ABSTRACT
Issues committee members should be truly representative of the entire planning area, not just well-informed, middle-income white males who have some spare time. The scope of information collection and analysis recommended in this Task may overwhelm some members of a citizens’ committee if they think they will be asked to do all the work. Professional planners should carefully structure the work of the committee so that its members can contribute what they can, but the staff does most of the summarization and report writing. First and foremost, issues identify which topics should be addressed in the plan people are preparing. The second use of a compilation of issues is more mundane. When people are writing the text of a plan people may choose to link a discussion of some issue with a summary of background data, and use this as an introduction to the goals, objectives, and policies concerning some topic.
