The sports stars, politicians, and business movers and shakers who make up the exploratory committee for a potential Denver bid to host the Olympic Winter Games have begun digging into the issue — but, so far, the discussions are being held behind closed doors.

The Denver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Exploratory Committee — formed last month by Mayor Michael Hancock and featuring Hancock, Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning among more than three dozen members — met for a business meeting Tuesday morning downtown, though Hickenlooper and Manning didn’t attend. And some of the body’s members, as part of a steering committee, met Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the committee confirmed.

Those meetings are deliberately closed to the public, prompting complaints from some community advocates. But Ramonna Robinson, the spokeswoman for the exploratory committee, said public outreach efforts were under discussion and could be launched in the next week or so.

“The exploratory committee is not open to the public because they are discussing proprietary information that could be essential to a bid — if the committee decided it was the right thing to pursue a bid,” Robinson said. “There are plans from a subcommittee to engage input from the community soon,” including the creation of a website to solicit comments. “We really want to understand what people’s concerns and suggestions are.”

The exploratory committee is working fast because it faces a tight timeline: By March 31, cities must declare to the International Olympic Committee their intention to bid for the 2026 Winter Games. U.S. Olympic Committee officials have said they hope to bid for the 2026 or 2030 games, and it’s possible the IOC would award both games at the same time.

Besides Denver, Salt Lake City and the Reno-Tahoe area have been considering submitting bids.

So far, there has been one outreach snafu in Denver’s discussion. Before this week’s meetings, a city official broached the possibility of allowing a representative from Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation, an umbrella group for Denver neighborhood associations, to sit in after INC lodged a complaint about the committee’s elite makeup.

But that fell through, and INC’s leader says he instead was told the group was welcome to take part in public community outreach subcommittee meetings later in the process.

“There is no neighborhood citizen involvement on that exploratory committee,” said INC interim president George Mayl. “If it comes down to the city of Denver taxpayers, the citizens, having to front some money for the possibility of hosting the 2026 Olympics, I think we should have some presence on that committee.”

Robinson confirmed the “unfortunate miscommunication” with the INC.

And Mayl said that while he thinks the committee should have included community voices from the start, he looks forward to getting involved in the discussions — hopefully soon.

City Councilman Paul Kashmann also has lodged a complaint about the exploratory committee’s makeup.

“From my view, and from the perspective of virtually everyone in the community with whom I have discussed the matter, it could easily have been titled, ‘Colorado’s Most Powerful,’ ” he wrote in a letter to Hickenlooper and Hancock that was reprinted on Kashmann’s Facebook page. “Unless I am missing something, there is a total absence of grassroots community representation. … This committee should not exclude the voice of the average Coloradan if its recommendations are to be taken seriously.”

Here is the most recent roster of Denver’s exploratory committee: