They are in charge of the Community s general welfare, and their theoretical authority is sweeping. In their turn, they can be overruled by a majority written vote of the full membership. This happens once every couple of years. These days the Planners mostly don t even have hurt feelings when a majority vote overrules them. At least our conscience is clean.
Planners usually meet about three times a week and deal with whatever issues come up at the time.
Issues can be large or small. The larger they are the more time the Planners use in coming to a decision. They talk to people, perhaps have a meeting or two on the subject, maybe even put out a written survey to gather group opinions. Then they examine all this information, compare their own opinions to the general public input, and eventually announce a decision. This may take several months, though they have been known to move faster when a particular issue seems to require it.