Implement & Evaluate

Team building, learning about broadband, goal setting, and project planning all lead to this stage: Getting the Project Done!

Implement the Plan (Just Do It!)

The project teams work independently. The leadership team members check in with the teams and support them as needed.

Consider bringing all the local Connecting Communities teams together monthly to share their progress. Project teams can use a blog or wiki to document their progress and keep everyone working the project up-to-date.

Project teams are encouraged to develop and use an action plan to guide them through the process of developing and implementing their projects. They can use the Project Action Plan to develop their action plan.

Document Your Progress

Document everything. Use this information to tell the story of your community.

It is important to be able to answer the following questions: What have we accomplished? What do we need to do? What have we learned?

Use the Project Progress Log to track each team's accomplishments.

Evaluate

Each project should have specific, measurable objectives that can be evaluated during and after the project implementation. The project action plan identifies these objectives.

The Connecting Communities project itself should be evaluated on an on-going basis to see how well it accomplishes the following objectives:

• Raising the level of awareness among community leaders about the availability of broadband services in the community.
• Expanding the availability of broadband services in the community.
• Increasing the level of adoption and diffusion of digital tools by organizations and individuals in the community.
• Finding community leaders who are willing to take the next step in initiating Connecting Community projects.

The same tools used in the "Assess What You Have" section can be used to evaluate the progress a community makes toward achieving its goals.

Local Connecting Communities Project Champion

The local Connecting Communities Project Champion's role is not to run the projects but to support those who do.

Strategies may include pointing the leadership team to financial resources, possible partners, educational resources, and skilled outside consultants or organizations.

It is important that the community itself implement the design, rather than rely on the champion or outside consultants. The champion, while not the implementer, needs to remain engaged with the leadership team to measure progress and intervene if necessary.