At its first meeting Thursday the committee to review the housing bank legislation reviewed its responsibilities and named a chairman.

James Malkin, who is the Chilmark representative, will chair the committee. The six-person committee was formed as part of the process after Island voters approved housing bank at spring town meetngs and elections this year.

The committee will meet weekly to review the draft legislation and make language changes before sending it to the state legislature for possible approval by early September. The legislation still depends on passage of the statewide transfer fee legislation.

In addition to Mr. Malkin, committee members are Edgartown town administrator James Hagerty, Aquinnah housing committee chairman Mike Hebert, Oak Bluffs affordable housing committee chairman Mark Leonard, West Tisbury selectwoman Jessica Miller and Vineyard Haven resident Rachel Orr. Mr. Hebert did not attend the Thursday meeting, held over Zoom.

Michael Holcomb, a representative from Sen. Julian Cyr’s office, attended the meeting but did not participate. A handful of members from the group advocating for the housing bank were also present.

Weekly meetings will generally be held virtually, but Ms. Orr said it would be helpful to have some in person.

“If we could at least, if allowed, meet in person at least some of the time so we could get a sense of each other and spread things out and look at the same papers at the same time, I personally would find that helpful,” Ms. Orr said.

The group also agreed to submit any changes it makes to the town select boards for approval. While the committee has the authority to make some amendments without a vote from the boards, for the sake of transparency it would be best to keep them in the loop, Ms. Orr said.

“It makes me personally uncomfortable not running all of it by the select boards,” she said.

Meetings will be public. Mr. Malkin asked that anyone who would like to submit proposed amendments do so in writing at least 48 hours before the meeting.

“This is not going to be a forum for debate or position statements, I think we went through that in our town meetings,” he said. “This is a forum for: what are the amendments that we need? What do we support? What do we want to put in front of the [state] legislature?”