Members of the SIMNA Tas Organising Committee met with social impact measurement practitioners in the north and north-west of the state in informal meetings in late July. The committee, who are all based in Hobart, were keen to hear what was happening elsewhere and begin to build connections amongst practitioners across the state. Sixteen people attended the networking meetings.

The conversations centred on which organisations were working on different aspects of social impact measurement and where the learning opportunities lie. People were at different stages in their social outcomes journey, with most at an early stage and focused on outcomes of individual projects, while some were looking at outcomes at a population level and others at Social Impact Bonds. In Launceston there was a commitment to continue the conversations locally and an offer to commit resources to support learning activities.

In Burnie, attendees encouraged SIMNA to link with existing community and service provider networks rather than seek to create a new group in the NW. The legacies that we are leaving behind in our projects and the need to get evaluative tools in place early to capture changes and learnings was discussed, as well as demystifying the language and practices around impact measurement and evaluation, which for many people is the last thing they want to do. As one attendee said, “I only came because I knew it would be good for me. Like taking medicine.”