Determine the authority for the committee

Determine your authority for the committee, whether:

• required by statute,
• required by the President or other Executive Direction, or
• established under the Secretary’s discretionary authority .

This  requires a package to

• obtain the Secretary’s approval [ms-word] and
• a Federal Register Notice [ms-word] to advise the public that the committee is being created).

Design the committee

Start thinking about the committee in terms of:

• its duties and objectives
• the number of members
• what types of expertise will be required, or interests will be represented,
• whether the members shall serve as individual experts or as representatives of outside interest groups,
• how often the group will meet
• the agency official to whom the group will report,
• the office within the Department that will be responsible for housing the committee and for providing administrative services,
• whether that office will provide reimbursement for travel and expenses,
• the estimated annual cost of the committee, and person-hours of support,
• the duration of the committee (generally cannot be longer than two years). 

Draft the charter

Using the decisions you made in the “design” phase, fill out the attached template charter [ms-word]. 

Plan the membership

Develop a plan for balanced membership [pdf].