Parkinson says five is a good number

From Dan Galvin's Thought For The Day mailing list:

          To get something done,
          a committee should consist
          of no more than three persons,
          two of them absent.

Typically the more people involved in making a decision the hard it is to reach agreement.  This is why Parkinson says the best sized group is five people.  This will give enough varity in viewpoints, but not so many people that it will take forever for each people to toss in their two cents.