the current leader [...] at the end would hand off the group’s giant novelty hourglass (used for allocating speaking time) to the next leader.
How is the next leader chosen? By the previous leader, arbitrarily? What happens if a group of N people starts only choosing among themselves?
Or, if there is a rule that everyone should get the role once, if they want it, does it also apply to newcomers? If not, when are they no longer considered newcomers?
The group was pretty small so it was often decided by consensus, but otherwise it’d come down to a vote (the topic+leader that interests the most people would go next). Sometimes a survey would be sent out, but usually (for convenience) it would be decided at the meeting. Another consideration (as I mention) was that whoever ran a topic least recently should get priority over someone who did so more recently, but this wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule.
Newcomers would often be specifically encouraged to run their 2nd or 3rd meeting, since that way they can see themselves as an active contributor from the very beginning, and the rest of the group can get some new perspectives. (The onboarding process takes all of 30 seconds—“Here’s the mailing list; look at one of the previous emails and copy that template. Try to send your email ASAP so that people have time to do the readings.”)
How is the next leader chosen? By the previous leader, arbitrarily? What happens if a group of N people starts only choosing among themselves?
Or, if there is a rule that everyone should get the role once, if they want it, does it also apply to newcomers? If not, when are they no longer considered newcomers?
The group was pretty small so it was often decided by consensus, but otherwise it’d come down to a vote (the topic+leader that interests the most people would go next). Sometimes a survey would be sent out, but usually (for convenience) it would be decided at the meeting. Another consideration (as I mention) was that whoever ran a topic least recently should get priority over someone who did so more recently, but this wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule.
Newcomers would often be specifically encouraged to run their 2nd or 3rd meeting, since that way they can see themselves as an active contributor from the very beginning, and the rest of the group can get some new perspectives. (The onboarding process takes all of 30 seconds—“Here’s the mailing list; look at one of the previous emails and copy that template. Try to send your email ASAP so that people have time to do the readings.”)