The Genome-in-a-Bottle Consortium was established to develop reference materials for clinical applications of human genome sequencing. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been working with various organizations to obtain and characterize reference genomes. The current plan is to use the NA12878 genome as a pilot sample and 8 trios from the Personal Genome Project as a more complete set. Working groups were formed to address reference material selection, characterization measurements, bioinformatics/data integration, and performance metrics. The consortium discussed obtaining consent for reference genomes, the scope of work, and how decisions will be made regarding new reference materials and policies.