How the Institute decides things

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1979/04

PROCEDURE AT A FIRST ATTENDANCE

1. A person attending for the first time is given a cup and a place at

the table. Nothing else is required of the house and nothing at all

is required of the person.

2. The house records the number present. Where the person gives a name

at notices, the name is written in the same line. Where they do not,

nothing is written.

3. A correspondence address is taken only where the person asks to be

written to, and is used for the purpose asked for and no other.

4. The house does not ask: what the person believes; what they do for

work; whether they have attended elsewhere; who told them about us;

or why they came. A member who asks the last of these should be

told, privately and once, that we do not.

5. No obligation of any kind follows from a first attendance. The

person is not a member, is not a visitor under review, and is not

on a list.

6. A person who does not return is not telephoned, is not written to a

second time, and is not enquired after through another member. This

clause has been tested twice and both houses were found to be in

the wrong.

7. A person who returns is welcomed in the same words. There is no

second procedure.

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1988/06

THE KEEPING AND HANDING ON OF ROTAS

1. A rota is a recurring practical obligation which another person may

rely upon. It is not an office, a title, or a standing. Nothing

follows from holding one except the work.

2. A rota is agreed between the member and the steward of the house or

the convener of the circle. The agreement is entered in one line:

the duty, its cadence, the date it begins, and the previous holder.

3. A member may revise a rota, share it, suspend it for a season, or

hand it back, by saying so. No reason is asked for and none is

entered.

4. No rota is permanent. A rota held for more than five years is

raised at the annual meeting, not because the holder has done badly

but because a duty only one person can perform is a duty the house

has already lost.

5. Where a member is absent, ill, or in a period of separation, the

duty is carried by another member and the book records that it was

carried and by whom. It does not record why. Where the arrangement

becomes settled the duty is reassigned outright.

6. A member should not hold more work than they can reliably keep. An

unreliable large promise damages continuity more than a reliable

small one. Stewards are asked to say this plainly and early, and to

say it to the willing rather than to the reluctant.

7. Failure to keep a rota is an arrangement that has stopped working.

It is not a fault and is not entered as one. The remedy is a

different arrangement.

8. On handing on, the outgoing holder attends one occasion with the

incoming holder where this is practicable. The successor takes the

duty as it stands and may change how it is done.

STANDING ORDER TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1991/09

THE STANDING OF CIRCLES

1. A circle is a nonresidential local gathering of members, recognised

by the stewardship on the application of a house.

2. A Circle is not a House in miniature and acquires no authority by

resembling one.

3. A circle owns and leases no residential premises in the name of the

Institute. Where a circle requires a room it hires or borrows one at

an ordinary rate and enters the cost in its book.

4. A circle keeps a Circle Book. The book holds dates, the number

present, the rotas, hours given outside the Institute, room and meal

costs, decisions, corrections, and the annual return. It holds

nothing else, and in particular it holds nothing about what a member

believes or why a member was absent.

5. A circle holds one commitment outside the Institute, arranged with a

body that is not part of it. The commitment is entered at recognition

and is not changed without notice to the affiliated house.

6. A circle does not open a continuity review, does not admit a member,

does not speak for the Institute, and does not vary a circular.

7. A house attaches a steward to each circle affiliated with it. The

steward receives the annual return and attends the periodic review.

The steward does not chair the ordinary meeting.

8. A circle is convened locally. The conduct of the convenership is

provided for separately.

9. Recognition may be withdrawn. Withdrawal ends the arrangement and

affects the standing of no member of it.

CIRCULAR TO ALL CIRCLES PRO/1994/05

THE CONVENERSHIP OF A CIRCLE

1. A circle is convened for one year by a member of it, chosen locally

by whatever means the circle ordinarily uses.

2. A convener may be chosen for a second consecutive year. A convener

may not be chosen for a third. A year must pass before the same

member is convener again.

3. The convener books the room, holds the rota, keeps the book, and

chairs the practical business. The convener does not lead the

reading every week, does not represent the circle to the

stewardship, and holds no office beyond the term.

4. The reason for the limit is structural and not a reflection on any

convener. A gathering learns the shape of whoever runs it. Where the

same person runs it for long enough, the gathering can no longer be

held without that person, and the circle has quietly become an

audience. This is easier to prevent than to correct.

5. Where a circle cannot find a second member willing to convene, it

reports the difficulty in its annual return. The difficulty is a

matter for the review and is not a fault.

6. A convener who has served two years may continue to hold a rota, to

cook, to read, and to do everything else. Only the convenership is

laid down.

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/2026/01

REQUESTS FOR CORRECTION, CLOSURE AND WITHDRAWAL

1. This circular states how a request is handled. It does not state

what the archive is for. That question is open and is entered on

the standing register of disputes.

2. Neither publication nor closure is automatic. A request is not

granted because it was made, and is not refused because the

material is old, catalogued, or interesting.

3. A request may be made by the subject; by an immediate family member

where the subject has died or is unable to write; or by a house on

behalf of either. No form is required.

4. The following are considered, in no fixed order, and the weighing

is written down:

(a) what the subject asks for, in their own words;

(b) the evidentiary basis of the entry, and whether it is

disputed as to fact;

(c) the value of the entry to the accountability of the

Institute, as distinct from its interest to a reader;

(d) the sensitivity of the underlying material, including

material about persons other than the requester;

(e) whether redaction of part would answer the request;

(f) whether an annotation, dissent, correction or counter-record

entered in the requester's own words would answer it;

(g) the position of other living persons named in the same item,

who may disagree with the requester and with each other.

5. Curiosity is not a public interest. Nor is the reputation of the

Institute. A request is not refused in order to spare the

stewardship an embarrassment, and any refusal so grounded is void.

6. Where a closure is made it states its own term: a date of review,

or the event on which it expires. A closure without a review date

is not made under this circular.

7. The catalogue entry is retained when the item is closed, unless the

entry is itself the harm complained of, in which case the fact that

an entry was closed is recorded without describing it.

8. The requester is told the outcome and the reasoning, in writing,

in language the circular's authors would be content to receive.

9. Every decision under this circular is provisional and is reviewed

at the February meeting until the question at clause 1 is

reconciled.

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/2001/03

THE ANNUAL COUNT OF HOUSES

1. The count is taken at the February reconciliation and is entered

once. It is not adjusted during the year.

2. Two figures are kept. The first is the count of Houses. The second

is the count of Houses presently maintaining residential or public

programmes. The two figures are not required to agree and, at the

date of this circular, do not.

3. For purposes of the annual count, a House does not cease to be a

House merely because it cannot presently receive residents.

4. A House ceases to be a House when its standing is entered as other

than Continuous. Standing is a matter for the Record and not for

the house books.

5. The directory issued to the public lists the second figure, since

the directory exists to tell a person where they may go. The report

of the stewardship prints the first. Stewards asked about the

difference should say that the two figures count different things.

6. No House is to be removed from the count in order to make the two

figures agree. The stewardship has twice been asked to do this and

has twice declined.

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1991/02

THE CONDUCT OF A CONTINUITY REVIEW

1. A continuity review is not a disciplinary proceeding. It is an

administrative act. It establishes only whether the record of a

member's participation can be read as one continuous account.

2. A review may be opened by the member, by the member's steward, or

by the stewardship. It is not opened by a circle.

3. The member is told that a review has been opened, in writing, within

fourteen days. The letter states the period under review and nothing

further.

4. The member may write to the review, may appear before it, may send

another member in their place, or may do none of these. A review

proceeds in any case. It is an account, not a hearing.

5. The review reads: the Ledger for the period; the rota; the record of

attendance at observances; correspondence retained by the house; and

any note made by a steward under PRO/1984/07.

6. The review does not read: a member's Common Record as lodged by that

member, except with their written consent given in the same year.

7. A review concludes in one of three findings, which are entered in the

Record in these words and no others:

(a) CONTINUOUS.

(b) CONTINUOUS, WITH A PERIOD OF SEPARATION NOTED.

(c) REVIEWED.

8. A member is informed of the finding. Where the finding is (c), the

member is informed of the finding and not of the reasoning, the

reasoning being held at the North House.

9. [Section 9 is not printed in the member edition. Stewards hold the

full circular. Requests for section 9 are answered by section 9.]

10. A finding of (c) does not end membership. Nothing ends membership.

The house continues to hold the member's place at table.

11. Where a section of a circular is withheld, the fact of the

withholding is printed. The Institute does not conceal that it

conceals.

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1984/07

CLOSED OBSERVANCES

1. An observance is open unless closed. A house closes an observance by

posting the fact at the door on the morning of the day, and by no

other means. Notice is not given in advance.

2. Grounds for closing: a death; a reconciliation of the Record; the

arrival of a member under a period of separation; the fourth reason,

which is not printed.

3. A visitor who arrives at a closed observance is given tea in the

front room and the ordinary courtesy. They are not told which of the

grounds applies. They are asked to return.

4. The place laid and left empty is laid at every observance, open or

closed. Stewards are asked to give the explanation customary in their

house and not to standardise it. The Institute has three explanations

and has declined, twice, to choose between them.

5. At a closed observance the place is laid as usual. It is cleared as

usual. Where it has been used, the fact is entered in the house book

and the entry is not elaborated.

6. No account of a closed observance is written. This circular is the

only document about them and is itself not read aloud.

CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1996/04

PERIODS OF SEPARATION

1. A member may separate at any time, for any reason, by telling one

person. No form is required and none is provided.

2. A separation is not a resignation. The Institute has no procedure

for resignation and has been asked for one on eleven occasions.

3. During a separation the house continues: to hold the member's place

on the rota, unfilled; to retain correspondence addressed to them;

to enter their name in the Record with the period noted; and to lay

their place at the annual reconciliation.

4. The member is not written to during a separation, except once a year,

in December, in the same four sentences used since 1979.

5. A returning member is welcomed at notices by name and is not asked

where they have been. Stewards are reminded that this is a kindness

and is also a procedure, and that members can tell the difference.

6. A separation which passes twenty years is entered as a Return under

the accounting convention and is reported in the annual figures.

Members have asked what is being returned. The convention predates

the question.