Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
November 19, 2003

Present: Susan Clark, Tim Murphy, Nancy Reilly, Dave Shepard, Barb Whitchurch, Greg Whitchurch

1. Update
Susan will be meeting with the Secretary of State's Office in mid December to discuss legal issues around voting without being physically present at Town Meeting. Greg handed out a potential scenario he had worked up for how remote voting might work.

2. Website
The town website is on the U-32 server and can now be accessed but it can't be updated because Tim hasn't yet been provided with the password he needs to be able to access the site for this purpose. Greg will email all town officials to check if they have an objection to having their email address on the website.

The committee will need to check with those in the Middlesex Operator's Manual(MOM) yellow pages about whether they want to be listed on the website and to check if there are any changes to the their listing in the MOM. Tim will send an email to those who provided an email address and he will send a postcard to those without an email address but with a postal address. Barb will call those who only provided a phone number.

The website was not shown to those attending the village design workshop as there wasn't an appropriate time to do so with everything else that was happening at this event.

Susan will write an article for the Middlesex Monthly informing readers that the town website is up and running. The Select Board can be contacted about providing agendas of Select Board meetings, minutes of those meetings and legal notices.

3. Childcare at Town Meeting
The fire station is a possibility for a location to provide childcare during Town Meeting according to Fire Chief Marty McMahon. Susan will visit the station to see if it looks like it could work. The Girl Scouts are still a possibility for providing the childcare.

4. Neighborhood Meetings Prior to Town Meeting
Ideas for neighborhood meetings were discussed. One idea mentioned was asking people who don't regularly attend Town Meeting why they don't. This might be especially pertinent for newer town residents. Another idea was to provide an overview of how Town Meeting works. It was also suggested that it could be helpful for the moderator to give a review of the ground rules for Town Meeting as a preliminary to taking up the first item of business at Town Meeting.

Another idea was to create a Town Meeting primer that could be printed in the Middlesex Monthly for the issue that precedes Town Meeting. This document could also be available at Town Meeting.

If it would be helpful for the host of a neighborhood meeting, someone from this committee could attend the meeting. Committee members suggested possible hosts for these meetings. The idea is that the host would provide the place for the meeting and invite friends and neighbors to attend and this committee could provide a resource person and perhaps some materials.

Nancy suggested that she might host one at a Rumney playgroup in the school library.

Next meeting: December 17, 2003 at 7:00 at the Town Office.

Minutes recorded by Dave Shepard