Preparation

Preparation for implementation requires attention to a range of issues. While some of these can be tackled during the programme assessment and preliminary stages, unfortunately a number of them must be delayed until the educational plan is further developed.

For this reason, a Voter Education Calendar that is much more detailed than the election calendar is required. Plans must be considered for financing the programme (see Budgeting and Financing for Voter Education Programmes). Unless a grant has been obtained in advance of the programme plan, educators need to seek money after developing a plan and before implementing it. This can take a considerable amount of time.

The programme design itself has to be developed in macro and micro detail. Having blocked out the various elements that will be used, curriculum developers and materials producers need to focus on specific micro or lesson plans.

Having established these plans, production of materials has to be commissioned and those that already exist have to be procured, stored, and distributed (see Procurement). Staff have to be recruited and trained (see Staffing for Civic and Voter Education).

Any plan will also have to have some degree of flexibility built in to deal with any unforseen developments.

Making Use of What is in Place

This narrative suggests a linear progression, but even when there is little in place before the programme, preparation is based on local conditions. There may be existing staff or materials around which the programme can be developed.

There may be an existing plan that was used to finance the programme before the appointment of the first members of the educational team, or certain goods and services may already have been commissioned.

Having determined one strategy, it may become apparent that there are not sufficient materials for its success, or it may be beyond the capability of available staff. Changes can be made at a macro or, more often, micro level.

Time Lines

Because the preparatory phase has this iterative aspect to it, care should be taken to establish a time line or calendar that allows sufficient time - particularly for materials production and distribution. In addition to this, the calendar should be prepared to allow the programme to develop while it is running. Not only is this be essential if it is to be responsive to feedback from the field, but it ensures that delivery can be condensed into the shortest possible time. It may not be necessary to recruit staff to train voter information officers at a polling station until just before training workshops begin. Or, it might be possible to orient trainers to that programme and then have them engage in other more urgent training. Especially for election programmers, staff should be employed on this basis from the beginning. Materials required for that same event also may not be needed until just before the event.

Commitment

The whole preparatory phase is one of marshalling resources and time in the most efficient way possible. Educators who have conducted a similar programme before will find they have a book from which to work. Those conducting a programme for the first time should work as a team to test their plan, and can expect that even with the best possible plan, they will work longer hours and under more pressure than originally expected.

Voter Education Calendar

Preparation for an education programme requires knowledge of any set calendar, whether it is an election calendar or a calender of special commemorative dates. But it requires its own calendar as well.

Visibility and Detail

This calendar should be inscribed where all can see it. In education programmes where administrators are experienced, such a calendar may note only the event milestones. But where administrators are less experienced, the calendar should include all the preparatory deadlines. Detail is important, as is display. All those who have a stake in the programme need to be able to see and understand the programme.

Apart from the confidence this gives that the programme will continue even in the absence of a key team member, the calendar provides a visual imperative in favour of completing the programme according to the original plans.

Calendar Construction

In order to construct such a calendar, educators should begin by blocking out the phases of their programme. Then they should identify particular event milestones.

On the basis of these, educators count back to put in realistic deadlines. Such deadlines may include a best and worst case scenario so that a set of dates become bracketed.

There is project management computer software to assist in this process, but it can be done manually and charts can be prepared using newsprint or year planners. Of course, as staff become more experienced, their ability to predict precisely how much lead time is necessary before each milestone on the calendar improves.

To begin with, extra time should be built in and calendars should be constructed in such a way that alterations can be made as more information about progress is acquired.

Imposed Deadlines

In some cases, planning the preferred route backwards when a programme is being established for the first time is not possible: there are so many days to a democratic moment. In such a case, the crucial issues are those of external suppliers and available person-days (multiply the number of days available by the number of persons available for that particular job). Speed can be obtained by spending money: to increase supplier incentives, and to employ more staff to do the same job.

Decisions about these can be made earlier if the education team has a draft calendar already available.

Budgeting and Financing for Voter Education Programmes

Educational programmes require money. But how much?

Before consideration can be given to ways of financing the programme, a budget has to be prepared. And preparing a budget for an educational programme requires some understanding of the programme that is to be implemented.

Educators have to be involved in the budget process and need to know the different ways in which budgets can be constructed.

Zero-Based Budgeting

The most accurate, and also the most time consuming, budgeting is done on a zero-based system alongside the development of the educational programme.

Zero-based budgeting means that the actual cost of each item in the programme is worked out. For example, if the programme calls for twelve sheets of paper to be distributed, then the cost of those twelve sheets of paper is calculated and added to the cumulative total.

Such a process requires very close attention to detail and a very clearly described programme.

Block Budgets

A block budget starts with a specified grant or income figure. Such a figure can be split up according to gross categories: staff costs, administration, publications, voter education events.

From these blocks start a set of calculations determining how to spend the available money most efficiently. When there are designated blocks, it may not be possible to move money from one block to another, and this can be a real frustration as those doing budgets realise they could save money on salaries and spend more on events or vice versa.

Impress Systems

The weakest and most disempowering system is that where the money is held at the centre and various projects can draw down cash on request and occasionally in advance of expenditure. In such a system, the centre may have an idea what the budget is, but this is seldom shared with the periphery that must ask for each bit of money without knowing whether it will be available. And, with the criteria for availability so vague, those asking do not know whether there genuinely is no money left or whether the centre just does not approve of the particular project.

Cost of Living Budgeting

Next to impress systems come the historic systems in which the budget from one year is merely recalculated to allow for any inflation or changes in cost of living (COL). Such budgets become more and more inaccurate and less and less reflective of the actual programme that has to be presented. When there was and is continuity, such budgets may be possible.

But planning a programme to meet the context and a specific set of educational objectives is likely to require the innovation of zero-based budgeting at some time, even if it takes longer.

Financing

After completing a budget, educators should consider ways in which the programme is to be financed. Two ways predominate social interventions outside of those financed by the state:

• grants and donations
• cost recovery and self-financing

Grants and Donations

Education in support of elections and democracy is a national and international priority, although it does go through phases when it is more or less popular. As such, it is most likely to be funded by grants or donations. In order to obtain grants, whether from government, international aid agencies, philanthropic or solidarity foundations, or charitable institutions, certain documentation has to be prepared based on the programme planning that the education team has undertaken.

The depth and coherence of the planning, and its social significance, duly documented and noted, is the primary source of success in obtaining grant funding. General donor funding, which might be based on a far wider range of individual perceptions of what is worth giving money to, is likely to be influenced by additional factors. These include the style with which appeals are made, the endorsements that the programme has received, and existing relationships between the donor and the programme organization.

But grants are given on the basis of homework done and matching priorities between the grant maker and the proposal.

Different grant makers have different priorities and standards for the presentation of proposals. In most cases, they offer these publicly.

Proposal Writing

A proposal needs to include documentation specifying the context for the programme and the reasons it is necessary. This will be followed by a description of the strategy to be followed and the intended outcomes expressed in a set of objectives. A full or summary work plan should follow, including arrangements for evaluation and monitoring. A budget must be given.

The proposal also will provide information about the organization that is proposing the work and the individuals within that organization who will be taking responsibility for the programme.

Within this simple framework certain grant makers require additional information, and may direct precisely what this must be. Such directions inevitably increase the difficulty of preparing proposals for education organizations in civil society: but there may be concomitant increases in the amount of money made available.

Educators preparing for the proposal should consider the following sections of this topic area.

Logical Frameworks

An increasing number of grant makers request logical framework plans or lofgrames from those who submit proposals. Unfortunately, they do not all use exactly the same technology and terminology.

The logic of a logframe is straightforward. It is an attempt to ensure that those submitting the proposal have dealt with the matters outlined above and also with how the programme will be evaluated. The logframe also lays out the basics of a business or work plan.

The first condition of a logical framework is to settle on the goals and outputs that are expected and the logical relationship between these, the activities the programme will undertake, and the actual societal impact. Logframes are likely to require a listing of planning assumptions, assessment of the risks to be considered, and the indicators that will be external reference markers of the success of the programme.

It is possible to develop a logframe that is displayed in simple form of a table, in which the various stages of the plan follow one another. It is also possible to use the logframe outline to create a narrative document.

When the logframe has been established, it is theoretically possible to budget each item (and thus prepare a zero-based budget). Such a budget can be linked directly to outputs rather than to the general organizational processes that must be undertaken to achieve these outputs.

Perhaps the most useful contributions of the logframe movement have been to systematize the planning process and to force the asking and answering of certain questions, such as: "Is this worth doing?" and "Will it really make a difference where we think it should?"

Sources of Funds

There are many sources of funds, and civil society organisations involved in voter and civic education should develop partnerships with as many as possible. One valuable resource on grant-making institutions throughout the world is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) website which can be accessed at http://www.ned.org.

Election authorities might be constrained in their ability to develop the same level of partnership by legal restrictions. But the source of the money is more limited.

First, there is the discretionary income of individuals and private organizations that these individuals and organizations have control over and make available according to their own priorities.

Second, there are trust funds that have been set up to manage money earned over time. These funds have a predominantly professional approach to the disbursement of their funds based on the wishes of the originator of the funds. This implies both flexibility and limitations.

Third, some countries make available percentages of their state revenues for international aid and partnerships. Such money is controlled in the final instance by the voters of that particular country, although it might be in the hands of state officials or development professionals. It is therefore subject to the vagaries of the electorate, but more importantly, it is money that has been earned by ordinary people even if they are fortunate to live in a more affluent part of the world.

Funding Agreements

When a proposal has been submitted and accepted, it is likely to be followed by a legal agreement that imposes on the organization accepting the grant certain conditions in relation to reporting, auditing, accountability, and restrictions in the use of the money linked to the original or amended proposal.

Cost Recovery and Self Financing

Even with government funding and international grants, voter education projects can require additional funding. There is even the possibility that, if additional funding can be acquired for certain projects, this can extend the reach of other aspects of a national programme.

Certain types of projects lend themselves to cost recovery or self-financing, and there are certain institutional arrangements that provide better ways of doing this type of work. This section defines cost recovery, suggests that some voter education programmes can pay for themselves, and explains how to set up a system to achieve this.

What is Cost Recovery?

Most nonstatutory organizations involved in voter education are registered trusts, charities, or nonprofit organizations. They do the work they do for the public interest. In terms of their national or international legal status, they are not profit-making companies.

However, they can recover their costs of doing business from a client or from a third party. These costs will certainly include, if carefully budgeted and billed, the costs of project development, organizational overheads, and future project sustainability.

What about Commercial Activities?

As voter education becomes a more specialized activity, and with the advent of voter education programmes being tendered out (competitively bid), there are companies that see the possibility of obtaining work on a commercial basis. This is true of suppliers to voter education organizations themselves, whether printers, commercial artists, advertising agencies, or distributors. Election authorities may be able to obtain the services of government agencies at cost, or to use their size to obtain special commercial rates, but nevertheless the majority of services are not offered pro bono.

Managing these services, whether as subcontracts or as primary suppliers, requires special attention and raises a number of separate issues. See Managing Contracts, and Commercial Advertising.

Making Voter Education Pay for Itself

There are a range of options open to programme planners.

Provide Education to Those Who Can Pay for It.

Certain organizations have an interest in ensuring effective voter education for their members and are able to pay for this service. Companies, in particular, may consider civic education to be essential for their workforce. If they see the benefits of this in terms of higher levels of commitment to the company, less disruption due to political uncertainty, and improved human relations and decision-making skills, they are likely to include such training within their company budget.

In addition, they may be willing to cover the costs of materials and allow extra copies to be used beyond their company members.

Find Third-Party Paying Clients.

Many companies also have social investment and marketing budgets that they may be willing to make available on a third-party paying client basis. Voter educators identify a target audience that has some links to the company. Perhaps it is the school children of company employees, or the security establishment in the vicinity of the company premises, or just the group that the company supports in other circumstances (disabled people, a theatre group).

An educational programme is designed for this group and the members are charged for the programme either on an individual or group basis. The third-party paying client picks up the bill.

Solicit In-Kind Contributions.

While some companies or institutions may not be in a position to cover the costs of a voter education programme, they may be able to provide an in-kind contribution that reduces the over-all cost of the programme. This might include the provision of office space, equipment, supplies, vehicles, or perhaps even staff persons.

Obtain Sponsorships or Local Advertising.

Voter education materials go to large numbers of people. Companies may also want to associate themselves with the positive messages that are communicated. It is possible to structure arrangements in printed and broadcast material that enable companies to use their advertising budgets to cover costs.

As usual in these arrangements, advertisers are paying for exposure and do not have control over the message. But they might have certain contractual expectations that have to be met: the number of people to whom the message goes, the quality of the production, and the nonpartisan and professional attitude of the message. Advertisers want professional service and do not want to become associated with slipshod workmanship.

This applies whether the advertising that is being sold is for a simple local newsletter in which the local butcher and corner shop will receive exposure, or whether it is a national broadcast on television during prime time.

Encourage Voter Education Messages on Commercial Products.

Companies distribute their own products. They pay for their production. It is possible to encourage them to do special election runs of their packaging. Many dairies and breakfast cereal packages are designed to support competitions, short run campaigns, and so on, and these have been used to advertise missing children and various health campaigns. Providing companies with a set of logos and standard messages that can be printed on packaging is a simple way to cover distribution and production costs.

In addition to products, many companies run their own in-house newspapers and newsletters. Standard articles will find acceptance in these media at no cost other than the basic preparation and focussing of the article.

Set Up the Necessary Systems.

To run these and other cost recovery programmes, voter educators will need to set up a range of systems that are often beyond the normal order of business for either nongovernmental organizations or election authorities.

They will need to have a licensing operation to prepare and monitor the use of standard messages and logos, a billing department that can track and invoice all commercial and contract activity, and an agency that can handle the booking and placement of advertizing.

The point of such activity is two-fold. It needs to generate income that can then enable other non-income-producing programmes to be extended. It needs to assess opportunities for low-cost or no-cost distribution of voter education messages through interaction with the marketplace.

It is essential to understand the purpose of this activity. Otherwise, it could gain its own momentum and begin to dominate decisions about where to place resources. It should also be kept entirely separate from decisions about the handing out of commercial contracts to do voter education or to supply services, or else it could lead to rather messy conflict of interest and commission or fraud controversies. A company could easily decide to sponsor a publication in order to ensure that a printing job is given to them, and similar controversies are limited only by the imagination of the commercial sector.

Programme Design

An educational programme is a planned and sequential arrangement of educational activities designed to achieve a set of predetermined and explicitly stated educational outcomes. The programme can be simple, consisting of a forty-minute lesson in a classroom, or it can be a slightly megalomaniac attempt to educate every person in a country to vote and to understand the electoral legislation over which politicians and judges have been fighting for years.

In the case of the first, the written programme can consist of a couple of pages in a notebook. The second requires the balancing of a range of programme elements in a coherent strategy, and the development and aligning of resources to meet a series of educational objectives.

The Design Cycle

This topic area requires educators to consider the larger programme and also organize ways in which the smaller programmes can be designed in order to achieve complex objectives.

In order to do this, educators should

• use the Design Cycle,
• build a diverse team to assist in the planning and implementation, (see Team Development),
• spend considerable time with that team and with other stakeholders in developing Educational Objectives,
• obtain broad commitment to the plan that has been developed (see Obtaining and Maintaining Commitment To the Plan).

Overview of Programme Design Theory

It is possible to construct a range of different educational programmes to achieve a set of agreed objectives. The challenge for the educator is to select that programme which achieves its objectives in the shortest time, with the least resources, and with the greatest chance of effective learning taking place.

It is possible, for example, to learn about aerodynamic theory by working as an apprentice in a shop building an experimental aeroplane, by visiting a wind tunnel, by watching a wind tunnel in operation on a video, by building a model aeroplane out of balsa wood, or by reading a textbook on aerodynamic theory. Each is a valid educational programme, but educators have to make selections based on what they know about their learner constituency, available resources, including money and time, the objectives that must be achieved, and the level of competence that is required.

Programme design requires the application of Occam's razor to develop a programme that is effective and efficient. [1] This is particularly true of programmes that can be seduced by the availability of state funds. Expectations of the powerful or influential can pose a distraction, as can the mistaken belief that the public appearance of the programme is more important than its ability to empower citizens to deal with their social and political environment.

Any programme usually includes activities that are inessential to the achievement of the objectives, or that set out to achieve other objectives. This results from inexperience or the lack of post-event analysis. These unnecessary elements need to be stripped from a programme.

In face-to-face programmes, such inessential components can include particular exercises or theoretical inputs. In public education programmes, these can include public events or advertizements that, for all their fun or the amount of energy that goes into them, make no additional difference to people's behaviour or knowledge.

Notes:

[1] Occam's razor is a thinking technique that includes slicing up questions, usually asked by scientists, and reducing to their essentials the number of possible answers. This technique owes its origin to philosopher William of Occam (d. 1349), and to his saying, "Entities ought not to be multiplied except from necessity."

Design Cycle

The educational design cycle is an iterative planning tool. [1] This section lists and explains this tool. It consists of seven steps.

Establishing the Focus of the Programme

In voter and civic education, this focus has already been determined in its most general form. The mandate or mission (see The Educational Mandate) of the educator will confirm and restrict this focus.

This focus is essential in determining the area within which initial analysis will be done of the intended target constituency. Without this, educators will founder. Focus should not be confused with educational objectives. These must still be established.

Understanding the Learners and Their World

Educators need to understand and enter the world of the learners. This is particularly true of educators who come from the outside, but it is also necessary for educators who consider themselves to be part of this world. They need to develop the reflective distance that comes with studied analysis.

The analysis will attempt to discover basic information, as well as uncover a set of educational needs.

Understanding the Available Resources

In addition to understanding the world of the learners, educators need to know what resources are available to them. Such an understanding ensures that the objectives set for the programme are realistic and achievable.

There is likely to be an ongoing dialogue between the available resources and the intended objectives. To begin with, educators are likely to overestimate what can be achieved, or they may be expected by others to deliver too much. Some adjustments inevitably must be made, and are best made during the assessment and design phase rather than during the implementation phase.

Selecting Educational Objectives

During this period of the design, educators should discuss potential message statements, generative themes, and establish a set of programme objectives that are WARM: Worthwhile, Action oriented, Realistic, and Measurable (see Educational Objectives) These objectives are couched in language that puts the learner at the centre of the programme.

To ensure that the programme can be evaluated, a set of indicators should be created to mark the achievement of these objectives.

• Primary and Supplementary Objectives. In a complex programme, it is likely that the objectives set are the primary objectives. To complete the design a set of supplementary objectives need to be established. At the end of the design, it could be described as an objectives tree. For example, in order that "voters in the rural north will be able to vote with confidence," they may need "to find their way to the correct polling station," "be able to handle a pen," and "understand the role of political parties in a democracy."
• The Objectives Tree. Some educators consider this objective tree to be the most fundamental aspect of educational design. Others find it superficial in its belief that all likely educational outcomes can be determined in advance of interaction with learners. It is used most often when the proposed educational programme is highly skills based, and when the curriculum is predetermined rather than generative.

Voter and civic education falls somewhat in the middle. It does require technical skills, but also has a generative component.

However, all those supporting such a programme (donors and other stakeholders) will require a description in advance of what is intended, and educators should be able to state their intentions also for adult learners who have a right to know the likely outcome of their interaction with the educator.

A detailed set of objectives, written in appropriate and specific language, is essential.

Those who operate primarily on the establishment of messages or generative themes can find it possible to communicate these. But what counts is not the first communication, but the change in knowledge, behaviour, or attitude of the recipient or learner. Education is about change, not only about sending messages into the ether.

Designing the Programme

When the objectives have been framed, educators should begin the design process. This process should include the macro design: a blocking out of the whole programme according to a logical and chronological framework.

Many educators have some experience of doing this for a single group of learners: a timetable is such a macro design.

Macro Design. But the macro design required for a national programme consists of a much more detailed outline. This is likely to include a range of what might be considered timetables for sets of extended training courses, blocking of time for broadcast material, overall estimations of the number of events to be organized, and the sequence in which these will be offered. This design puts together all the information collected about potential programme elements. It is be based on a general strategic paradigm, and it attempts to conform to the available resources by being neither overly ambitious nor too timid.

Micro Plans. The second aspect of educational design is the development of micro plans. Such micro plans or detailed designs can be likened to lesson plans, but because they are likely to consist of programmes that vary in time, in site, in method, and contain a range of options or Educational Strategy Development, calling them lesson plans is hardly appropriate.

These are done in part before a programme beginning, and also during the implementation phase. Detailed design of this nature is a tedious process, but it is offset by the impact of such a carefully designed programme on learners and on the ability of the education programme to make use of educators and materials producers who are not highly qualified educators.

Designers will attempt to ensure that each aspect of the programme conforms to learning theory, is matched carefully to what is known about the learners, and can be achieved within the time, in the place, and with the staff, educational, and financial resources available.

The reason why certain of these detailed or micro designs are done before implementation is that they are determinative of the materials to be produced. It is not enough to prepare a set of materials and then work out ways to convey this material.

It is far better to determine the educational design and then prepare materials for that design. It is more cost effective because the material produced is limited in scope to that level and amount of content required. It also is prepared in the form required.

When existing materials are available and must be used (perhaps a manual or a textbook), designers should consider the best ways to adapt that material to the particular context in which they will work (see Assessing and Adapting Existing Materials).

Programme Implementation

At this point, it might be considered that educational design has ended, but in fact the implementation phase is the moment at which the programme is tested and further lessons are learned. Some of these lessons must be immediately implemented; others may have to wait for the next cycle.

In educational programming, while there may be a pilot phase during which materials are tested and adapted, there is some sense in which the whole programme needs to be open to innovation and adaptation in order to better ensure that the outcome intended is achieved.

Evaluators might prefer that a programme run as scheduled, and that any variations from the plan become apparent. People cannot, however, be experimented with. If it becomes apparent that a programme, whether in the overall or in a particular aspect, is not meeting people's needs and is not appropriate for achieving the stated objectives, it needs to be changed as soon as possible.

Programme Evaluation and Preparation of the Next Cycle

On completion, the cycle moves through an evaluation phase and into an even better understanding of the learners and their world, and of the resources available to the educator. The cycle has returned to its beginning.

In voter and civic education, such a cycle may be used to describe a large national programme. It could easily also be used to describe a small aspect of the programme.

It is likely that educators in different parts of the programme and in different organizations within the general programme network may go through their own versions of the cycle.

An educator given the task by the macro programme of conducting a programme for women in an inner-city environment in a modern state has to enter their world, determine their needs, set objectives for the particular programme, design it, implement it, evaluate it and either themselves, or with others prepare for future educational interventions with the same constituency.

Notes:

[1] The word "iterative" is used in the sense of a process that is partly linear, one step follows another, and partly circular. There are times when a step or set of steps has to be repeated as more information is available or changes have to be made.

Team Development

A complex educational programme conducted under the pressurised conditions of an election or within the constraints imposed by a national civic education programme is best conducted by a multidisciplinary team of educators. A good understanding must develop between team members. This section covers team diversity, liaison with other stakeholders, and team-building exercizes.

Importance of Establishing and Developing a Team

Establishing such a team needs to be done very early. It may even be the first task undertaken by an organization or by the election authority.

Once such a team is in place, attention has to be given to team development. The educator team is going to operate in a milieu where the roles and responsibilities are negotiated on a regular basis, and where the interaction between any one member of the core team and those engaged in the networks and organizations implementing the programme is crucial.

With time so important, it is not possible for the education team to wait for the one person who can provide an answer, or to have a meeting at which a policy can be derived, before making a decision. It is essential for team members to understand the programme strategy and objectives.

Educator teams are likely to be composed of people who have not previously worked together. They may have collaborated before but are likely to come from different organizations or backgrounds. So early, intensive work is required to get everybody on board.

Those establishing the team may feel they can shortcut this process by selecting a homogenous team, but this is shortsighted.

Diversity

An intentionally diverse team brings with it a range of programme advantages.

First, diversity brings with it different skills and experiences, essential components of a multifaceted programme. This type of diversity also ensures that, if controversy is managed constructively, team members play off one another and increase the creativity of the programme.

Second, diversity brings access to different communities, whether because of language, background, or work experience. Such access, whether just in understanding of a particular learning community or in actual entry into the community, is essential in a programme where trust, credibility, and legitimacy are so important.

And finally, diversity brings public acceptance and recognition. There are few countries that are homogenous. Their heterogeneity can and should be reflected in an educator team. And even in apparently homogenous countries there are questions of class, gender, and geography that should be considered.

An educator team that is consciously diverse provides an image of the society which the education programme is promoting.

Liaison

There is one area where there has to be some agreed specialization and where a team will want to develop considerable trust in one another. This is the area of liaison with other organizations or levels within the organization that has been created for the purpose of the programme. In such roles, continuity is essential.

As a result of this continuity, it can be that a single person ends up as spokesperson for the team, or makes decisions on behalf of the team. Where there are low levels of trust or bad communication within the team, this can become a hindrance to a full, effective programme and may result in the team spending too much time in dealing with interpersonal dynamics.

Team-Building Exercizes

There is a range of team building exercizes which are appropriate for the development of educator teams. Exercizes should concentrate on the following:

• ensuring that all team members have a common understanding of the mandate and educational objectives of the programme
• a good understanding of the styles of other team members and of their strengths and weaknesses
• a commitment to assisting one another in attending to these weaknesses and to personal development during the duration of the programme
• clarity about general administration and organizational procedures

Educational Objectives

Selecting and framing objectives is one of the most difficult tasks for educators and, incidentally, for those developing social interventions and programme proposals (see Budgeting and Financing Voter Education Programmes).

As a result, there is even a school of thought that considers setting the objective to be a somewhat arrogant exercize and preferably left to the learners themselves. However, adult learners engaging in dialogue with an educator require an understanding of the intentions of the educator and of their own expectations. An explicit statement of goals or objectives can achieve this. [1]

There may even be opportunities in small group learning events when these objectives can be set jointly. But national education programmes do not have that opportunity, and educators themselves must set objectives based on their best understanding of the educational needs of the target constituency.

Framing Objective Statements

There are ways educators writing objectives can remind themselves of the criteria needed to be useful to the planning and educational exercize. There are a number of acronyms used in the process. Marie-Louise Strom of IDASA in South Africa has developed an acronym which is particularly useful: WARM. WARM objectives are those that are Worthwhile, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Measurable. They also are warm, or passionate, as adult education should be reminded of its greater purpose to empower and enable.

Worthwhile

Educational objectives need to be of significance to the learner. They should be based on relevant educational needs and important life opportunities. Individuals framing objectives have to remind themselves that significance is based on what the potential learners consider important rather than what the educator considers important. When it is possible to engage the target constituency, or component parts of it (see Message Development), a dialogue can ensue about what is significant.

The word worthwhile suggests that whatever the significance, its worth must be apparent to all at the outset.

Action-oriented

Objectives should be framed in terms of changes in behaviour, knowledge, or attitudes. Even cognitive objectives should be framed to describe activity after the educational intervention rather than the process during the event. The purpose of all objectives, whether educational or programmatic, is to describe a set of predictable and probable outputs from the processes and inputs made during the intervention.

While these processes and inputs may require specification, they are not objectives.

Realistic

Objectives have to come to terms with the limitations imposed upon learning by time, methodology, and other available resources. Framing objectives to make them realistic requires a number of iterations. Often, educators will set objectives that are worthwhile and action-oriented only to find that they cannot be achieved in the time available, or that the educational strategies available are not suitable or pliable enough to achieve these objectives.

Realism goes hand in hand with the next measure because it keeps educators honest. It is not enough to set objectives and then say they could have been achieved if only there was enough time, or if only the field educator was more skilled, or the learners more amenable. Such constraints usually cannot be changed, and the planning team needs to come to terms with this during the planning stage.

Measurable

The achievement of objectives must be capable of measurement. How the outcomes are measured requires consideration of sets of indicators that may well have to be developed at the same time as the objectives. But without objectives framed in ways that allow measurement, assessment of learning and evaluation of educational impact are impossible.

While programme planners are most concerned with general assessment of educational impact, learners require less grandiose but equally urgent assessment. They want to be able to know whether they can trust what they have learned and use it in their daily lives or to move on to further learning experiences.

So, the setting of objectives as a first step in determining the educational programme is absolutely essential. This stage in the planning process is likely to be the most intensive, and if a team is doing the planning, the most frustrating. Getting it right provides the sort of certainty and direction that stands an educational programme in good stead. Getting it wrong, or ignoring it in the hope that the process will make the endpoints clearer is a recipe for wandering in the thickets of confusion and wasting much valuable time later in the programme.

Notes:

[1] Because of the necessity to explain a taxonomy of objectives - each one leading to another set, and each of these requiring further definition - educators and planners have developed at different times and in different places their own ranking of the various words available in English. Over time there has come some commonality of approach but there are still differences and it is important that those involved in planning realise that they are creating these taxonomies for their own convenience. In countries where English is not the first language, training of educators can be severely hampered by confusion and outright conflict over whether something is a purpose, aim, objective, outcome or goal. Which term is the larger and which the smaller and more concise is entirely a matter of habit, local convention and choice.

Obtaining and Maintaining Commitment To the Plan

Once a plan has been developed, and people trust it, it needs to be followed. Educators cannot take this for granted, especially in pressurized situations such as elections. They must ensure commitment by creating a programme book, holding programme conferences, and communicating with everyone who is involved.

If the plan has been developed through a consultative process involving a range of stakeholders, there will still be many who have been excluded from its design. Even those who were involved in the initial data collection or in the determination of educational objectives are likely to have been excluded from the more technical detailed design work that follows.

So it is essential to get commitment to the plan and to its various component parts from those who must implement or support it. This commitment cannot be taken for granted over the full period of the programme. People, including staff, come and go and it is essential that a mechanism is created for integrating new arrivals and orienting them to the plan as soon as possible after they arrive on the scene.

Sticking to the Plan with Flexibility in Implementation

Then, because such a programme has been constructed at substantial cost, and because it is likely that there will be a crisis of confidence at some point during the implementation, there will also be a need to work on maintaining commitment to the plan. This last is a particular art as it requires a balance between asserting trust in the original plan against the potential need for change as a result of flaws in the plan or changes in the conditions within which the plan is being implemented.

Creating a Programme Book

The first activity must be the creation of a programme book that can be given to stakeholders and can be used by programme staff for introducing themselves and explaining their programme to potential partners and participants.

Such a book need not be a full text of the programme design, although it might have that as an appendix for those who require it. It should be a well-laid out summary of the context, objectives, strategy, outline, implementation staff, and organizations. It may even be appropriately prepared in the form of slides that can be used for posters or flip charts, overhead projector presentations, or digital projector shows.

It is likely that such a presentation will be used regularly to recruit new members of the network, raise money for the programme, obtain publicity, and so on. As a result, it should be prepared in such a way that it lasts, and has the flexibility to provide an overview for those who need it as well as a detailed plan for those who must follow it.

Conducting Programme Conferences

There are a range of different programme conferences that are needed.

Initial stakeholder events will make sure that everybody who needs to be apprised of the programme before it is implemented are brought on board. Staff conferences will orient new staff to the programme as quickly as possible.

During the implementation phase, conferences might be held at particular moments to assess the programme, build support for the next phase, introduce new materials, or advertize new staff and components of the programme.

Such conferences should be a mix of good communication and proper consultation. Staff conferences should include training, staff development, and personal review; stakeholder conferences should have an aspect of reporting and accountability.

Circulating a Newsletter

Even with conferences, a large programme cannot keep everybody apprised of what is happening on a regular basis, especially if they are spread throughout the country. In addition to encouraging coverage of the programme by the national and community media, and by the organizations that are part of the programme network, the programme itself should consider a newsletter.

This can be expensive if the temptation is to prepare a glossy and widely distributed newsletter. This may be necessary in circumstances where the programme requires substantial marketing. However, it is more important to produce a newsletter that comes out regularly and that covers the programme adequately.

New technology makes even the well-edited and laid out colour newsletter easier to produce. But distribution must be considered before production. It is better to establish a letter that can be faxed, e-mailed, or obtained on a fax/voice mail system by someone dialing in when they can.

Such a newsletter can be broadcast without much cost in production and printing. Even when some recipients are without fax, telephone, or computers, it may be possible for a nodal organisation to print out a single hard copy and photocopy this for the few other organizations and individuals with whom it has contact.

Setting Up a Website

Linked to the newsletter is the need for a web site that can do the twin tasks of providing public access to educational materials and information, and the more technical user information that might be required by educators and partners involved in implementing the programme.

In particular, such a web site can ensure that rapidly changing information and large documents (such as electoral acts) are available when required and do not have to be stored or alternatively searched for in offices around the country.

Identifying Public Moments

Finally, maintaining commitment to the plan means taking the public into one's confidence and maintaining this confidence over time. To do this, people must see that something is happening, even if the programme is presently not reaching them particularly. In addition, obtaining media coverage of events multiplies their impact.

So the programme will identify specific moments and capitalize on these by holding media events, celebrations, larger public events, and by advertising these.

A programme cannot exist on these, and cannot rely on public moments in place of a serious educational programme that reaches people where they are. Indeed, setting up public events without having prepared for these fully, including face-to-face events and community organizing, is likely to backfire. Gatherings happen as a result of programmatic activity, not in advance of it or in place of it.

Production Considerations

There are educational issues that can be considered in producing some of the most regularly used instructional materials. These issues are discussed in the three ensuing sections.

Projected Materials deals with some of the different ways in which instructional materials can be produced and the advantages and limitations of these.

White Boards and Black Boards offers suggestions for that most natural of teaching activities, "chalk and talk," in light of limited resources and the need to work in informal settings.

And Preparing Instructional MaterialsPreparing Instructional Materials offers a set of rules for dealing with illustrations, colour, words, and lettering.

Educators wanting to develop general production briefs for materials that they are commissioning can find that information in Commissioning Materials.

Projected Materials

Projected materials enable educators to convey information to large numbers of people at the same time. However, such materials have to be prepared carefully and may need to be prepared professionally.

In all cases, they require three things:

• the material
• the projector
• the screen

Inadequacies in any one of these items can render the material, no matter how good the content, useless. In fact, the distractions of poorly projected materials, or the delays of having to set up screens or projectors, can make these expensive preparations less useful than a well-prepared talk or live demonstration.

These problems are compounded when there is no available electricity.

The Screen

Projections require a smooth, unblemished, white and shaded or darkened screen. Within these parameters there are many options.

Screens can be manufactured for the occasion, a premises with built-in screens (such as a training or seminar venue, a cinema, and so on) can be borrowed, or an appropriate wall can be used.

In the case of any temporary arrangement, whether a wall, a piece of material, a polystyrene sheet or the raised side of a truck, there must be a rehearsal at the same time of day and in the same place as the final performance/event so that questions of light and definition can be resolved.

The Projector

Projectors vary:

• small, portable, and cheap single slide projectors and strip projectors
• ubiquitous overhead projectors
• somewhat outdated, but still immensely useful epidiascopes and 16mm film projectors
• high tech and expensive video projectors and digital projectors

Each of these has its place. Educators should use what is most easily available, in the places they are available.

The Materials

Fortunately, there are only two different media that can be used in all these different projectors:

• slides
• film or animation

This is somewhat of a simplification, but for the purposes of materials production, it is possible to use a single image (or slide) in a range of different ways:

• on an overhead projector transparency for use by the overhead projector
• as a photographic slide for projecting by slide projectors
• for incorporation into a video production for showing on a television set or through a video projector
• for placing on a CD-ROM or a software package for showing through a digital projector

In all of these, the basic principles are similar and one can consider a slide in much the same way as a small poster (see Posters and Banners for additional information).

Film or animation, however, require much more specialized production. Educators should work with production houses in doing this, whether they are preparing a short advertizement, a film on voting procedure, or something larger on democracy.

It is likely, because of the costs involved, that such a production will be done on videotape. But animations increasingly can be done on computers alone and this may be sufficient for the achievement of the educational objective.

Those considering producing videos or films must take account of the costs, which vary from place to place; and they must take account of the special and costly projection needs as the equipment is not cheap. Further discussion of video is contained in National Impact Media, Community Impact Media, and Alternative Methods of Communicating Voter Education.

White Boards and Black Boards

Those in developed countries or with good educational systems to which democracy educators have access may not need to think about ways of finding or making boards on which to write, display posters, or even project images.

Experience with training of community educators in some countries, however, suggests that this is a pressing need and one of the most difficult to overcome.

Generally, educators seem to overcome the shortage of boards by the use of newsprint. But this has its own dilemmas and it can be in short supply. However, there are options.

Use of Available Paper

In addition to the specially prepared newsprint paper (or butcher paper) sold in sheets or blocks for use by educators, it is possible for community educators to make use of the following:

• brown paper and other plain coloured paper prepared for covering books, lining shelves or wrapping parcels
• offcuts from printing works

Manufacture of Blackboards

In India, merchants sell treated linen wall hangings that can be used as chalk boards.

In many other places, it is possible to buy green and black paint that can be used to transform a wall into a chalkboard.

Coloured chalk can even be used on a white wall, although it does not easily wash off. Perhaps it is better used for basic messages and advertizements.

While chalk itself is not always available, charcoal normally is and it too can and has been used as a writing tool.

Manufacture of White Boards

A white board is a tool used with a wipe-off marker pen. Those who manufacture and supply such boards have made them an essential training tool. Indeed, their one disadvantage (that material written down has to be wiped off) has been overcome by adding a photocopier camera to the screen.

However, these are expensive and are normally only available at educational institutions or commercial training venues.

The pens that write on these boards are reasonably priced, and the versatility of the boards is considerable. So community educators should consider making portable white boards out of framed and hinged plastic laminate, the material used to cover washable kitchen surfaces. It is possible to create a carrying case for educational materials that opens up into a useable white board (or, using paint, a blackboard).

These and other low-cost techniques are used by health educators and community educators throughout the developing world, but there has not been as much concentration yet on transferring these skills to those doing voter and civic education.

Preparing Instructional Materials

Educators are generally well versed in managing content, and it is likely that instructional materials will reach their production stage with the content issues clarified (see Printed Materials).

However, there are production issues that have to be considered for their educational impact on any material.

These are illustration, the relationship of illustration to words, and colour, particularly in the printing process.

What Illustrations are Best?

The following guidelines apply to instructional material for participants who may not have a high level of visual or pictorial literacy:

• Avoid pictures with depth.
• There should be a moderate amount of detail.
• Eliminate background and unnecessary detail.
• The important objects should have enrichment of detail: texture, gradients of texture, shading, etc.
• Portrayal should be realistic, no impressionism or expressionism.

The following are ranked in order of usefulness:

• blocked-out photographs (photographs with the background eliminated). They provide good contrast, realistic cues and details for identification of the objects portrayed, and the neutral background eliminates distracting details
• photographs
• silhouettes
• line drawings, especially in the form of diagrams or cartoons, are visual shorthand impoverished of all details

Pictures can be more expressive and informative using some features of Egyptian art. That is, drawing in two dimensions rather than using perspective to create three-dimensional effects.

Other tips include the following:

• Use consistent physiognomy, clothing, complexion, etc. in depicting people.
• Action should be simplified.
• Behaviour should be depicted in accordance with the viewers' and not the producer's traditions.
• Pictures of people and places should be relevant to daily life and environment for proper recognition (be in the correct cultural context).
• Colours and shapes must be carefully chosen because of symbolic meanings attributed to colours and shapes which can distort the intended meaning. The use of symbols, themselves, can also be tricky and may be best avoided.

Illustrations versus Words

Illustrations are interesting in their own right, compared with words that are not particularly interesting as things in themselves - it is the ideas conveyed by the words that matter. Thus, illustrations may attract or distract the reader.

• Illustrations are good for conveying concrete images and providing support material when teaching a concept, as a way of avoiding technical jargon, and for conveying visual and spatial concepts (e.g. relative size of objects).
• Words are good for conveying abstract ideas and for communicating concepts that have already been learned and for conveying propositional concepts.
• Illustrations and diagrams are good for conveying ideas that have to be considered simultaneously. They allow learners to make multiple discriminations easily.
• Words are possibly better for conveying ideas that have to be treated sequentially when the order in which the ideas are encountered is critical (a poem or set of instructions) though cartoon strips are useful for instruction.
• The positioning of illustrations is very important and should be tested if necessary.
• Pictures should not be used when the information can be readily conveyed in words.
• Two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects causes some difficulty in some cultures.
• Translation of time into space includes learned conventions: authors must either teach the code or be sure readers know it. (This is a crucial point in teaching the mechanics of voting).
• Illustrations of a process involving separate steps or actions should have at least as many individual pictures or frames as there are main steps or actions.
• Illustrations of things (especially line drawings) are more easily remembered than their names.
• Illustrations are usually better with captions. Labelling of illustrations aids classification and helps long term recall.
• Simple line drawings are best for instructional material particularly for signifying general concepts (a stick figure "man"), while highly detailed illustrations can be used for particular concepts ("a foreign election monitor").
• People are attracted by relative complexity and change.
• Beware of problems of ambiguity, literal or figurative meaning, depth cues, action, changes in scale, etc., especially for illiterate people.
• Reading illustrations, tables, diagrams, graphs and symbols has to be taught. People have to learn to interpret the conventions of illustrations in much the same way as they have to learn to read. Authors and designers must therefore have knowledge of the background experience of their potential readers.
• Place diagrams and illustrations where readers will see them and repeat them if necessary.

Colour

In some cases, colour may be unnecessary and can cause problems. Some points to consider are:

• Do not use too many colours or too few (e.g. when using it to depict or represent several functions).
• Colour codes must be understood and these are culturally constructed although there do appear to be some more universal constructs.
• 8.5 percent of all men and 0.5 percent of women are colour blind.
• If the material refers to a colour, it should have a name in the language of the learner.

Colours and Printing

The following happens with certain colours when printed:

• Pale colours are almost invisible for words or fine lines.
• Dark colours appear almost black for words or fine lines.
• Bright colours dazzle for words or fine lines.

For contrast, black on white is best. Legibility of printed text suffers on coloured paper or when used over illustrations or photographs. Strong colours or black and white patterns distract if too close to text.

Materials producers should allow for what will happen to the page if it is photocopied, unless they are able to control whether it is copied or not. Educational materials are likely to be copied, and it may be that this will be encouraged to extend their usefulness and range of distribution.

Procurement

Educators face special problems when it comes to obtaining materials. While election administrators have a standard list of supplies, educators have to obtain educational materials of a wide variety and from a wide range of suppliers. This section of the topic area focuses on five issues for educators:

• Commissioning Materials
• Managing Contracts
• Assessing and Adapting Existing Materials
• Goods and Services
• Storage and Distribution

Educators working in an election authority or a larger organization may have assistance in these areas. Many working in smaller, specialized organizations may not. These may want to obtain guidelines and assistance from others in their vicinity. This is unfortunately not often sought, and when sought not easily given because it often relies on institutional history and personal experience rather than being written down. For set of procurement guidelines, see Newspaper - Sweden - Multilingual.

Commissioning Materials

Educators commissioning materials are faced with a range of educational and commercial issues. The resolution of these depends in part on their ability to develop strong and clear descriptions of the materials required, and especially of the educational and performance issues that must be covered.

Educational Issues

Educational materials have to conform to appropriate standards in regard content and performance.

Congruence with Intended Outcomes

Materials have to be prepared by writers, designers, and practitioners that are suitable for assisting with the achievement of the stated objectives of the programme. Even if they are prepared for a very limited aspect of the programme, there needs to be a set of educational objectives against which the appropriateness of the materials can be judged.

For this reason, it is not correct to order materials in advance of the generation of educational objectives. There may be times when the time constraints require materials to be ordered soon after educational objectives have been set, and before the full programme has been designed.

But this should be avoided at all costs. There are many examples of posters, audiovisual materials, textbooks, and so on being ordered and then found to be surplus to the requirements of the final programme. Some organizations have tried using inappropriate materials, simply because they were there, to the detriment of the programme.

Appropriate Level

The educational level at which materials should be prepared is not that of those commissioning the materials. They are designed for use out in the field, and for the learner group. Materials that have to be approved by a board, especially if it is a board of governance rather than a group of educators, often err on the side of impressing the board rather than meeting the needs of the learners.

This may ensure that budgets are made available, but does no service to those who must be educated. For this reason, those doing the commissioning should explain precisely for whom the materials are intended. And this explanation should be made available to those who must approve materials in advance of the materials being seen.

In general, those commissioning materials have different expectations about those materials and have a different knowledge base and life experience from the learners. They are seldom representative. If it is possible to establish representative groups of learners to assess materials, this can obviously help, as can initial field testing.

Appropriate Language and Symbols

Materials have to use appropriate language and symbols. In multilingual and multicultural societies, materials translated from a master copy can run into problems. But even materials prepared in countries where there are dominant languages and cultures can miscue in their combination of words and symbols.

These need to be tested in advance of the commissioning process; and there should also be opportunities during the production of materials, especially display materials, for a review.

Clear Instructional Texts and Directions for Use

When commissioning books and instructional texts, educators may be inclined to separately hand over text and illustrations to a publisher, assuming that they will design the publication in such a way that it becomes a coherent whole. This assumption should be tested, and if there is any doubt, either an instructional text should be handed over in completed form, or educators should review materials during the layout stages and up until the pre-print moment. They should have to sign off explicitly on a "mock-up" of the product before it is handed over for final production.

There are too many possibilities for developing confusion amongst learners and trainers to allow educators to leave these to noneducators.

In addition to the care that must be taken over the layout and clarity of instructional texts, materials can seldom be handed to those who have not prepared them or been involved in preparing them without an orientation to their use. And this orientation may not be possible face to face.

Expensive posters prepared for one setting can become waste paper if used in a different setting. Training-of-trainers materials handed out directly to ordinary learners turn into very expensive and unreadable lesson notes.

Often, educators commission the basic materials and, having received them from the producers, whether a publisher, printer, writer, or designer, discover they need to produce a second set of materials, a short manual or set of instructions for use. These are then rushed off in-house without the care given to the original.

Commissioning briefs should take account of the full package of materials that is required.

Appropriate Format

Educators need to know in advance what is possible, and make use of these specifications in their planning. Educators have no time or cost leeways.

If they determine that a poster should be a particular shape, or a folder for an educational package a particular colour or weight of paper, only to discover that this material can either not be sourced, or can only be obtained by cuts that result in wastage, they have done a disservice to the programme.

Having said that, there are formats for materials that are more appropriate than others. And commissioning original designs should proceed from the assumption that the the educational purpose will never take second place to the design considerations.

Performance Issues

In relation to performance, educators will need to consider:

• Durability.

A flier might be designed to be read once and then discarded. In fact, it may even be necessary to design and produce it in such a way that it can be recycled or that it biodegrades rapidly. On the other hand, a leaflet might be designed for use by several readers, not just the original recipient. This presumes that the recipient will pass on the leaflet to friends, family members, or neighbours. In this case, the paper must be sufficiently strong to accomodate excessive handling.

A training guide is likely to be opened and closed often. It will be the subject of copying and note taking; will be in and out of briefcases; on and off tables and floors; and is likely to be close to food and drink. It also requires more durable production.

Will posters be outside? If they are, how long do they have to survive? Flip charts may have to travel on buses or in taxis. If they do, will the cover fall off or the pages start stripping.

Commissioning specifications need to take account of and describe the likely use and the required level of durability for all materials. The durability of packaging may also need to be taken into consideration to ensure that materials arrive at their final destination in good condition. Building in durability costs money, so the specifications need to be appropriate. Where durability is required, it might need to be over-engineered. In other words, educators will make it last in the worst conditions rather than the optimum conditions.

• Legibility.

Whatever the materials, they will have to be read, whether words and illustrations read by literate people, or symbols and illustrations, ready by the illiterate.

It is essential, therefore, that educational materials are completely and comprehensively legible. Smudged printing, bleeding colours that obscure foreground and background, pictures that are incorrectly scanned or lose their definition because of the wrong dots per inch specification, or posters that use the wrong font size, the list could go on with disasters experienced by educators working with inexperienced production companies, and even with those with some experience.

• Storage, Distribution, and Ease of Use.

When materials come back from a printer, they have to be distributed. Suddenly, the envelope that was going to be used is discovered to be too light, the decision to fold posters results in creases that disturb the ink at crucial places, and the stack of manuals so high, staff are in danger of avalanches. Questions of distribution have to be considered in advance of production (see Storage and Distribution) but the question of packaging has to be considered during the commissioning phase and by educators themselves, because it impacts on other related questions. As noted earlier, the durability of the packaging materials will have to be addressed. The number of units per package will also need to be specified. And, delivery and distribution lables and instructions may need to be included as part of the packaging.

For these reasons, it is often best to use a single printer who can then pre-pack, label, assemble, and protect (by plastic shrink wrap or paper wrapping) the materials in the correct way.

Once educational materials reach their destination, they have to be stored by users, retrieved from storage for use, and maintained by users. Users faced with large cardboard rolls, cardboard, plastic, fabric portfolios, or crates full of paper so heavy that they require a trolley to move them, can resent the industriousness of the designers and education team rather than welcome the materials.

Those who have to travel with the materials may find themselves forced to go by road rather than air, by private car rather than public transport, or may have to bring learners to them rather than go to where learners are.

These questions cannot be answered in a general sense, as they are determined by what is available in countries, and by what is required of a particular set of materials.

In some countries, lightweight materials such as corrugated plastics are available, or special laminated or fabric papers. Other countries have to make do with what they have.

As a result, materials should be considered that require limited distribution, can be transferred by instruction and then created at the point of use, can be carried by individual educators when they move around the country, or can be boxed with other election materials.

• Safety and Security.

Materials intended for use by citizens and voters, and by younger people in particular, need to be safe. This may not be a major concern with publications, but materials produced for simulation games and for display need to be prepared in ways that make them fire resistant, difficult to break, and so on.

Once this matter is considered, the safety, or rather security, of the materials also has to be dealt with. With the possible but unlikely exception of some high level training materials, educational materials are designed to be available to the public.

However, they are valuable if only as a source of recyclable paper and this value may increase in poorer countries where resources are scarce. So, care has to be taken to ensure that the manner in which they are produced encourages and enhances their safekeeping. Materials so large that they must live outside, cloth banners hung in vulnerable places, consignments that require shipping in advance of educators, and other similar arrangements, can all result in unnecessary loss.

While these may seem matters of concern to be addressed only after receipt of the materials, consideration during the preparation and production stage will assist in reducing security hazards.

Contractual Matters

In general a commissioning process will involve the development of a detailed brief, a letter of agreement or contract by which a supplier of goods or services agrees to deliver the product on a particular day and under particular conditions, and a system by which this commission is managed.

Detailed Briefs

Educators will prepare a brief in which all the necessary details, some of which were considered previously, are described. When they do not have all the necessary detail, they should negotiate with the potential suppliers on the basis of a draft and then firm this up in a final brief.

This brief will form part of any contract, so it should be explicit and unambiguous. It might become the cause of conflict if it is not; and may assist in resolving any conflicts in favour of those doing the commissioning if it is.

Experienced suppliers may have a detailed order form or cover sheet of their own that includes a checklist with the necessary technical specifications. Educators unused to the specification language should ask that it be explained.

Contracts

Several formal contracts can be used as examples for those involved in commissioning materials. But these must conform to the legal requirements of the country in which they are prepared and signed.

However, even small commissions should be covered by a letter of agreement that includes the following:

• lays out the terms of the agreement
• the product required
• the objectives it is designed to meet
• the standards it must live up to
• the deadlines that must be adhered to
• the manner in which any disputes and faults will be attended to

Suppliers may wish to use their version of such contracts or letters of agreements as they regularly enter into contracts. An educator might do so infrequently and may be used to a verbal discussion only. Both of these should be avoided unless there considerable trust between supplier and the programme; and educators should prepare (or review closely) any agreements themselves.

If a formal agreement is not possible (it might be an agreement with a community carpenter to sink two poles so that a banner can be hung), there should be an understanding of how the agreement came about and a proper record kept by the educator or the education team.

Management System

How the educator manages these contracts and commissions, whether large and formal, or small and informal is discussed in Managing Contracts.

Managing Contracts

All contracts have to be carefully managed. This is particularly true when quality, price, and time sensitivity are important. Educators need to think about how they are going to manage, and must give time and attention to this.

Educators Get Separated from Suppliers

Once a contract has been drawn up, questions of project management might well get separated from questions of management of the educational programme. The contractor may do some project management (or all of it) or an administrative unit in the educator's organization or the election authority may take over the contract.

So the relationship to the education programme can attenuate, and it can easily happen that those who commissioned the work stop assessing it and managing it closely.

When educational capacity is limited, it is even more likely that a contractor will take on major responsibility for the project.

The consequence of this is that all the information available about the project, all its assessment and all the performance criteria shift their locus from the contractor, who is paying the bills, to the supplier, who is submitting bills. This may be considered a licence to print money.

Project Management Capacity

An education team, or an election authority, which commissions goods and services, whether on a grand scale or on a more limited scale, needs to ensure it has the capacity to manage these contracts in detail. Project management skills, regular meetings, review of targets and of costs, and consideration of variances in costing, supply quality, and project details need to be considered jointly by the contractor and the supplier.

This is partially a matter of trust, and there could be an argument that trustworthy suppliers who are working to a set of agreements can manage themselves. But it is also a matter of knowledge and power.

A suppliers left to its own devices, conducting the project, without oversight, can become the experts. This leads to two problems. The first is the problem of future contracts - the expert is in an advantageous position in regard to future projects and can set the price if there is no alternative way of getting the job done. The second is the problem of staff capacity - the expert supplier is never matched by a knowledgeable contractor, leaving them always able to assert their authority.

A Service in the Short Term

Project management resources could, in the short term, be resolved by buying in these services separately and independently of general goods and services. Often this is done by new election authorities and organizations. However, those who intend to commission goods and services on a regular basis need to build up this capacity in-house.

In-house capacity can be built into contracts, so a project management team has to leave behind its expertize by doing training and helping set up indigenous systems.

Assessing and Adapting Existing Materials

Voter educators should have access to materials prepared for previous voter education programmes either in their country or in other contexts. They may also have requested potential suppliers of programmes to submit materials for assessment or for further production and distribution.

There are general curriculum assessment tasks that have to be undertaken as well as more detailed programme adaptation tasks, which should be done before the running of a particular training or educational event.

Assessment of materials cannot take place until and unless programme objectives and individual programme element objectives have been defined. In the absence of these, there is no objective measure against which to do the assessment.

Once these objectives are available, it is possible to assess materials on the basis of the following:

• their appropriateness in achieving the set of objectives for the particular target audience
• their cost in relation to the cost of preparing new and specific materials
• the ability of the available educators to use the materials
• the ease of adaptation to local conditions

Adaptation to local conditions can include having to translate the materials, having to replace Eurocentric illustrations with appropriate local illustrations, having to simplify the language, or having to adjust the materials to deal with particular local conditions, including differences in the political context.

When the materials are going to be used in workshop environments mediated by local trainers, it may be possible to do limited adaptation, perhaps by providing guidance and a small set of alternative visual aids. When materials have to be sent out on an individual or display basis, considerable adaptation will be necessary and it may be that the submitted materials really only have use as a potential guide for self-production.

Obviously, materials that are closest to home are likely to be the most useful and easy to adapt. Those produced for previous elections in the same country may be assumed to be most suitable, but care should be taken that all the initial programme assessments and objective-setting exercizes are done even before this material is considered. Times do change, sometimes substantially.

It may also be helpful to see any evaluation that was made of the materials after they were first used.

Adapting Materials for Specific Events

Many educators have to make adaptations to materials prepared in general and then given to them for use. This applies even to a national programme package prepared according to the most carefully designed criteria. As a result, training of educators should include information on making adaptations on the ground.

Goods and Services

Procurement of goods and services requires

• the establishment of needs,
• a request for the goods,
• obtaining a series of quotations or putting out the requirement to tender,
• a decision-making process based on independent assessment of the appropriate supplier.

Organizations and governments tend to have procedures and standards for procuring goods: materials, publications, furniture, computers and audiovisual equipment. These typically include a categorization of procedure based on cost, together with a steadily increasing level of authorization and formality. They may also have a list of approved suppliers (see below). There may also be special considerations that educators want to consider and this section refers specifically to these.

Development and Affirmative Action

In some countries, there may be additional criteria designed to further the development of the country. For example, procurement may be biased in favour of local companies and organizations, or small companies, or companies with majority ownership by women or minority groups. Where there is no legislation in this regard, an election authority can set its own criteria and in this way encourage or promote the equalization of power and wealth, within which democracy resides most easily.

General Procedures

In some cases, procurement regulations apply equally to the suppliers of goods and of standard office services.

There can be more uncertainty about the supply of professional services when less stringent criteria are used to speed up processes, or to overcome perceived limitations in the number and quality of people available.

Whether goods or services are being procured, there are standard tender (competitive bidding) arrangements that can be used to ensure that the best supplier is found at an appropriate price and without the organization appearing to be unfair or to favour those who might have an advantage because of family or political connections.

Possible Approaches

• Closed Lists.

One option that can speed up the procurement process while making it fair is to establish certain general criteria in advance and ensure that a list of potential suppliers has been created. Once the list is in place, requests to tender (bid) are submitted only to this list and choices are made from the list.

Entry into the list might require the supplier to demonstrate competence, to have passed through a set of basic requirements, which could include a site visit, submission of company information, and possibly the delivery of services previously.

• Pre-bid Briefings.

If it is preferred to open the competition as widely as possible, and not exclude those who may previously have been unable to participate perhaps in emerging markets, or in countries with bars to certain people forming companies or organizations it may be possible to level the playing fields by requesting all potential suppliers to attend briefing sessions at which information is shared and questions can be asked in public.

Tenders (bids) are submitted only after this briefing, and the conditions under which tenders (bids) will be evaluated are understood by all.

• Accredited Suppliers.

For various reasons, there may be certain specialized tasks and long-term commercial relationships that result in organizations establishing a list of accredited suppliers. If such a list is established, there needs to be a regular review of prices, an assessment of quality, and an opportunity for new suppliers to join the list.

The list can be opened in part by the following strategy, but there may just be a limit to how long a company can remain on the list.

Disaggregation of Goods and Services

Those responsible for procurement may need to cut up their requests into smaller chunks so that a wider range of companies and organizations can be brought on board. There may be a temptation to award a large single contract and to leave the matter of sourcing to this winner who may or may not use smaller subcontractors.

Splitting up the tender (bid) can enable smaller organizations, including nongovernmental and nonprofit groups, to make a bid and to be successful. Such a strategy is particularly useful in obtaining professional services from a range of different backgrounds without these people moving into unnatural consortia or partnerships. But they also provide opportunities for small businesses to gain access, especially if the disaggregation is done along functional or geographic lines.

Selection Criteria

The best price is not the only economic criterion. Even those who procure goods and services on this basis evaluate quality, delivery capacity, reliability, and so on.

Those preparing procurement on a national scale may choose to add criteria that encourage certain organizations to apply and give them as good a chance of winning the tender (bid). Apart from straightforward affirmative action strategies, which may reward minority group or women's participation, there may be linguistic criteria, or knowledge of local conditions, or the ability to work with and draw in large numbers of volunteers. In all of these the presumption is being made that these criteria will benefit the delivery of the service and its general acceptance in society; and that large scale procurement has a duty to extend equality.

Storage and Distribution

The more decentralized the educational programme, and the more reliant on paper leaflets, posters, fliers and publications that have to be created at the centre, the larger the storage and distribution problems of any programme, especially election programmes.

Educators need to think of ways to reduce the costs and difficulties of storage and distribution. They should do this during the planning phase by considering programme and strategy alternatives.

Media-Based Programmes

Programmes designed around a set of centralised messages, using primarily national media, reduce the problems of distribution and storage.

Balancing Complexity with Impact

Educators will have to balance the value of involvement in the campaign and face to face contact or individualized distribution of materials with the costs and difficulties of distribution and storage of materials.

Some ways of reducing difficulties include the following:

• adhere to tight production schedules that enable materials to go directly from production to distribution without having to be stored
• use a central preparation system, served by more than one production agent, close to the distribution point
• encourage the local production of materials according to agreed specifications or with agreed messages
• double up on materials with those prepared for other aspects of the elections

Costs

Educators who have to distribute materials either have to rely on a wide network of educators and participating organizations, or will have to contract those who specialize in distribution. In transitional settings where there may be no functional nationwide distribution and where the country's transportation infrastructure is poor, educators will face more challenges in putting together a cost-efficient and reliable distribution plan. The geography and climate of the country may also come into play. In mountinous countries with remote areas and climatic conditions that may make roads impassable during certain times of the year, educators may have to use airfreight or the rail system rather than trucks, for example. Airfreight is the most expensive method of transporting materials. In general, the shorter the time span and the greater the complexity of the undertaking, the greater the cost.

Space

If materials must be stored and then moved out in various quantities to different locations, educators will need to undertand exactly how much space is required to house, for example, 1 million tri-fold leaflets, and how many and/or what size trucks or transport containers will be required to move them out. Educators should confer both with their printer and the distribution company on these issues. If an ad hoc group of distributors, from civil society organizations, for example, is used it will be all the more important to solicit expert advice on the amount of space required.

Time

One mistake that novice educators make is not allocating enough time for distribution. The emphasis tends to be focused on the production phases and the project. Yet, if materials do not arrive in time for a special event or for learners to receive and reflect on the information contained therein, then the entire undertaking has been for nothing. Educators need to build time into their programme plan for delivery and distribution. The amount of time required for distribution will depend upon the challenges associated with getting materials to their ultimate destination, the number of materials to be distributed, and the number of people assisting in the distribution process.

Onward Distribution

Those who are delivering materials to regional or even local hosts for further distribution do need to make sure that the materials are expected, and will move to their destination expeditiously. There are examples of many materials, particularly those that are not absolutely crucial for the administrative success of an election, languishing in a passage or storeroom because the one person expecting the material has not been alerted to the fact that it has arrived. It may also be useful to include distribution instructions on the packaging materials so that those who have been recruited to hand them out or leave them at local establishments are clear on their task, including any restrictions. It may not be appropriate, for example, for official voter education posters to be hung in or on the premises of political party headquarters. Local ordinances may also restrict the hanging of posters on certain historical or cultural sites. Distributors need to be made aware of these requirements in order to avoid potential fines, wrangles with local officials, or even citizen complaints.

Weight Considerations

Storage is always at a premium. National programmes that rely on large amounts of paper, especially sequential poster and leaflet campaigns, should understand how much these materials weigh and the difficulty and costs of moving them from one place to another.

Staffing for Civic and Voter Education

Those planning an education programme must establish a staff team, no matter how small. In programmes that are national in scope and which last for an extended period of time, staffing occupies a particularly high priority. The major component of education budgets tends to be spent on staff.

Where voter education programmes are run, it may be necessary to employ staff at short notice, for short periods of time, and to forge a team out of a widely disparate group of individuals. Whether it is the election authority that creates the team, or one or more nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the team is likely to be built around a small group of existing educators.

To overcome potential problems and to ensure that the staff is up and running as quickly as possible, there has to be careful definition of jobs (see Job Definition and Profiling) and the establishment of candidate profiles, Recruitment, and early Training and Orientation

The teams created are likely to be formed of full-time, temporary, and voluntary staff, who require special management (see Managing Staff and Volunteers).

Those who have human resources departments or stable staffs may want to ignore this section. Those responsible for establishing educational teams will find material here to supplement more general personnel issues.

Job Definition and Profiling

Without defining the jobs that must be done, and considering these in their relationships to one another and to the programme objectives, it is hard to see how a staff team can be recruited. Yet, there are examples of rapidly forming or growing organizations operating entirely on a set of job designations or titles.

Such designations may or may not result in a team that is able to define interdependent roles and functions. Often, such titles result in considerable time being spent during the initial stages and throughout the programme in negotiating roles. Because designations do not explain precisely what is required by a particular job, people establish who does what on the basis on what they are capable of doing. It is highly likely that the programme will change to meet the personal gifts and aspirations of the staff appointed rather than its set programme objectives.

A sample job definition is available at Job Descriptions/Staff Profiles - New Zealand, and a summary of the component parts follows.

Accountability

The person's supervisor should be identified by title, and if there is a dual or matrix reporting line, or a set of committees to whom the person must report, these should also be listed.

Despite having a detailed job description, the chain of accountability is the primary indicator of job performance, organizational expectation, and actual day-to-day work.

Key Objective

A short statement can set the overall objective to be achieved by the person filling the job. But the key objective should be the defining characteristic of the job. The following details can be considered a guide in carrying out the job.

Results Areas

To achieve the key objectives, the individual has to achieve certain results in areas such as management of other staff, financial control, team building, acquisition of materials, development of courses, and liaison with the public. These criteria are the body of the description, but again, it should concentrate on results areas rather than all the activities a person must do.

The results framework may require a listing of specific objectives which must be achieved under each result.

Job descriptions should identify what has to be done, with the person allowed considerable discretion as to how to achieve the results. Such an approach makes it possible for those with even relatively menial jobs to have some personal control over their job and to be able to develop themselves and take initiative.

Level of Authority and Discretion

Finally, the document should establish the level of authority that comes with the job. This should include a list of those who will report to the person.

Other responsibilities should be spelled out, such as discretion over budgets, their ability to enter into contracts, speak on behalf of the organization, make decisions outside the set parameters of the work plan, and so on.

Establishing a Job Applicant Profile

Having established a job description that enables recruitment, letters of appointment, and on-the-job assessment, those responsible for recruitment should develop a profile that helps them to search for appropriate people to fill the job.

Such a profile will take into account not only the necessary competencies demanded by the job description, but also the qualities that make it possible for a person to fit into the team being established.

Job profiling has to be done internally and with due consideration not only for the labour and employment laws of the country but also with a human rights and democracy orientation.

Certain jobs require people who are extroverted or who speak certain languages, or have political and cultural access to certain stakeholder groups or potential programme partners. Those selecting teams may have certain views about whether teams are more effective if they are diverse in background and age, or should be more homogenous.

There may also be views on whether women, or members of minority groups should be incorporated into the staff team for reasons other than those above in order to ensure that they get equal opportunities for development in societies that may otherwise discriminate against them.

Once a job profile has been developed for the type of person that is to be sought for the job, recruitment can begin.

Recruitment

Without defining the jobs that must be done, and considering these in their relationships to one another and to the programme objectives, it is hard to see how a staff team can be recruited.

Yet, there are examples of rapidly forming or growing organizations operating entirely on a set of job designations or titles. Such designations may or may not result in a team that is able to define interdependent roles and functions. Often, such titles result in considerable time being spent during the initial stages and throughout the programme in negotiating roles. Because designations do not explain precisely what is required by a particular job, people establish who does what on the basis on what they are capable of doing. It is highly likely that the programme will change to meet the personal gifts and aspirations of the staff appointed rather than its set programme objectives.

A summary of the component parts of a sample job definition follows.

Accountability

The person's supervisor should be identified by title, and if there is a dual or matrix reporting line, or a set of committees to whom the person must report, these should also be listed. Despite having a detailed job description, the chain of accountability is the primary indicator of job performance, organizational expectation, and actual day-to-day work.

Key Objective

A short statement can set the overall objective to be achieved by the person filling the job. But the key objective should be the defining characteristic of the job. The following details can be considered a guide in carrying out the job.

Results Areas

To achieve the key objectives, the individual has to achieve certain results in areas such as management of other staff, financial control, team building, acquisition of materials, development of courses, and liaison with the public. These criteria are the body of the description, but again, it should concentrate on results areas rather than all the activities a person must do. The results framework may require a listing of specific objectives which must be achieved under each result. Job descriptions should identify what has to be done, with the person allowed considerable discretion as to how to achieve the results. Such an approach makes it possible for those with even relatively menial jobs to have some personal control over their job and to be able to develop themselves and take initiative.

Level of Authority and Discretion

Finally, the document should establish the level of authority that comes with the job. This should include a list of those who will report to the person. Other responsibilities should be spelled out, such as discretion over budgets, their ability to enter into contracts, speak on behalf of the organization, make decisions outside the set parameters of the work plan, and so on.

Establishing a Job Applicant Profile

Having established a job description that enables recruitment, letters of appointment, and on-the-job assessment, those responsible for recruitment should develop a profile that helps them to search for appropriate people to fill the job. Such a profile will take into account not only the necessary competencies demanded by the job description, but also the qualities that make it possible for a person to fit into the team being established.

Job profiling has to be done internally and with due consideration not only for the labour and employment laws of the country but also with a human rights and democracy orientation. Certain jobs require people who are extroverted or who speak certain languages, or have political and cultural access to certain stakeholder groups or potential programme partners. Those selecting teams may have certain views about whether teams are more effective if they are diverse in background and age, or should be more homogenous.

There may also be views on whether women, or members of minority groups should be incorporated into the staff team for reasons other than those above in order to ensure that they get equal opportunities for development in societies that may otherwise discriminate against them. Once a job profile has been developed for the type of person that is to be sought for the job, recruitment can begin.

Managing Staff and Volunteers

Whether staff are volunteers, contract workers, or full time employees, they need to have explicit statements about job goals, performance standards, conflict resolution and assessment strategies and procedures. And staff need to know how they fit into a team.

Maintaining a balance between the needs of the programme and the needs of staff, especially volunteers, requires a management style that encourages team work and personal autonomy, keeping programme goals the priority. Following are some suggestions for ensuring team work and managing volunteers.

Voter and civic education programmes will want to encourage voluntarism. They also will have specialized staff, and amongst these the programme might find a range of contractors, consultants, seconded personnel, interns and researchers.

Managing this diverse group of people can be difficult, especially if it is done by a group of educators whose primary responsibility is the delivery of the programme and the use of their specialized expertize.

Teams with responsibility for a component of the programme, composed of a range of job definitions and personal skills, enable a programme to meet a variety of personal needs for significance, learning, and job fulfilment. Segregating people so that there is no contact between specialists and volunteers can create divisions. It is essential that there are additional supervisory staff to oversee and manage volunteers and more long-term staff.

Team Work

Teams members should be clear on programme goals (see Team Development). Then, staff members can add their experience and enthusiasm to the mix.

Volunteers, whether working in a team or not, require formal and explicit agreements about what can be expected from them and what they are likely to receive from the programme. Such agreements need to cover the following:

Volunteers

• the amount of work time that can be expected
• the particular days of the week that the volunteer will be present
• whether or not any remuneration is expected
• a set of performance standards

In addition, there should be an explicit statement about whether the contract can be ended, even if it is not a remunerated one.

Volunteers may have opinions about what they can or should be doing, and the explicit agreement is designed to ensure that their place in the programme is recognized without being undervalued (some volunteers are treated like slave labour) or overvalued (some volunteers demand the sort of care and attention that even senior staff cannot demand). At any rate, it will be important to keep volunteer staff motivated.

Training and Orientation

All staff, irrespective of their position in the organization, should receive the training they need to do their job properly, and also basic training that will enable them to do simple educational work or to explain the objectives of the education programme.

But those who have to conduct education programmes require additional training, and this section of the topic area is about the preparation of educators rather than about internal education and administrative staff training.

Standard Training Principles

The level of training required depends on the educational strategies chosen. If there is little face-to-face work, and the majority of the programme is based on mass communication and direct mail or similar techniques, there may be a limited need for educator training.

Instead, training may be needed for a cadre of home visitors, information officers, or telephone operators.

Whatever the case, the same principles apply:

• cascade training, subject to the limitations discussed below
• active learning methods
• orientation programmes

Cascade Training

A mass training programme that must be achieved in a limited time frame should consist of a cascade system. Care has to be taken that cascade training does not turn into trickle down training. With this care and the enthusiasm of those receiving the training, a great deal can be achieved.

Cascade training is based on the principle of training an advance group of educators, who then transfer their knowledge and skills to a second set of people, and they to a third, and so on. This has also been referred to as training of trainers (TOT). If each training event operates on a ratio of one staff member to fifteen participants, by the third round of training it is theoretically possible to have reached about eleven hundred people. The fourth round reaches almost seventeen thousand people.

In order to be effective, materials for the full programme must be available, and these materials must provide participants with content competence, as well as the ability to transfer this to others. Given the likelihood that the majority of those participating will have limited education skills, fixed course designs that can be easily replicated are essential.

For this reason, it is necessary that every event, including the first, be conducted in circumstances similar to those likely to be faced at the bottom of the cascade. Many programmes make the mistake of assuming the first round is more important and can therefore be conducted in different (normally more salubrious and costly surroundings).

Limitations of Cascade Training

Quality - The cascade system does have certain limitations that make it unlikely that a strictly geometric progression will be possible. The first of these is that those who are recruited may not be able to replicate the quality of the first event. Like a photocopy of a photocopy, cascade programmes tend to degrade even if there is a monitoring programme in place.

There are a number of reasons for this.

• Those preparing the first event typically are highly skilled educators who have had the privilege of preparing the materials over time, and because it is the first event, take some care in getting it right, even to the extent of more elaborate preparation than will be possible out in the field.
• The first round of recruitment attracts the stars; later rounds must make do with more ordinary people, if as committed.
• Those conducting the second and third rounds, and further down, have to prepare to conduct programmes in conditions less conducive to reflection and possibly further away from available resources.

Participant Choice - The second limitation is related to the choice of participants. Unless considerable work is done before all the events, it is likely that the participants will consist of a mix of the knowledgeable and competent, the willing but less able, the confused sent by the person who actually got the information, and those who are just looking for a bit of part-time or even full-time work.

So, more and more time is taken on clarifying the goals of the programme, administrative matters, and dealing with a diverse group in terms of educational competence.

The drop-out ratio increases, unless the programme has strict contractual obligations and a separate group that is organising events so that the trainers just have to turn up.

Final Level Resources - The final limitation can emerge quite rapidly. While the intention of a cascade programme is to eventually create a cadre of educators who can conduct a face-to-face programme with the final target audience, that target audience often starts arriving at the programme quite high up the cascade. Education organizers can spot this in a voter education cascade when it becomes clear that those present are learning a great deal but have no intention or inclination to go out and educate others. This situation may also occur when there is not enough time to implement the casecade training prior to elections, for example. When time runs short, the pyramid may collapse as pressure grows to reach the final target audience rather than prepare trainers who will not have time to execute training activities prior to election day.

But those programmes that get the final level in place need to plan for the possibility that the resources available may not stretch far enough. Once seventeen thousand people are in place, the organizers have to be able to resource seventeen thousand local events. At a nominal cost of $2 a person for a fifteen-person workshop, the budget must suddenly bear an amount of half a million dollars. And it must have worked out how to ensure that those seventeen thousand events are organized.

Cascades Remain Important

Despite these limitations, it is possible to use cascade methods to reach a relatively large number of people and prepare them for the task, whether to conduct voter education events, provide public information, or visit voters and distribute materials.

Active Learning Methods

Training-of-trainer methodologies that work most effectively are those that combine considerable attention to the goals and objectives, provide simulation and rehearsal opportunities, and ensure that those who will be training others understand the principles behind the course and how to conduct it for others. See Group Learning, Simulations, Distance Learning Techniques for appropriate methodologies.

One important aspect of simulation and rehersal activities is preparing trainers to deal with difficult participants. While most participants, whether prospective trainers or the final target audience, will have the best of intentions, there are always a few people who may be disruptive. Simulations will prepare trainers in how to deal with challenges to their authority and difficult group dynamics.

Trainers should also remember that they cannnot rely on people taking large amounts of material home to read. Adults have limited time (see Adult Learning) and expect the workshop to be the primary learning experience.

Orientation Programmes

Apart from more detailed training, there are times when materials have been produced that have to be used by others. It is likely to be necessary to orient people to the use of these materials.

This can be done with large groups of people. The numbers are limited only by the size of the venue and the quality of the public address system.

Orientation sometimes masquerades as training. However, truly training in large groups requires a course design that creates the equivalent of a large number of small groups, with perhaps theoretical concepts offered in the large group; and practice, reflection, rehearsal, and feedback done in extended breakaway sessions.

An orientation programme is a walk through materials with opportunities for discussion and basic familiarization. The assumption is that people are competent to take the material, prepare it and perform adequately with limited training interventions. These training interventions can be provided back home, for example, at a pre-event run through.