Sera Venn opens the speaker queue, interpreter roster and final meeting minutes at the Lower Ward meeting hall. Before anyone moves a cart or changes a mark, the crew checks a chalk-marked speaking board beside the hall’s narrow stone entrance. The long light air brings its own pace to the passage.
The latest page holds 14 speakers who stayed through the vote. Sera Venn reads the previous count (12) before the next mark is made. It is a small pause, long enough for the people at the rail to hear what the number leaves out.
The old queue gives precedence to registered household heads; younger workers and recent arrivals say that rule screens out people most affected by the night schedule. The current record does not settle that disagreement. The difference between those accounts is visible here: a rule on the board and a working condition just beyond it.
A second set of hands has checked the count and recorded where the methods differ. The entry belongs to the second reading file at the Lower Ward meeting hall. The next check will be made by another crew, asked to repeat the measure without borrowing the first crew’s conclusion.
When the shift closes, the file remains beside the marked place. The ward table will test a second speaking queue at its next open sitting. Until then, the route, schedule or allotment stays as it was at the opening bell.
