JQuery :: Define/access Public Functions For A Plugin?

I've just developed a plugin that mimics the combo box control, albeit it's a special one. That's being defined as follows:

function
$
{
$.fn.extend
{

[Code].....

But this isn't possible, since the $myList variable is a jQuery object. So I just defined some functions, say, $.smartList.getSelectedValue and the like... but in this approach, I've to pass the jQuery object to this functions as a mandatory parameter and this really sucks. i.e., I need to get the selected value of $myList this way:

var value = $.smartList.getSelectedValue
$myList
;