This study describes a proactive approach to teacher empowerment that attended not only to public outside perspectives, but also to private internal ones. This approach is based on the concept that the power and authority which teachers exercise in the classroom can transform the teaching profession from the inside out. A committee of teachers was formed with the purpose of empowering teachers to make a public contribution. The committee exists within a loose national federation of 19 independent, college-preparatory elementary and high schools called here the "Network." The committee grew out of a grassroots request by teachers for a structural forum where they could exercise their voice and authority in the public consideration of education issues both in the Network and beyond it. The description and analysis of this committee is based on a model of the early stages of organizational development which proposes that every new group or organization involves the development of both ideas and relationships. The new group develops from ideas held by the founders which become embodied both in a design for the group and in the implementation of its specific details. In addition to describing the genesis of the committee and assessing its initial impacts, the paper discusses the model which guided the committee leaders and summarizes the activities of the committee during its first year. (JD)