Monitoring toolkit

What is the toolkit?

The Community Monitoring Toolkit is a comprehensive practical resource that helps monitoring groups start monitoring programs or improve their existing programs. It provides useful guidance and brings together a range of technical information that monitoring groups may need.

How will the toolkit help me?

The toolkit was developed to help monitoring participants conduct their activities and deliver results in a way that provides valuable information for local and regional decision making.

The toolkit aims to help all monitoring groups, not just community based groups, avoid some of the common pitfalls of monitoring programs and make their monitoring more meaningful, including:

• having a clear purpose
• making sure data is analysed and results communicated
• making data accessible
• understanding how long data collection is required to detect changes
• allowing for a review of long running monitoring programs.

What’s in the toolkit?

The Community Monitoring Toolkit helps participants work through the monitoring cycle by providing information, templates and examples at each of the different stages.

Planning and coordinating

• monitoring plan example
• further reading.

Data collection and quality assurance/quality control

• introduction to quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC)
• quality control sampling
• compiling a QA/QC plan
• example QA/QC proformas.

Data management and online databases

• guidelines for data management.

Analysing and interpreting results

• analysis, interpretation and control charts, and a control chart example.

Communicating results

• guidelines for preparing a communications plan
• media release tips
• media release example
• briefing paper example.

Evaluating and revising

• tips for recruiting and retaining volunteers.

Where can I get a copy of the toolkit?

You candownload a complete version of the toolkit or access hardcopies from a Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board office.