mention the small changes that have occurred over time as well as the ones that remain. It is clear that to this town the procedure of the lottery is just as important as the lottery itself.

The annual lottery takes place in the summer, June 27th, and is conducted by Mr. Summers. The night before Mr. Summers and his assistant, Mr. Graves, make the slips for the drawing- one for the head of every household. One slip would have a dark, black spot on it for the “winner” of the lottery. Once they finish, they place the slips in the black box.

The morning of the lottery, as the town gathers together the children gather rocks and await the ceremony. Mr. Summers brings out the box and places it on "a three-legged stool" then checks to make sure that every family has someone to draw. He slowly calls the name of every family in the town and one by one the head of the family, usually a man, will be the one to step up to draw a piece of paper If the family doesn’t have a male head, or if he couldn’t attend, the wife or an older son will draw.

Mrs. Dunbar draws because her husband has a broken leg and her son, “Horace’s not but sixteen yet.” Jack Watson, who is described as “a tall boy in the crowd” draws for his mother. Mr. Summers comments his pleasure that he is “glad to see [his] mother’s got a man to do it.”

After checking his list, Mr. Summers goes through the list again. One by one, they draw a slip from the black box. Once everyone has drawn, the open their paper to see who has selected the black spot.

The family who draws the black spot must participate in a second drawing. Each member of the family lines up to draw. Once they all have a slip, they display them to the waiting crowd. The one who has the black spot is then stoned by the crowd.

At ten o'clock in the morning on June 27th, the entire community gathers in the town square, where Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves proceed to conduct the lottery. Once everyone gathers, Mr. Summers addresses the community and asks if anyone is not participating in the lottery in order to decide who will draw for the missing person. Mr. Summers then calls the husband of each family in alphabetical order to draw a slip of paper from the ominous black box. In Jackson's patriarchal society, the oldest son draws in place of their father if he cannot participate for any reason. The head of each household is also required to keep their slip of paper folded until every husband draws from the black box.

Once each husband has drawn from the black box, Mr. Summers instructs them to look at their slip of paper simultaneously to determine who has the slip with the black spot on it. Whoever draws the black spot is required to call their family back to the black box, where each family member draws one slip of paper. The family member who ends up drawing the black spot becomes the community's scapegoat and is stoned to death by the entire town.

I like the fact that the question uses the word "procedure" to describe the lottery process in this story.  It is definitely a well defined procedure with steps needing to be done in a specific order.  The people may have forgotten why they do the lottery, but they definitely remember how to do the lottery.  

The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around.

The lottery process starts at ten in the morning.  There is no set ending time, because that will change based on town size.  The people are gathered together by family.  Each family member sends a member forward to take a slip of paper out of the box.  It is usually the male head of the family that draws, but the wife can draw in the husband's absence.  The families are called in alphabetical order.  The folded papers are to remain folded until all of the families have drawn a piece of paper.  Everybody is to open the paper at the same time.  One of the papers will have a black dot on it.  That dot designates that family as the "lucky" family.  The paper with the black dot is put back into the box along with a white piece of paper for each member of the chosen family.  

"All right, then," Mr. Summers said. "Harry, you got their tickets back?"

Mr. Graves nodded and held up the slips of paper.

"Put them in the box, then," Mr. Summers directed. "Take Bill's and put it in."

Each family member then redraws a slip of paper. All papers are opened simultaneously, and the family member that drew the black dot paper is then stoned to death. 

While your explanation defines a limit to three to five sentences, a little background is necessary.

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the town's people are getting ready for their annual selection for the person who will be sacrificed for the good of the crops. This said, this event has been practiced for a very long time ("even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born"). Therefore, the town is very familiar with the procedure the lottery follows (even though some question the procedure and continuing practice of it).

Procedure:

The town's people must gather by 10 o'clock on June 27th. Once gathered, the names of the male head-of-household are called. Each male must come forward and draw a slip of paper from the box placed upon a stool. After all households have drawn, all open their piece of paper looking for a black dot. Once found, the members of the family of the "winner" must draw; the family member holding the black dot will be stoned to death for the benefit of the crops.

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Mr. Summers runs the lottery, assisted by Mr. Graves. The night before the drawing the two men prepare slips for every household in the community--but not for every individual member of every household.

The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made up the slips of paper and put them in the box, and it was then taken to the safe of Mr. Summers' coal company and locked up until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square next morning.

There is only one slip with a black spot. All the other slips are blank. Mr. Summers reads the names of all the heads of households in alphabetical order. Each head of a household comes up and draws a slip from the black box. They are all drawing for their entire families.

In the first drawing the slip with the black spot is drawn by Bill Hutchinson. Now Mr. Summers collects all the slips from everybody present, including the one drawn by Bill Hutchinson.

Mr. Graves had selected the five slips and put them in the box. and he dropped all the papers but those onto the ground. where the breeze caught them and lifted them off.

Mr. Graves puts four blank slips into the box plus the one with the black spot which he took from Bill Hutchinson. Graves gets rid of all the other blank slips by letting them blow away in the breeze. He and Mr. Summers want to make sure there are no extra blank slips, because one of the members of the household selected in the initial drawing might pick one up and show it in place of the black spot if he or she got it.

There are five people in the Hutchinson household: Bill; his wife Tessie; Bill Jr. the oldest son; Nancy, who is about twelve years old; and little Davie, who is too young to understand what is going on. One by one the Hutchinsons draw from the box. Mr. Graves helps Davie draw a slip.

Mr. Graves opened the slip of paper and there was a general sigh through the crowd as he held it up and everyone could see that it was blank. Nancy and Bill. Jr. opened theirs at the same time. and both beamed and laughed. turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads.

Tessie has drawn a slip but is refusing to open it and show it to the crowd.

"Tessie," Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, and then Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, and Bill unfolded his paper and showed it. It was blank.

Now everybody knows it must be Tessie, including Tessie herself, although she still refuses to open her slip.

"It's Tessie," Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. "Show us her paper. Bill."

Tessie's husband has to use force against his wife. 

Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd.

This drawing is the same as the ones that have been conducted since time immemorial. There is an initial drawing for households, or families. In this patriarchal society, the men draw for their families in the first round. But when a family has been selected, all the family members, whether men, women or children, have to draw for themselves. There will be only one slip with a black spot, plus a number of blank slips which depends upon the number of people in the family. In the case of the Hutchinsons, each family member has a four-to-one chance of getting a blank slip. This is because none of them can open his or her slip until the whole family has drawn.

The reader still doesn't know what this lottery is all about--although the reader realizes that nobody wants to win the "prize," whatever it might be. On the other hand, everybody in the crowd, except for little Davie, knows exactly what the drawing is about. In fact, most of them have participated in these lotteries before and have stoned friends, relatives, and neighbors to death. Old Man Warner has been in the lottery for seventy-seven years, as he proudly proclaims.

The shocking nature of this annual ceremony is revealed very quickly when Tessie Hutchinson is exposed as the holder of the black spot.

Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her...."It isn't fair, it isn't right," Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.

There are actually two drawings in the lottery. The first drawing is only for heads of households. The black box contains only as many slips as there are households in the little community. All of the slips except one are blank. One slip is marked with a big black dot. On the day of the lottery described in the story, the black spot is drawn by Bill Hutchinson. That means that someone from his family of five will be selected to be stoned.

Mr. Graves had selected the five slips and put them in the box. and he dropped all the papers but those onto the ground. where the breeze caught them and lifted them off.

Mr. Graves, who assists Mr. Summers, collects all the slips of paper used in the first drawing for heads of households. There are five people in the Hutchinson household: Bill, Tessie, and their three children, Bill Jr., Nancy, and little Davy. So Mr. Graves keeps four blank slips and the slip with the black spot drawn by Bill Hutchinson and puts these five in the box. All the other blank slips are allowed to be blown away by the breeze. This will prevent any member of the Hutchinson family from picking up a discarded blank slip and keeping it to pretend he or she had drawn it if that person happens to draw the slip with the fatal black spot. Tessie Hutchinson might be capable of doing something like that.

The household has been determined by the first drawing. Now the five members of the Hutchinson family are the only ones to participate in the second drawing. One by one they draw their slips--but they do not open them until the whole family has drawn. Then Mr. Graves opens little Davy's slip for him. The crowd utters a sign of relief because they would prefer not to stone a two-year-old child to death.

Nancy and Bill. Jr. opened theirs at the same time. and both beamed and laughed. turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads.  

The other two Hutchinson children are delighted to be spared this year, even though it means that either their mother or their father will be sacrificed and they will have to participate in the stoning.

"Tessie," Mr. Summers said. There was a pause, and then Mr. Summers looked at Bill Hutchinson, and Bill unfolded his paper and showed it. It was blank.

Tessie has thus far declined to open her slip. She seems to have had a premonition that she is fated to be the "winner" of this year's lottery. When her husband opens his slip and shows it is blank, that makes it obvious that Tessie has the black spot. But she still clutches it tightly in her hand unopened. 

Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr. Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd.

The horror of being stoned to death by three hundred friends and neighbors has even turned the Hutchinsons against each other. Tessie is all alone in the world. She continues protesting, "It isn't fair, it isn't right!" as the others close in for the kill.