Yeah, that's kinda what I'm getting at with this! Having a group of Magical characters with abilities related to the problem and access to a technical department as a resource.

The general idea is that the three areas -- liaisons, combat, and teaching/studying -- would all be pretty loose. Like, so long as you contributed X much effort to all of the ones you were in (most of it handwaved), you could be on as many as you wanted. That way the people with, like, all-attack spells aren't being asked to show up for discussion on water purification, but they could be part of the combat group and the teach/study group. In situation where the groups might conflict, the command staff or a department head (or Abby, because he's managed to pretty much take over the paperwork and organization of the department ^.^ ) issues orders as to how to prioritize.

So hopefully everyone would have someplace to go, if not multiple!