Deputation  :noun

a deputation is defined as a  group of people appointed to represent others. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deputation

I found this word in the story “A Rose For Emily” in the fifth paragraph.

“They called a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. A deputation waited upon her, knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier.”

when i first read this word i thought it was a sort of legal term and or legal document that was involved with death or people who had some sort of legal obligation to dead people. Now that i have looked up the word i now understand that it is a clique of people or a small party that have some sort of  job to do,at-least in this context.