This paper reports on an assessment of participant observation used for evaluation in a structured and gerontolgoical field context. Participant observation was used to evaluate whether a search conference was a viable means for older persons to identify community needs and create an ongoing community organization to address them. I attended planning meetings, the conference and a follow-up meeting. Observations were recorded in field notes and analysed to identify the decision-making processes. These older persons successfully engaged in a health promotion process whereby they exercised decisive direction in identifying and addressing health and social needs of importance to them. These results attest to the flexibility and applicability of participant observation in structured field settings with older persons who were circumstantially difficult to survey by other means. Participant observation is an effective method of collecting data on the process of how groups of older persons respond to a defined task through several observation points in time.
