How to use COMMENT

COMMENT is, as much as possible, a master list for planning and managing a fairly complex community development project. It follows a similar rationale to EVAN, an earlier work in Event Management. It is based on the notion that a master list can be improved over time. This is better than uniquely planning each project from scratch, because it means that you can incorporate "lessons learned" into the system.

While we might re-arrange items into a better order (more systematic, fewer redundancies), it is important that none get deleted, but additions are possible.

What to do:

• Use it as a basis for developing your own separate written plan.
• Work through all steps, and make sure you don't shortcut any of them. However, they might not all be relevant to you, and some might be very easy.
• If you have several core staff to begin with, start a series of planning meetings. You will make more progress by discussion and sharing ideas.
• It will be easier to implement a new program if you can use your organization's current structures and systems. You don't need to create new ones from scratch.
• If you're revamping an existing program, you'll have a fairly firm basis on which to plan. For example, you'll probably already have a good idea of your purpose so far, stakeholders, personnel, finances, etc. A lot of your people and procedures are already also in place.

 

Some words of warning

1. For a start, you do not have to do everything on COMMENT, although you might want the extra advice when you get into the field.
2. Second, the process isn't completely linear:
• You must consider some things at the beginning even though you won't actually plan them until later. For example, appraising feasibility requires foresight on what will actually happen during implementation.
• You actually have two starting points: what your organization does (core business and parameters) and what local people need.
• In particular, planning and consultation must go together, even though they are quite different.
• Working with link people may be an important part of your consultation and orientation.
• You might be reviewing similar programs right through the planning and preparation phase.
• Have a look at the model that suggests that you accumulate stages through the life of the program rather than move from one stage to another. See it.
3. COMMENT won't replace a sound analysis of your specific context, which will let you see the big picture of a particular situation and any unique needs.
4. You need to put all the skills together. If you can't integrate all the specific skills into a big picture, you're not really doing it. It's like a suitcase that's been unpacked; you can see all the items laid out separately. But you need to put them all together before you leave for the airport.
5. Some people have already started CD but have missed important steps. For example, some people establish a community project knowing very little about the community, with very little resources and no local intelligence.
6. To some extent, this is simply a facet of pioneering something new. On the other hand, COMMENT advocates more thorough preparation and planning.

 

Then I realized that ...

• Sometimes it's about explaining things to you, not just providing a checklist.
• You should have your own organizational standards ("how we do things here") before you start planning a large project.  It would be very difficult, and perhaps quite unrealistic, to write them from scratch as part of planning a major project. For example, do you have a financial policy? And an OHS policy?
• Then there's the way the learning process works. No matter how good this e-book is, it will never make you into an instant expert. There are some things you cannot (or at least should not) try the first time around without supervision. There's a big difference between information and knowledge.
• There are basic and complex versions of the same skill.
• Watch out for what you don't know. In many cases, keep consulting other people. In fact, having new things coming up is part of the CD process.

Short version: this e-book might be a very good guide, but it can't really give you everything you want in one easy procedure.