There is a wealth of resources available online for common open-membership committee definitions.  Here are just a few that I found and thought were helpful.  If you have a favorite online resource, please share it in the comments!  I’ll gladly add it to this post.  As with all external resources, use these as food for thought — generating options and ideas to make sure you haven’t overlooked anything important, but not copying them verbatim.

• The Free Management Library has a helpful article on standing committees as well as task forces (“ad hoc committees”), with a table of standing committees that appear in many nonprofits.  I am not sure why they categorized certain of these committees as standing or ad hoc.  Still, it’s a good general list.
• The University of North Carolina Wilmington has another helpful list of committees, along with some thoughts on committee responsibilities.  The duties of committee members and chairpersons are succinct, clear, and wise.  Of the six suggestions for committees, I agree with numbers 1, 3, and 4.  I wonder if this document makes the mistake I described in my book, of confusing ex officio with “nonvoting.”  A good, helpful document, even if I don’t agree with everything in it.
• Nonprofit Accounting Basics offers a fine description specifically of Finance Committees and the Finance Committee chairperson’s duties.

Finally, specific to synagogues, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism offers a very good, very broad list of common synagogue committees, each with a link to a detailed description.