Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
September 13, 2001

Present: Susan Clark, Gregory Whitchurch, Barbara Whitchurch, Dave Shepard, Henrietta Jordan

1. Town Meeting Survey
The Select Board has estimated that printing and mailing the survey will cost $375-$500 and they don’t have that much money to spend on this now. They have asked if mailing the survey could wait until January. The Planning Commission recently printed and mailed a comparable survey for about $265. After some discussion it was agreed that it would be worth checking with the Select Board to see if they could afford the survey this fall if it were closer to the $265 figure.

Greg posed the question of when might be the most appropriate time to send out the survey. Susan mentioned other ways, such as small group meetings, to get feedback, some of which could be done before the survey is mailed. Another possibility is some kind of event featuring Frank Bryan as a speaker.

Feedback was also provided on the most recent draft of the survey, some of it gleaned from comments of non-committee members who reviewed the survey. It was felt that having five choices in question #1 was too many. Henrietta suggested having a 1-3 ranking instead of 1-5. For question #2, there was a concern that there were too many choices under each of the main headings. There was a suggestion for fewer choices to be provided and leave it open for the respondents to add other suggestions.

Some other means of distributing the survey, besides mailing, were also proposed:
-send them home with students at Rumney; and
-put the survey in the Middlesex Monthly; and
-have boxes of surveys at various locations around town. 
 
A concern was expressed that if the survey can’t be mailed until January there won’t be time to implement anything that might come out of the survey by next Town Meeting. Dave mentioned that if we have some things that can be accomplished by Town Meeting and can perhaps present survey results that would be ok. There was a suggestion to seek money from some businesses to fund the survey.

2. 21st Century Grant
Susan reported that John Puleio is thinking about an event with Rumney students connected to democracy in the classroom to take place around the time of Town Meeting. Two 5/6 grade teachers, Susan Amestoy and Michaela Martin are interested in working with this committee.

3. Susan’s Meeting with June Lakin
Susan recently met with June Lakin about the activities of this committee. Highlights of their conversation were as follows:

-June is interested in the idea of a website for the Town.
-Development of a “welcome packet” for new town residents that would include information about town government.
-Improvement in the cover for the town report; Susan will approach Brian Prendergast.
-June indicated there would be some logistical problems with moving Town Meeting to Rumney School.

4. Plan of Action
A possible two-pronged approach was suggested as a way to proceed.

1. An event featuring Frank Bryan that would incorporate some small group discussions. The target date would be early November.

2. “Living Room Sessions” to reach some of the people who might be less likely to attend a larger event or meeting. This would require contacting someone to host a session and to invite participants, particularly those who signed the petition seeking a vote on replacing Town Meeting with an Australian ballot. Susan will contact June about getting a list of those who signed the petition. Greg and Barb will check with Camp Meade about the possibility of using their space for a meeting.

Next meeting: Tuesday, October 9, 2001.