Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
June 21, 2001

Present: David Lawrence, Susan Clark, Gregory Whitchurch, Barbara Whitchurch, Martin Pincus, Dave Shepard, Angelo, Henrietta Jordan, Chris McVeigh, Wilson Brett

1.Minutes of the June 21 Meeting
Greg moved to approve the minutes of the May 24 meeting with a second from Wilson. The minutes were approved.

2. Review of Survey
Question #1:
Henrietta suggested adding to question #1 something to the effect that the items listed are some examples of reasons that someone might not attend Town Meeting. In terms of format, Wilson said that each of the possible reasons ought to have numbers from one to five for ranking. It was also recommended to delete the last paragraph in #1.

Wilson stated that he would also like to see an open ended question where people who have concerns about Town Meeting (in particular those people who signed the petition for changing to Australian ballot) could explain their concerns. Susan proposed wording for this question that was approved by the committee.

Question #2:
Under the section entitled “Town Meeting Accessibility”, it was noted that there needs to be wording for the item pertaining to participation from remote locations that makes it clear this is not referring to absentee ballots.

Greg posed the question of whether the answers received pertaining to participation in Town Meeting without being physically present will really have much bearing on what is done.

Susan proposed that people make wordsmithing type of comments via email. She will also check with Mary Skinner about money for printing and mailing the survey.

Finally, there was a suggestion regarding the survey that each committee member get one non-committee member to review the draft of the survey. Additional comments on the survey should be sent to Barbara by August 8.

 
3. Youth Involvement
Susan reported on ideas from John Puleio:

-Kid’s Vote
This has a curriculum already available from the Secretary of State’s Office and focuses on voting. It also has a website.

-John will contact a couple of interested teachers on involving youth.

-A mock Town Meeting or symposium involving students is a possibility.

-The 21st Century Grant will make money available for after school programs, some of which could be related to youth involvement in town government.

Wilson expressed concern that in school politics can be a problem such that some kids who express unpopular views get trampled on. What role should our committee take with involving youth? We need to be careful not to cross into an advocacy role on issues. The goal should be to promote involvement of youth.

Martin suggested the committee have a meeting at Rumney that involves students. A few students could be invited to one of our meetings prior to a meeting to be held at Rumney School.

Henrietta suggested we get an interested teacher to attend a committee meeting in order to guide our efforts with students at Rumney.

4. Town Report
Susan reported that she has been reviewing other town reports and explained about some of the rewards that town reports can receive. She will contact June Lakin about ideas for the Middlesex town report that might make it more interesting and inviting.

5. Date for next meeting
The date for the next meeting was set for August 21 at 7:00.

Minutes recorded by Dave Shepard