Steering Committee members must declare any association with an applicant group at the initial stage of reviewing proposals. The Steering Committee should discuss these potential conflicts at the first meeting during a particular review cycle. In votes, any recusal due to a conflict of interest must be recorded in the minutes and not counted towards the total for any ranking of proposals that occurs. In addition, a Steering Committee member cannot represent an applicant organization s/he may be directly affiliated with in the interview or site visit.