ABSTRACT
In the innocent fiction of public-administration literature, descriptions of management systems mythologize the separation between "line" and "staff". The normal relationship of the visiting committee, however, is that of a benign and "friendly" source of opinion and support to a harassed bureau director. By virtue of its statutory independence, and frequently its prestige, the committee can often speak its piece with a vigor and tone which a wise bureau director would emulate only at considerable risk. The visiting committee which functions in this style also runs a risk of being seen as a tame creature doing the bureau's bidding; and then its credibility at higher levels may suffer a fatal decline. The opportunity for the statutory visiting committee is to fight that syndrome and to take a direct hand in forcing extended planning exercises which relate the past and present missions of the bureau to expected changes in demands, thus injecting renewal and drive into the bureau's roles and missions.
