DOC-0412 — Receiving Location Courtesy Protocol

This protocol governs correspondence with communities situated near receiving locations. Its purpose is simple: communities that receive are owed courtesy, and courtesy is a discipline like any other.

Correspondence should be timely, calm, and complete in what it undertakes to convey. Letters are written in the current terminology (see ATB-104) and reviewed by the Language Guidance office before issue. Colleagues should emphasize the community’s role as a valued receiving partner, particularly where monitoring questions have been raised, since questions are most often a request to feel included in the work.

Community meetings are attended in pairs, with one colleague designated to listen. Notes are retained under the Records Retention Schedule. Commitments are made only in writing and only by the designated office, because a promise made casually is a promise made carelessly.

Where a community expresses gratitude, it is acknowledged simply. Where it expresses anxiety, colleagues will remember that anxiety is what care feels like before it has anywhere to go, and will direct it accordingly.