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The number and size of the
Committees which are to be established to facilitate the work of the Convention
depends upon a logical division of the work and considerations of the maximum
number of committees that each delegate can be expected to serve.
Both the experience of other
constitutional conventions and the particular problems facing the Alaska Constitutional
Convention suggest that committees organized as follows would have reasonably
equitable work loads:
1. Preamble and Bill of
Rights
2. Suffrage and Elections
3. The Legislature and Legislative Apportionment
4. The Executive
5. The Judiciary
6. Lands and Other Resources
7. Finance and Taxation
8. Local Government
9. Constitutional Amendments; Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
10. Constitutional Ordinances and Statutory Provisions
In addition to the above
committees dealing with substantive parts of the constitution, at least three
other important committees will be required:
1. Committee on Convention
Rules
2. Committee on Drafting and Style
3. Committee on Convention Administration
It is generally agreed that
the work of a constitutional convention is expedited if each delegate is assigned
to not more than two, and at the very most, three committees. With 54 delegates
eligible to serve on committees (the President of the Convention is normally
an ex-officio member of all committees), and with a maximum of two committee
assignments per Delegate, there are 108 committee posts. One possible arrangement
therefore would be to assign 12 or 13 memberships for the three committees on
Convention Rules, Drafting and Style, and Convention Administration, and to
assign each of the other 10 committees seven memberships.