phone tree

Definition

(Noun) A system by which a list of people are contacted. The first person on the list calls the second person, the second person calls the third, the third person calls the fourth and so on. If the person calling gets an answering machine, he leaves a message and goes onto the next person until he actually talks to a live responsible adult. That live responsible adult now continues down the list of contacts until he speaks directly to a responsible adult, and so on.
Ex: Jean 333-7777, Mary 777-8888, john 555-666, Fred 222-8888, Sandy 444-7778

Jean calls Mary, Mary calls John, he doesn't answer, she leaves a message and calls Fred, Fred calls Sandy