Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
February 11, 2004

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

1. Approval of Minutes from January 14, 2004 Meeting
Minutes were approved from the January 14, 2004 meeting.

2. Letter from Wilson Brett
Susan reported that she received a letter from Wilson Brett stating that he has moved to Montpelier and that the fact that he is no longer a resident of Middlesex is why he hasn’t been attending meetings of this committee. Greg suggested asking Wilson if he might have a suggestion of someone to replace him on the committee.

3. Town Hall Cleaning
The cleaning of the Town Hall in preparation for Town Meeting is scheduled for February 26 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

4. Town Meeting Preparations
The Middlesex Methodist Church has indicated they can take up to 10 children for child care during Town Meeting. Tim will be able to have a computer onsite during Town Meeting Day for voters to check out the Town of Middlesex website.

5. Neighborhood Meetings
The neighborhood meeting at Nancy's will be on February 22 at 11:00 a.m. Susan has an outline to guide the discussion. The meeting at Susan's house will take place on February 28 at 10:00 a.m.

6. Other Town Meeting Discussion
Tim suggested creating a one page information sheet that could be made available at Town Meeting that would provide some basic information about Town Meeting procedure. It could have a section for comments about Town Meeting that people could leave off or send to the Committee later.

The Committee considered the issue that at times, there can be a tendency for some voters at Town Meeting to "call the question" and seek to cease debate on an issue before it seems that everyone who wishes to speak has had an opportunity. The Committee would like to encourage issues to be fully debated and to that end Greg volunteered to draft a letter to Peter Hood to encourage him to do what he can as moderator to promote full debate of issues.

7. Welcome to New Voters
As a means to welcome new voters in their town, East Montpelier has invited new voters to come to Town Meeting a half hour early for an introduction. Committee members discussed possibly sending a note to new voters to invite them to come a half hour early and stop by the Committee's table. The note could include a contact for any questions a new voter might have prior to Town Meeting.

8. Other Business
Greg had several ideas that could be brought up at the next meeting:

-means to involve those who can't physically attend Town Meeting; and
-possible methods to revisit controversial issues.

Greg added that perhaps it just needs to be explained clearly to people the current procedure to revote a controversial issue. Susan thought it might be useful to do an article for the Middlesex Monthly about Town Meeting issues.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 p.m.


Minutes recorded by Dave Shepard