Principal Architect and Integrator of the Committee's Report

The chair directs a creative effort that starts with the development of a report's architecture and progresses through information gathering, information analysis, and committee deliberations, resulting in the conclusions and recommendations of a final report.

Discussions by the committee must get underway early with respect to the structure of a report. It is the chair's responsibility to spearhead such discussions with the preparation of a "strawman" or a draft working outline of the report, typically before, during, or immediately after the first committee meeting.

Thinking about report dissemination and outreach also should begin at the outset of the study, concurrent with the committee's discussions on the structure of the report. Starting as early as the first meeting, the chair and staff should lead a discussion with the committee about the various audiences to whom the report should be disseminated.

The chair, working with the study director, makes team or individual work assignments--including writing tasks--both when the initial report is being written and when drafts are being revised. To ensure efficiency, approximate page limits for each contribution should be agreed to before writing assignments are begun. For the same reason, it is often useful to request a draft outline from a committee member before he or she invests the time required to produce the draft text.

As the development of a report progresses, the chair should review the drafts and ensure that the report as a whole evolves as a consistent, well-reasoned, and coherent document. If certain committee members are not contributing or lagging in the completion of their assignments, the chair should expect to send e-mails and make phone calls to remind these members of missed writing deadlines.

Whether the chair should draft major sections of the report or assess, revise, and integrate drafts prepared by others depends on factors specific to the project. If the chair is the initial drafter of large sections of the report, he or she may have less time to act as architect and integrator of the entire report. On a study with sharp differences of view, the chair may reserve the right to compose a "neutral version" of sections, or a version that incorporates the arguments for the opposing sides, rather than writing initial drafts. On the other hand, if a chair brings special expertise to particular topics, she or he may be the best choice as the initial writer on those topics. Most of all, by the example that is set, the chair determines the work ethic for the committee: To be an effective leader he or she must be seen by the rest of the committee to be committing as much, if not more, time and effort as any other member.