Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
April 21, 2004

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

1. Town Meeting 2004 Review
Susan introduced a review of the 2004 Town Meeting by indicating she thought some of the actions of the Committee (offering childcare, the neighborhood meetings) may have helped to increase attendance. Nancy said some of the people who attended the neighborhood meeting that she hosted had very little idea of how Town Meeting worked. These meetings seemed to be successful and may have brought some new people to Town Meeting.
 
Susan informed the Committee of the comments received from Town Meeting attendants on the sheets that were distributed at Town Meeting that included information about Roberts Rules and asked for comments on Town Meeting. A summary of the comments received and some recommendations from the Town Meeting Solutions Committee are attached.

Some of the comments were discussed in some detail at this meeting as follows:

Moderator: One comment requested that the moderator repeat all questions asked from the floor so that everyone knows what the question was. Greg added that at times he thought it was difficult to tell whether Peter Hood was acting in his role as moderator or as a Select Board member.

Location of Town Meeting: Several comments were received suggesting moving the location of Town Meeting to Rumney School because it is larger and cooler. There was also a comment in support of keeping Town Meeting at the town hall and not moving to Rumney School. The committee discussed ways to facilitate a discussion of the possibility of using Rumney School for Town Meeting. Tim pointed out that partitions could be used to create whatever space is needed in the gym if using the whole gym proved to be too large a space. It was suggested that some time be taken at next years Town Meeting to have a discussion of what space would be the best for holding Town Meeting.

The Select Board has asked this committee for feedback on how to deal with the social service money requests that are voted on each year at Town Meeting. This is in response to some concerns expressed by voters at Town Meeting about the increasing number of these requests and the fact that there isn't currently much of a screening process for these requests. The committee agreed that before making any recommendations we need a better understanding of just what the current procedure is. Nancy volunteered to look into this and the committee will provide feedback to the Select Board after our next meeting.

2. Review of Potential Tasks for the Upcoming Year
Greg suggested having a vote by paper ballot, at the next meeting, for officers of the committee for the upcoming year.

Susan handed out a list of ideas for tasks the committee might work on over the next year and asked for committee members input on the list and any other ideas. The committee was in agreement with the list of tasks and members indicated topics they were particularly interested in.

There was some discussion of participation by the committee in upcoming town events. This could include a review of progress since Town Meeting such as the purchase and delivery of the new fire truck. It was suggested that the fire truck could be on display at some of these events.


Minutes recorded by Dave Shepard