Maintenance of an Advisory Group

Here are some hints and tips to help you through the process of maintaining an advisory group to ensure that they are used as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Monitoring and Evaluating

The cost of resourcing an advisory group can be large and, therefore, it is important to monitor and evaluate throughout the project as to whether the group is providing value for this investment (for everyone involved).

A simple example of how a group could be monitored is to:

1. Define the purpose and activities of the group.
2. Define the key performance/ success measures i.e. what are you going to measure to know the group is successful.
3. Decide how you are going to monitor and evaluate these success measures (and then do so!).

Common methods include:

• Having everyone fill in a short feedback form at the end of every meeting.
• Holding a reflective debrief session at the end of every meeting (and recording the outcomes).

Term

The advisory group will eventually disband. Sometimes this is the natural outcome of the group having done what it set out to do, the project coming to an end or funding running out. In other situations this might be caused by a drop off in enthusiasm, availability or energy of the participants. However, a partnership with stakeholders would likely involve staying in touch with key group members – even if it is in a more informal manner. It can be helpful to contemplate the term of operation of the group and the circumstances in which it would be disbanded, and to document these in the Terms of Reference.