Personnel quality control in a ALGA peer review begins with the Region Coordinator’s recruitment of a team leader. A capable leader is the key to an effective review. Team leaders are required to have experience in conducting a ALGA peer review. Through consultation with the organization being reviewed, the Region Coordinator identifies particular experience, abilities or traits the team leader will need to possess to successfully direct the review. The Region Coordinator will then identify potential team leader candidates using their personal knowledge of participants in the ALGA peer review program, suggestions from the organization being reviewed, input from other Peer Review Committee members, discussions with representatives of organizations that have been peer reviewed, and historical program information.

Once a team leader is identified, the Region Coordinator begins recruiting team members. Typically, in addition to the team leader, there are two team members. Historically, team members have been selected based upon technical abilities and recommendations from Directors of organizations participating in ALGA’s peer review program. Region Coordinators are now also stressing participation in the Conducting a ALGA Peer Review training course, which was conducted in conjunction with the 2001 and 2002 annual conferences and will be conducted again in June at the 2003 annual conference.

While the Peer Review Committee believes this process provides the best possible match between team personnel and the organization being reviewed, this is a very subjective process. Therefore, the Region Coordinator proposes the team to the organization being reviewed in order to give the organization an opportunity to express any hesitations or concerns regarding the proposed team and also give the organization the opportunity to obtain references on the team members, if the organization so desires.

Quality control does not end with team selection. Quality control is the primary reason the Peer Review Committee has put such effort into standardizing the review process through the Quality Control Review Guide, which has been provided to each member organization. The Region Coordinator is available before, during and after a review to answer questions or address concerns from any review participant (e.g., the organization being reviewed, team leader and/or team member) and all review participants are encouraged to contact their Region Coordinator if they feel the need for guidance or assistance. Additionally, the Peer Review Committee has recently implemented a formal process for surveying organizations for which reviews have been completed, to obtain their input on the ALGA peer review program including the personnel participating on their review.

The Peer Review Committee believes that our program works. This is confirmed by the consistently high marks received by the program in both member-wide surveys and surveys of organizations receiving a peer review. However, this does not limit the Peer Review Committee’s constant attention to program quality control. Input from ALGA members is always appreciated and seriously considered. If you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms of the program, I encourage you to contact a member of the Peer Review Committee.