This document describes how the plan for a National Task Bank evolved as part of an effort to encourage State and local public welfare agencies to adopt new approaches to staff planning and utilization. The task bank is an outgrowth of the application of systems approach and functional job analysis to agency management. Individualized data banks for specific tasks were developed by local agencies and each task was described on a Keysort card. The cards for all of the tasks provided a means of manipulating data at the operating level. Among the potential uses of the data bank are: (1) exchange of information among States, (2) planning for training and educational needs, (3) national program planning, (4) State manpower planning, and (5) standardization of language used to describe worker activities. As the initial input was relatively small, operations were begun in a manual mode rather than attempting to develop a more expensive automated system. The future of the program will depend on State and local agency activities in the area of functional job analysis, resulting in the generation of task statements, and on continued financial and administrative support from the Social and Rehabilitation Service. Related documents are available as VT 020 661 and VT 020 663 in this issue. (MF)