  This first paper in a series describes the design of a study testing whether
pre-appearance signatures of solar magnetic active regions were detectable
using various tools of local helioseismology. The ultimate goal is to
understand flux-emergence mechanisms by setting observational constraints on
pre-appearance subsurface changes, for comparison with results from simulation
efforts. This first paper provides details of the data selection and
preparation of the samples, each containing over 100 members, of two
populations: regions on the Sun that produced a numbered NOAA active region,
and a "control" sample of areas that did not. The seismology is performed on
data from the GONG network; accompanying magnetic data from SOHO/MDI are used
for co-temporal analysis of the surface magnetic field. Samples are drawn from
2001 -- 2007, and each target is analyzed for 27.7 hr prior to an objectively
determined time of emergence. The results of two analysis approaches are
published separately: one based on averages of the seismology- and
magnetic-derived signals over the samples, another based on Discriminant
Analysis of these signals, for a statistical test of detectable differences
between the two populations. We include here descriptions of a new
potential-field calculation approach and the algorithm for matching sample
distributions over multiple variables. We describe known sources of bias and
the approaches used to mitigate them. We also describe unexpected bias sources
uncovered during the course of the study and include a discussion of
refinements that should be included in future work on this topic.
