The purpose of this handbook is to provide additional guidance to designated Section 208 planning agencies on the requirements for the preparation of work plans. The work plan should describe the activities, schedules, resources, and procedures that a local planning agency will bring to bear in preparing the Section 208 areawide plan. Since it preceeds a lengthy planning process with many unanticipated problems, the work plan may undergo revisions during the actual planning period. However, the work plan should be well thought out and complete enough to carryon the planning process. The work plan should not represent a simple exercise to start the planning process only to be scrapped as soon as the planning gets underway. Another common pitfall occurs when one group prepares the work plan and another takes over the acutal Section 208 Planning. Therefore, in addition to preparing a good and complete work plan, the persons responsible for the eventual 208 areawide plan should also be involved in preparing the original work plan.