The Republican National Committee is rolling out a plan to review what worked and what didn't for the party in the 2012 cycle, appointing five people at the top of a committee that will make recommendations on things like demographics, messaging and fundraising.

The Growth and Opportunity Project is going to be chaired by RNC committee member Henry Barbour, longtime Jeb Bush adviser and political operative Sally Bradshaw, former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer, Puerto Rico RNC committee member Zori Fonalledas, and South Carolina RNC member Glenn McCall. Priebus, who is running for a second term, is holding a call with committee members to roll out the plan this afternoon.

The plan is to focus on: campaign mechanics, fundraising, demographics, messaging, outside groups, campaign finance, the national primary process and, last but not least, what the successful Democratic efforts revealed about the way forward, and recommend plans for the way forward, sources familiar with the plan said.

Priebus had told a large group of donors in New York last week that the review would be conducted outside the building and would not be led by RNC staff. But sources familiar with the project said that there are 2 RNC senior staffers, Ben Kay and Sara Armstrong, assigned to the project as support staff, saying the goal between them and the RNC members involved was to have, as one source said, "both inside and outside influence" to bring in a several different points of view.

Still, the source insisted that "the GOP has problems but they are solvable. We have to look at what we are doing right and what we’re doing wrong and lay out our vision and plans for Americans so everyone knows what we stand for. 2010 was the biggest mid-term win for one party since the 1938 election. Our ideas still resonate, but we need to examine what’s working and what isn’t. We have 30 Governors right now, but we want to listen and learn so we do better in presidential years as well."

Still, given the complaints about the party, the composition of the committee includes at least one Priebus ally - Barbour - and others with ties to Bush-world. It includes demographic diversity, but less so ideologically. Officials said the review will include a broad swath of people within the party, including donors and grassroots members, but it remains to be seen how conservative activists react.

The main focus of the review is inclusion of new voters for future victories, the sources said, calling the eight areas of review an initial start, with other areas getting talked about as time goes on. There will be "informal discussions with small and large groups," and formal sit-downs and conference calls. They will look to give Priebus a review in the coming months, the source said.

The RNC isn’t the only group assessing how 2012 went so terribly wrong. The high command of American Crossroads, the most powerful of the GOP SuperPACs, met last week in Washington, Republican sources tell POLITICO. Heavyweight advisers Haley Barbour, Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove were all in town for the meeting, which featured a discussion of the campaign and the first extensive conversation about how the group should approach the 2014 mid-terms. The group is not expected to play a role in the two 2013 gubernatorial races, deferring to the RGA, but is considering how to shape the next round of congressional elections. At the top of the agenda: influencing candidate selection in GOP primaries.

But before they turn completely to 2014, Crossroads is still diagnosing last month’s results. The group digested a series of 2012 memos mixed brutal analysis with some self-reassurance. In the first category, pollster Glen Bolger bluntly warned in top paragraph of his memo that the GOP is in danger of becoming a party that can only win in non-presidential years when the composition of the electorate doesn’t reflect the country. Pointing to Republican’s difficulties with Hispanics, Bolger, who is partners with Mitt Romney’s 2012 pollster, wrote: "the Republican Party is in danger of becoming the 'Win In Off Years Only Party' unless we make a full-throated improvement with Hispanic voters. And, we have to admit it is us, not them."

Yet even as they attempt to learn from what happened, Crossroads also is preparing to make clear to their donors that they weren’t blind to the difficulties of Romney’s winning the presidency. One of the internal memos prepared for the meeting detailed on a state-by-state basis the group’s final polling in each state and the actual results. Their surveys were closer to the outcome than Romney’s internal data.

Last week’s pow-wow was something of a prelude before Crossroads comes up with their final report on 2012, which is expected to take place after the first of the year.

* This post and its headline have been updated

