Some things;

• Role definition
• Key contacts to start with
• Expected outcomes
• Target deadlines

Most importantly; a proper induction and briefing into the project.

You should be able to get all of this in a few minutes dicussion and on 1-2 pages of notes.

If the PM is dumping docs on you with no peson to ask questions of, your project is probably on a fast track to failville.

On the other hand, don't expect days of on the job coaching. All project team members are expected to be professional and to be able to problem solve along the way. And to be able to read.

These are the basics that a team member needs to do their work.
The focus of the project manager should be that the team member knows what is expected of them.

What You Need To Get Work Done

The project manager's estimate of:

1. When the task is to start.
2. When the task is expected to finish
3. How much time, in terms of people hours of work, the task is expected to take.
4. A clear definition of the deliverable.

What You Don't Need

It is not reasonable or necessary for the team member to understand the entire project, its details, etc. If the project manager is insisting any giving team members all the details they are likely trying to give team members information to make "informed decisions" about the project, its schedule and the scope of the deliverables.

The project manager may be doing this consciously or unconsciously. But either way, it is not generally the team member's job to make these kind of decisions. It is the project manager's job.

The team member should be focused on completing their part of the project. The project manager should be focused on making sure everything is working well. If things go wrong, the project manager should communicate with the stakeholders and the team and either make or implement the calls that need to be made.

Which is the role of each team member? Profiling in/out information can save a lot of energy and some trouble.

Sadly project documentation is a fact of life. If you look beyond just your project, you can see that (depending on your organization) there are larger issues that need to be addressed. Regulation, Legislation, Deviation, Education ("...Ball of Confusion...")

In your other question you referred to the PMO as demanding documentation so I'm assuming in this question you still mean the PMO, who is pressuring your PM to pressure you (let me know if I have that correct).

The PM is well within his or her rights to push back on the PMO if the documentation requirement is becoming too burdensome. At the end of the day, the PMO is meant to help projects get done safely, not be an ivory tower of red tape that adds no value. The PMO should be looking for ways to streamline their documentation requirements--but they won't do that if the PM keeps handing over whatever they ask for.

Mark and Craig above have both offered reasonable answers (I like Craig's comment, "fast track to Failville" LOL). Looking at your other question, it seems like the documentation requirements should be, as Craig said, 1-2 pages at most for each item, delivered up at different phases of the project...so you shouldn't have to cough all that stuff at once.

I think to get team members properly oriented, they need to see a project tracking document that includes contact information for all stakeholders, project objectives, project scope and an outline of phases and deliverables.

Team members' names should be in the stakeholders list, defining their role. This document should make it clear what their deliverables are. If they can identify any dependencies on resources not immediately available to them or not specified in the project (like other documents they will need) then they should make sure the PM includes them in the plan.

As for the information a team member is entitled to: they should have access to all the documents in the project. Documents should be managed in a central repository that every stake holder has permission to (at least) read. After they know what they have to deliver, team members can go and get the documents they need themselves. Documents should be titled well and include overviews and summaries that answer within a page or two "is the information I need in this document?". I think the only mandatory reading for everyone is the project charter and the schedule, so that everybody knows why they are working and when they are scheduled to deliver.