Case Study:

Developing a Volunteer Training Program to Help the NAAB Meet Volunteer and Organizational Needs

The National Architectural Accrediting Board, Inc. (NAAB) ensures the quality of education for architects and sets standards for professional education in architecture — not tasks to be taken lightly. Tapping into a diverse group of volunteers to lead accreditation site visits, the NAAB needed to provide guidance for conducting consistent, objective evaluations of professional degree programs in architecture.

The NAAB retained McKinley to identify best practices and capture volunteer experiences, preferences and expectations, all to design a training program that would meet the NAAB’s goals and volunteers’ needs. In addition to interviewing staff, leaders, and site visit volunteers, McKinley conducted benchmarking interviews with other accrediting organizations to identify innovative approaches to training and to discover best practices.

McKinley developed a new volunteer training program that transformed the NAAB’s efforts from a 90-minute PowerPoint presentation to a dynamic year-round process, incorporating both online and face-to-face elements and differentiating between the training needs of site visit volunteers and Team Chairs. The content has been designed to be more interactive as well, including using webinars, case studies, role play, and group work. The new training program has helped to provide comprehensiveness and consistency to the accreditation process.