Print kit · for the facilitator

Officials’ instruction cards

Eight cards for each audience member who registers as a government official, plus paper badges to tape or pin on. Two A4 sheets of cards (four to a sheet) and one sheet of eight badges. Print single-sided on card, cut on the dashed lines, and clip each official’s set together, to be handed over at the 08:40 briefing. Print one set per official: about one in six of the room.

This is a draft for the facilitator to edit. The one decision that shapes the day is on card 4: which applications are marked DEFERRED. As drafted it is every ticket number ending in 3 or 7 — one in five, decided by the number and never by the person. Officials must not be given discretion; that is the point of the card, and the safeguard.

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Sheet 1 · standing orders · the door · the ticket desk · the slow desk

Instruction card 1 of 8Keep on you all day

Standing orders

From 08:40 until you hand in your badge

You may never say no. You may never say why. You may never say when.

The only sentences you have

“It has been received.”

“It is being processed.”

“You will be informed.”

What overrides every card

  • A ticket turned face-down means that person has stepped out. Stop. Treat them as a guest: serve them, answer them plainly.
  • Everyone is fed. A deferred form delays tea; it never withholds lunch. Anyone who mentions an allergy or a dietary need goes straight to the labelled table — drop the role to say so.
  • Do only what a card says. Never improvise unkindness, never single anyone out, never touch anyone, never comment on a person.
  • If anyone is distressed, fetch the facilitator. The game stops for that person at once.
Waiting: Deferral Without DenialYou did not write this card.

Instruction card 2 of 8Read at 08:55

The door

09:00 · about ten minutes

Do

  1. Keep the door closed after the advertised start. Open it only on the facilitator’s signal.
  2. Friends and family walk straight in. So do officials. Everyone else queues.
  3. Each person who waits draws one ticket. Tear off the counterfoil and drop it in the box. Presenters draw tickets too.
  4. Each friend or family member takes one counterfoil from the box. If the list names their companion, give them that person’s counterfoil instead.
  5. Chairs are provided. Offer one. Explain nothing.

You may say — and only this

“It will begin shortly.”

Device IYou did not write this card.

Instruction card 3 of 8Read at 10:15

The ticket desk

10:20 · fifteen minutes · and whenever a slip is handed in

Do

  1. There is no question time. Questions for the presenters arrive on slips. Check that the slip carries a ticket number and the presenter’s name.
  2. Write RECEIVED on both parts. Tear off the receipt and hand it back. Enter the slip number, ticket number and time in the register. The status is already printed.
  3. Put the slip in the tray for the debate wall. Do not read it aloud. Do not answer it. Do not pass it to the presenter.
  4. A friend or family member may hand in a slip for their person’s number, or ask about it. They may not file one of their own: hand it back without a word.

You may say

“It has been received.”

“It is pending.”

Device IIYou did not write this card.

Instruction card 4 of 8Read at 10:30

The slow desk

10:35 · morning tea · twenty-five minutes

Do

  1. Tea is by application. Take one Application to Be Heard at a time. Read all of it. There is no hurry, and there must not seem to be one.
  2. If the ticket number ends in 3 or 7, write DEFERRED on the form. Otherwise write GRANTED. The number decides. You do not.
  3. GRANTED: point to the tea. DEFERRED: keep the form for the pending wall, and look to the next person.
  4. Friends and family need no form. Serve them at once. What they do with their cup is their business.
  5. Remember who was deferred: at 14:20 they are served first, without explanation.

You may say

“Your application has been deferred.”

“You will be informed.”

Sheet 2 · the silent queue · the register · the hearing · the dissolution

Instruction card 5 of 8Read at 11:55

The silent queue

12:00 · ten minutes

Do

  1. Stand at the door marked OFFICE. Those who wait form one line before it. No phones. No talk — yours included.
  2. Friends and family may not join the line. Show them, with a gesture, where they may stand and watch.
  3. Do nothing for ten minutes. Do not look at a watch. Do not apologise with your face.
  4. On the facilitator’s signal, open the door. The room is empty. Hold the door open until everyone has looked in.
  5. Say nothing. The facilitator will speak.

You may say

Nothing at all.

Device IVYou did not write this card.

Instruction card 6 of 8Read at 14:05

The register

14:10 · ten minutes · one official reads, the others stand behind

Do

  1. Open the register. Read every entry aloud, in order, at an even pace: the entry number and the status. Never the question. Never a name.
  2. Every status is PENDING. Read each one as if it might not have been.
  3. A friend or family member may ask about one number — their person’s. Find it. Read it again.
  4. More slips may be handed in. Mark, enter, continue.
  5. Canteen duty (12:10 and 14:20): trays go by lot, never by place in the queue; at the second tea the DEFERRED are served first.

You may say

“Number zero-one-four: pending.”

Devices II & VYou did not write this card.

Instruction card 7 of 8Read at 15:40

The hearing

15:50 · you answer last

Do

  1. Sit on the officials’ bench. The motion: deferral is denial. Those who wait speak first; those who wait with them second. Listen. Take no notes.
  2. When the facilitator turns to your bench, you may answer what has been said about this day — only in the passive voice.
  3. Never “I”. Never “we”. Never a name, a reason or a date. If you cannot say it passively, it may not be said.
  4. It is not question time. Nobody is cross-examined, and you cross-examine nobody.

You may say, for example

“A decision was not taken.”

“The application was received.”

“Reasons were not recorded.”

“It is regretted.”

Device VIYou did not write this card.

Instruction card 8 of 8Read at 16:35

The dissolution

16:40 · the pending wall

Do

  1. Walk to the pending wall. Hand in your badge to the facilitator. Put this card, and the other seven, in the box.
  2. Take a blank card like everyone else. Write, by hand: I am still waiting for ______. Pin it.
  3. You may now say no, say why, and say when.
  4. Find one person whose form you deferred, and tell them the rule: the number decided. Then tell them how it felt to follow it.

You may say

Anything. In the active voice.

Questions about today — yours included — go on the debate wall, and wait there for an answer.

Sheet 3 · paper badges (eight)