. Records, systems and institutional memory stay with the organisation rather than leaving with an outgoing officer, so incoming board members inherit something orderly.