logistics of coordinating a week-long silent meditation retreat

I attended a week-long (7 day, from Friday afternoon at 4pm to the following Friday at noon) silent meditation retreat. The logistics of enabling this are non-trivial.

I live about 20 minutes away from the retreat center. Other participants came from all over the country and the world -- Europe and Australia were represented! There were 100 participants, 4 teachers, 2 facilitators, 1 yoga instructor, and a full staff of cooks and cleaners.

The 3 meals per day were prepared by staff and served buffet style.

There was 1 yoga class per day for students.

Participants are given a printed schedule (below) and a printed map of the grounds.
Printed schedules were hung everywhere with painter's tape.

There were two message boards available to enable communication during the silent retreat: one for facilitators and teachers to provide instructions to participants, another for participants to post notes to facilitators and teachers. Communication among participants was frowned upon.

The "instructions to participants" board had a schedule posted for one-on-one meetings with teachers and group meetings with teachers.

Arrival on Friday evening (day 0):

• check-in, 4pm to 7:15pm
• dinner, 5:30pm to 7pm
• new yogi orientation, 7pm
• bell ringer orientation, 7:30pm (targeted at returning participants)
• "further practice or sleep", 9:30pm

Upon arrival, additional information was provided about which instructor we would be meeting with (on either Saturday or Sunday) in small groups for an hour.

Daily retreat schedule, Saturday to Thursday (days 1-6):

• 5:45 to 6am, wake up
• 6:15 to 6:45am, mindful movement
• 6:45 to 7:30am, group seated meditation
• 7:30 to 8:15am, breakfast
• 8:15 to 9am, walking meditation
• 9 to 10am, instructions by teachers; sitting, Q&A
• 10 to 10:45am, walking meditation
• 10:45 to 11:30am, sitting meditation
• 11:30 to noon, walking meditation
• noon to 12:30pm, seated meditation
• 12:30 to 2:15pm, lunch and rest
• 2:15 to 3pm, seated meditation
• 3 to 3:45pm, walking; yoga for last names A-K
• 3:45 to 4:30pm, guided meditation
• 4:30 to 5:15pm, walking, yoga for last names L-Z
• 5 to 5:30pm, seated meditation
• 5:30 to 6:45pm, supper and walking
• 6:45 to 7:15pm, seated meditation
• 7:15 to 7:30pm, walking
• 7:30 to 8:30pm, dharma talk
• 9 to 9:30pm, seated meditation, chanting
• 9:30pm, further practice or sleep

As an exception to this schedule, each student was part of a pod of 6 fellow students who met with an instructor 3 times during the week (either Saturday-Monday-Wednesday or Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday). There were 4 teachers and 100 students, so about 16 pods total. Each pod stayed together and rotated among 3 of the 4 teachers.

Alternative logistics used for a different retreat: Group meetings Sunday and Thursday (10 people, lasting 30 minutes and 1 hour); additionally, individual meeting 1-on-1 for 15 minutes.

Departure on Friday morning (day 7):

• 6 to 6:15am: wake up
• 6:30 to 7:30am: sitting, closing announcements (attendance is required)
• 7:30 to 8:15am: breakfast
• 8 to 9:20am: packing, check out of room, tip the instructors
• 9:30 to 11:30am: closing ceremony
• 11:30 to 1pm: lunch