• First workshop-June 27,1998, Imperial, Nebraska, Trainers: Sandy Opp. 70 evaluation forms tabulated. Second workshop-August 11,1998, Wray, Colorado; Trainers: Rita Anderson and Aabubakr Muhammad Karim. SO evaluation forms tabulated.
• Third workshop-August 9,1998, Stratton, Nebraska. Trainers: Nette Nelson and Ed Nelson. 81 evaluation forms tabulated.
• Fourth workshop-September 28,1998, Holyoke, Colorado. Trainers: Farell North. 81 evaluation forms tabulated.
• Fifth workshop-December^, 1998, Benkelman, Nebraska. Trainers: John B lood and Susan Blood. 30 evaluation forms tabulated.
• Sixth workshop-January 20,1999, Benkelman, Nebraska. Trainers: Patrick F inn and Amy Borgstrom. 10 evaluation forms tabulated.

Note the decline in the number of evaluations returned from the first workshop until the last. By the time of the fifth workshop, only about half of those in attendance turned in completed and readable forms. By the sixth workshop, only about one in five bothered to complete the evaluations. This was true even though the evaluator attended both of the last workshops.

As indicated previously, contributions to the evaluation efforts were minimal, at best, early in the process, as the original Steering Committee chair did not return the evaluations from the first workshop and then invented his own version for the second. It was only later that his adult mentor tracked down the forms, at the evaluator's insistence. Later in the process, the new Steering Committee chair was very cooperative, but as shown above few forms were actually turned in by workshop participants.

On-site, however, participants were eager to respond to the evaluator's questions, and e-mail inquiries were typically answered promptly.

Comments on Communications with the Foundation

Due to the internal disagreements, threat of the entire Cluster to resign, and qualification by only four teams,Lost Treasures participants took advantage of many opportunities to communicate with the program officer, Caroline Carpenter, and with consultants such as Peter Hille and Amy Borgstrom. Comments from participants were uniformly positive about their communications with the Foundation and its representatives.

Evaluation Process

Master copies of evaluation forms were delivered to the Cluster evaluation representative. Copies were distributed to all participants at each Cluster meeting. Participants were asked to answer questions regarding arrangements, technology demonstration sessions, and primary sessions delivered by MIRA trainers.

Forms were returned to the Heartland Center for Leadership Development for processing. Numerical data were scanned and mechanically tabulated using specialized computer software. Written commentary was evaluated thematically, summarized and reported.