A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly. A deliberative assembly is an Organization, comprising of members that uses Parliamentary procedure for making decisions Committees often serve several different functions:

• Governance: in organizations considered too large for all the members to participate in decisions affecting the organization as a whole, a committee (such as a Board of Directors) is given the power to make decisions.

• Coordination: individuals from different parts of an organization (for example, all senior vice presidents) might meet regularly to discuss developments in their areas, review projects that cut across organizational boundaries, talk about future options, etc. Where there is a large committee, it's common to have smaller committees with more specialized functions - for example, Boards of Directors of large corporations typically have an (ongoing) audit committee, finance committee, compensation committee, etc. Large academic conferences are usually organized by a co-ordinating committee drawn from the relevant professional body. An academic conference is a conference for Researchers (not always Academics to present and Discuss their work

• Research and recommendations: committees are often formed to do research and make recommendations on a potential or planned project or change. Research is defined as Human activity based on Intellectual application in the investigation of Matter. For example, an organization considering a major capital investment might create a committee of several people to review options and make recommendations to upper management or the Board of Directors. Investment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in Business management, Finance and Economics, related to saving Such committees are typically dissolved after issuing recommendations (often in the form of a final report).

• Project management: while it is generally considered poor management to give operational responsibility to a committee to actually manage a project, this is not unknown. The problem is that no single person can be held accountable for poor performance of the committee, particularly if the chairperson of the committee is seen as a facilitator.

It is common for a chairperson to organize a committee meeting through an agenda, which is usually distributed in advance. An agenda is a list of Meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up beginning with the call to order and ending with adjournment The chairperson is responsible for running meetings: keeping the discussion on the appropriate subject, recognizing members (calling on them to speak) [often omitted in smaller committees], and calling for votes after a debate has taken place [formal voting is normally only done in committees involved in governance]. Governance committees often have formal processes (for example, they might follow Roberts Rules of Order); other types of committees typically operate informally, with the chairperson being responsible for deciding how formal the committee processes will be.

Minutes, a record of the discussion and decisions of the meeting, are often taken by a person designated as the secretary of the committee; they may be legally obligatory (again, typically for governance committees). Minutes also known as protocols are the instant written record of a Meeting or hearing. A secretary is either an administrative assistant in business office administration, or a certain type of mid- or high-level governmental position such as a For committees that meet regularly, the minutes of the most recent meeting are often circulated to committee members before the next meeting.

Committees may meet on a regular basis, often weekly or yearly, or meetings may be called irregularly as the need arises. During an emergency, a committee may meet more than once per day, or sit in permanent session, as, for example, ExComm (the President's Executive Committee) did during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba during the Cold War.

A committee that is a subset of a larger committee is called a subcommittee. [Where the larger group has a name other than "committee" - for example, "Board" or "Commission", the smaller group(s) would be called committee(s), not subcommittee(s)] For organizations where the Board of Directors is large - say 20 people or more - it's common to have an Executive Committee, of Board members, which is authorized to make some decisions on behalf of the entire Board.

Committees, both permanent and ad hoc (unofficial), appear both in representative democracies and in non-democratic structures. They may bear titles such as Commission, Board, Council, Presidium, or Politburo. A government agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the Machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions Local governments are administrative offices that are smaller than a State. The Presidium or Præsidium (from Latin praesidium meaning protection or defense so plural presidia or praesidia is the name for the Executive committee Politburo, short for Political Bureau, Russian Politicheskoye Buro, is the executive organization for a number of Political parties, most notably Unofficial committees often get unflattering labels such as junta, camarilla or cabal. A camarilla is a group of courtiers or favourites which surround a king or ruler A cabal is a number of people united in some close design usually to promote their private views and interests in a church, State, or other community often

Committees are a necessary aspect of organizations of any significant size (say, more than 15 or 20 people). They keep the number of participants manageable; with larger groups, either many people do not get to speak (and feel left out), or discussions are quite lengthy (and many participants find them duplicative and often boring).

Committees are a way to formally draw together people of relevant expertise from different parts of an organization who otherwise would not have a good way to share information and coordinate actions. They may have the advantage of widening viewpoints and sharing out responsibilities.

Their disadvantages appear in the possibilities for procrastination, undesirable compromises in order to build consensus, and groupthink, where (valid) objections or disconfirming evidence is either not voiced or is ignored. Procrastination is a type of behavior which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time In Arguments compromise is a concept of finding Agreement through Communication, through a mutual Acceptance of terms—often involving variations Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing analyzing and evaluating ideas Moreover, the need to schedule a meeting, get enough committee members together to have a quorum, and debate until a majority agrees on a course of action, can result in undesirable delays in taking action. In a meeting, two or more people come together for the purpose of discussing a (usually predetermined topic such as business or community event planning often in a formal setting In Law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a Deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group A majority, also known as a simple majority in the US, is a Subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group (A common joke, in organizations, is that when someone doesn't want to make an unpopular decision, he/she creates a committee to study the question. )

Parliamentary committees

In the parliamentary procedure take part:

• Rules committee. Parliamentary procedure is the body of Rules Ethics, and Customs governing meetings and other operations of Clubs Organizations The Committee on Rules, or (more commonly Rules Committee, is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. The rules committee of the house assigns each bill to a policy committee. House generally refers to a Shelter or Building that is a Dwelling or place for Habitation by Human beings.
• Policy committee. A committee (some of which are titled instead as a "Commission" or other terms discussed below in) is a type of small Deliberative assembly that is usually intended Appropriate committee to the subject matter.
• Fiscal committee, if the bill contains an appropriation or has financial implications for the state or federation. A committee (some of which are titled instead as a "Commission" or other terms discussed below in) is a type of small Deliberative assembly that is usually intended For other uses see Bill. A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a Legislature that has not been ratified, adopted

See also

• Committee of the Whole
• List of Committees of the United Kingdom Parliament
• Quorum
• Standing Committees of the European Parliament
• United States Congressional committee

A Committee of the Whole is a device in which a legislative body or other Deliberative assembly is considered one large committee The Parliament of the United Kingdom (that is the Houses of Commons and Lords) has a number of Committees &ndash small numbers of members appointed to deal with In Law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a Deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group The Committees of the European Parliament are designed to aid the European Commission in initiating legislation. A Congressional committee is a legislative sub-organization in the United States Congress that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress

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