The Task Force consists of the Cabinet Secretaries of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and the New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources, the State Engineer and the State Emergency Manager. (See Section 9, for contact list of Task Force members.) As designated by Governor Johnson in 1996, the Cabinet Secretary of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources serves as the chair of the Task Force.

The Monitoring Work Group (MWG) is made up of water resource, agricultural and climate professionals from all levels of government. (See Section 9, for current MWG member list.) The MWG is responsible for monitoring all available climatological data, soil moisture readings, reservoir storage levels and other pertinent information necessary to analyze the current status level of drought conditions in the State of New Mexico. The MWG also examines and reports on long-term forecasts to assist the DTF and the Impact Assessment Work Group (IAWG) in their preparedness and response actions. The work group assesses the information, makes evaluations as to the current and future status of drought in the state and advises the IAWG and Task Force as to the status of drought in the state. As necessary, the MWG issues "notices" based on various stages of drought that "trigger" actions by the IAWG and the DTF. Details on the monitoring data and techniques are provided in Section 6. Section 7 provides more detail on the work group’s responsibility.