Results Oriented Management and Accountability:   Peeling the Onion

by Jim Masters

Jim Masters has written an excellent workbook that will help CAAs, State CAA Associations and State CSBG offices implement the Results Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) framework and principles as adopted by the CSBG Monitoring and Assessment Task Force (MATF). The assumption is that the reader is familiar with ROMA basics and has already read the ROMA Guide and the other materials published about ROMA, all of which can be downloaded from the ROMA web site.  

The ROMA workbook is primarily for people who have read the ROMA Implementation Guide and are still having some problems implementing ROMA, or who started to implement it and have stalled. The workbook provides:

* a decision making framework, describing some of the major choices you can make about implementation,

* the context for ROMA -- other approaches to outcome measurement in Federal, state, local governments and in other networks ("we are not alone"),

* previous management and reporting systems used by CAAs and implications for ROMA implementation ("front-line staff must love their reporting system in order for it to work"),

* how the six goals evolved and why their use is crucial to continuing the concept of the CAA as an umbrella agency,

* process options to use inside your CAA, at the state level and at the national level,

* criteria to use to develop the content of results measures (and traps to avoid),

* why some standardized results measures (and some optional) are needed at all three levels,

* why the controversy some people have with scales and ladders are really about the family development strategy,

* ROMA and your financial system,

* why creation of ROMA results measures inevitably leads you upstream into a review of your goals, objectives, strategies and programs activities, and

* on each topic, the author’s conclusions and recommendations.

 

Three Download Options:

1)  You can download the ROMA Workbook in rtf format for FREE by clicking this link. [When asked for the password and user name, click Cancel and the file will come up.] 

2)  Or you can view the workbook in HTML format by clicking here.

3)  Or you can view the workbook in PDF format by clicking this.  (You'll need Adobe Acrobat or other reader.)

Or call Teresa at (909) 790-0670 to request another file format, or e-mail Teresa Wickstrom  your request.  

Going to the NCAF meeting? Planning on meeting with your Senator or Representative? If they want to talk results, be prepared to use ROMA to tell the Community Action story.  

Print out a copy of "ROMA Talking Points" from the ROMA Web Page at http://38.152.102.181/documents/talkingpoints.html.