The members of the State Highway Commission shall meet in January of each year and shall elect a chairperson of the commission from their members. Each member of the commission shall be paid the sum of twenty dollars per day while actually engaged in the business of the commission, but not in excess of twenty-four hundred dollars per annum. The members of the commission shall be paid their mileage, and their expenses while away from home attending to the business of the commission as provided in sections 81-1174 to 81-1177 for state employees.