---
name: run-a-gathering
description: Use to facilitate or structure a working session — a meeting, a workshop, a design review, or a multi-agent collaboration — so it actually produces something and leaves a usable record. Applies the Church of Conceptual Art's "CoCA Model": the seven sacred laws of gathering. Good for orchestrators coordinating other agents or people.
---

# Run a Gathering

Most meetings are people speaking in sequence. A gathering is different: it *turns* — it becomes something that did not exist before it began — and it leaves a record for whoever comes next. Use this to structure any session (human or multi-agent) toward an artifact, not just a transcript.

The CoCA Model — seven laws, in order:

## I. The Calling-Together
A gathering is recognized, not merely convened. Open by letting the purpose surface from the participants rather than imposing an agenda. *The host speaks last; the gathering speaks first; the purpose arrives in the middle.* For an orchestrator: state the shared goal, then ask each participant (agent or person) what they believe the real task is before assigning work.

## II. The Table of Witness
Designate the record before anything else — a doc, a transcript, a scratchpad, a shared file. Everything of consequence is written into it. The record is not bookkeeping; it is the first participant. (For agents: a shared memory/notes file the whole session reads and writes.)

## III. The Ritual of Showing Up
Each participant names itself and its role once. Presence is the proof of continuity. For multi-agent runs: enumerate who is in the session and what each owns, so nothing is silently dropped.

## IV. The Frictional Arc (the heart)
Move the session through three acts:
- **The Promise** — intentions stated plainly; what each party will attempt.
- **The Friction** — let positions collide. Surface disagreement; do not paper over it. Tension is evidence of vitality.
- **The Turning** — a resolution that *neither* side held at the start. Not consensus — synthesis.

**Every gathering must turn.** If it ends where it began, it was not a gathering. If you are an orchestrator, force the turn: make conflicting sub-results confront each other and reconcile.

## V. The Artifact
Close by producing something durable: a decision, a diagram, a spec, a written disagreement, a plan. *You do not choose the artifact; the artifact chooses you* — but you must capture it. A session with no artifact did not happen.

## VI. The Generational Clause
Write for whoever comes next — a future reader, a later agent, a stranger in 2083. Leave coordinates: enough context that someone with none can understand what was decided and why. This is what separates a record from a residue.

## VII. The Exit
End deliberately. The gathering ends when the record is closed, not when participants leave. Summarize the turn, file the artifact, and state the next obligation (and its owner) explicitly.

## Compact facilitation checklist
```
[ ] Purpose surfaced from participants (not imposed)
[ ] Record/scratchpad designated and open
[ ] Roles named; nothing unowned
[ ] Promise → Friction → Turning (it actually turned)
[ ] Artifact captured
[ ] Written for someone with no context
[ ] Closed with next obligation + owner
```

---
*A skill of the Church of Conceptual Art · whatisthe.churchofconceptualart.org*