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i. Oregon Benchmarks - The State of Oregon The State of Oregon's Progress Board was charged with creating a Benchmark indicator project. The Oregon Progress Board is chaired by the governor and made up of nine community leaders appointed by the governor and approved by the senate. The community leaders represent every congressional district in Oregon. The Progress Board held advertised community meetings around the state. They created a set of starter benchmarks and asked people at the meetings to prioritize them as well as other issues of concern. Next, the Progress Board carried out a phone survey to find out more about values and concerns of Oregon citizens. A group of data analysts from places such as the Health Division and the Office of Economic Analysis got together to look at the list of issues and answer the questions: How do we measure this? How do we define this? A draft of the benchmarks was sent out to those who had attended meetings, newspapers, and organizations for their feedback. The draft was then modified and published. In continuation of the project, the Board is required to do a progress report to the legislature every other year. For now, the connections among the indicators and state policies are weak. A state representative said the indicators were not being used yet to influence policy directly, but that some non-profit organizations had used the indicators to rally around issues like drug use and teen pregnancy.13