The challenge of being a profession

Editor’s Note: On July 20, 1989, former AEA President Michael Quinn Patton delivered the keynote address to the Australasian Evaluation Society in Queensland, Australia. He also delivered a proclamation from the AEA inviting our Australasian colleagues to the AEA meeting which focused on New Perspectives From International and Cross-Cultural Evaluation. A shortened version of his keynote address is reprinted below with the permission of the Australasian Evaluation Society. Even though Patton’s focus is on evaluation in Australia, his points are also appropriate for us in America.