  The upcoming TESS mission will detect thousands of candidate transiting
exoplanets. Those candidates require extensive follow-up observations to
distinguish genuine planets from false positives, and to resolve the physical
properties of the planets and their host stars. While the TESS mission is
funded to conduct those observations for the smallest and most Earth-size
candidate systems, the large number of additional candidates will have to be
vetted and measured by the rest of the astronomical community. To realize fully
the scientific potential of the TESS mission, we must ensure that there are
adequate observing resources for the community to examine the TESS transit
candidates and find the best candidates for detailed characterization. The
primary purpose of this report is to describe the follow-up observational needs
for planetary discoveries made by transit surveys - in particular TESS.
However, many of the same types of observations are necessary for the other
discovery techniques as well, particularly with regards to the characterization
of the host stars and the planetary orbits. It is worth acknowledging that
while a planet discovery may be a one-time event, the deeper understanding of a
planetary system is an ongoing process, requiring observations with better
precision over longer time spans.
