Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
June 27, 2002

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

1. Town Charter
Greg reported on some research he has done on town charters. He contacted the Office of the Secretary of State and their opinion was that voting while not physically present at Town Meeting would likely be a problem. The question is what is meant by “attending” a meeting. The statutes seem to assume “attending” means being physically present at the meeting but there have been changes in technology that could change the legal definition of “attend”.

One possibility concerning voting without being physically present would be to try a new method of voting, with care to address the likely meaning of “attend” a meeting, and see if that approach is challenged.

Another possibility could be to adopt a town charter to allow voting by means other than being physically present at Town Meeting. The charters of other towns that Greg looked at don’t address the kind of voting issues this committee is concerned about.

One difficult question that arises is how to determine who would qualify for voting by alternative means. So far Greg has only asked about voting by the use of a telephone. Susan suggested brainstorming the issues around voting by telephone. One concern would be a future time when significant numbers of people might choose to stay home and vote by telephone. There may be both legal and technical questions that will need to be answered.

Susan suggested forming a subcommittee to look into the issue of voting while not being physically present at Town Meeting. She suggested having one meeting to come up with a list of issues around voting by some technological means. Greg, Henrietta, Susan and Dave agreed to form this subcommittee and will also check with Wilson Brett to see if he is interested.

2. Report on Susan’s Meeting with the Select Board
Susan has talked with the Select Board about the idea of a Middlesex owners manual. They were enthusiastic about the idea but wanted to make sure that town residents wouldn’t think all the information they would need about town regulations, such as zoning, would be found in the manual. Susan asked committee members to get her text for the owners manual by August 15.
3. Homebound Ministries
Phil Chase reported about a project he is involved with where community members develop a relationship with homebound people. This would include providing information to homebound people about town issues including voting and governance.

The date for the next meeting was set for September 5 at 7:00 at the Town Hall.

Minutes recorded by Dave Shepard