Developed by the Phoenix Community, this document offers a description of various roles that are helpful in running meetings..

Roles
Every meeting has a facilitator, recorder, timekeeper, and an e-mail communicator.
Meeting roles will rotate among active participants.

The facilitator’s role is:

To be a neutral servant of the group who does not push his/her own agenda.
To keep the meeting and its members to the agreed upon protocol
To make sure that speakers understand and restrict their comments to the topic of discussion
To assist participants to reframe what they want rather than speaking from a past projection or judgment; if needed suggest mediation outside of meeting
To poll the group periodically to determined the course of the meeting
To close each phase of the meeting with brief restatements (according to the record) of the points of discussion and /or decision

Choosing a facilitator:

To choose the next facilitator and a successor, the current facilitator shall draw names from a pool of volunteers. Guru Ram Das chant shall precede the drawing of names.
The successor shall serve as a back-up/substitute in case of the new facilitator’s absence.
Facilitator’s term shall be four weeks

The recorder’s role is:

To accurately display the topic of discussion and/or action
To accurately record each speaker’s statements in full view of all present
To request clarification from speaker if needed
To record speaker’s statement in their own words as much as possible
To accurately record group decisions
To summarize discussions for the minutes

The e-mail communicator’s role is:

To type, edit, and e-mail the recorder’s notes from the previous meeting.
The e-mail communicator will email the minutes (a summary only of discussion and decisions) which would include the schedule and agenda for the subsequent meeting.

Choosing a recorder and/or email communicator:

Anyone may volunteer to record the meeting notes of discussion and minutes.
Since the recorder must record each speaker’s statements in full view of all present, this may be done on a computerized screen or large note pad.

The timekeeper’s role is:

To notify the group when the agreed upon discussion, action, or announcement portions
of the meeting are about to expire
To notify the group of beginning and ending times of meetings
If necessary, to indicate to a speaker that their allotted time is about to expire
To leave time at the end of each meeting to close gracefully

Choosing a timekeeper:

Anyone may volunteer to keep time.

(The roles of timekeeper and email communicator may be combined with one of the other roles.)

Communication:

The e-mail communicator’s role is to email and post, at least 72 hours before a meeting, the minutes from the previous meeting, including agenda for the next meeting.
These minutes will be posted in a central location and on the web workspace so that they may be accessible by both meeting participants and the larger sangat.
More complete notes of the meeting will be available by email to anyone who requests them.
A hard copy (Record of Meetings, including a section of Proposed Future Agenda Items) will be compiled on an ongoing basis and be available for review at each meeting.

Meeting minutes will be e-mailed to the sangat.