Middlesex Town Meeting Solutions Committee
Meeting Minutes
February 5, 2007  7:00 pm

Present: Kelly Ault, Susan Clark, Ron Krauth, Tim Murphy, Nancy Reilly, Barb Whitchurch, Greg Whitchurch.

1. Letter to New Voters
The group stuffed and stamped envelopes addressed to the households of the 90 new voters added to the Middlesex voter checklist since Town Meeting last year. The “Welcome New Voter” letter is from the Solutions Committee and Selectboard, with postage funded by the Selectboard. The letter encourages participation in Town Meeting, and includes information about the Middlesex website.

2. Pie Charts
John Riley has completed the pie charts. With coordination and oversight by Susan Clark and Bill Callnan, they will appear in this year’s town report. Barb and Greg will be in charge of making wall-sized posters of the pie charts for Town Meeting Day.
John will complete the third chart with data on cost per taxpayer in the coming days, and if it’s done by Feb. 15 Barb will be the one to make copies of this for Town Meeting Day.

3. Outreach on Australian ballot issue
The group discussed the pre-Town Meeting living room meetings planned to date:
Sat. Feb. 10:
 11:00 John Demeter and Emily Palmer's house (Barb & Greg co-host)
 4:00 Nancy Reilly
Sun. Feb. 11:
 1:00 Ron and Anita Krauths'
 4:00 Larry Mandell and Marcie Andres'
 5:30 Kim Cheney's
Mon. Feb. 12: Rumney Playgroup (9:45 am)
Fri. Feb. 16: 3:30 pm Kelly Young's

In addition, the group discussed a draft letter outlining our committee’s opposition to the Australian ballot initiative. The group agreed that the letter should be placed in the Middlesex Monthly. They also agreed that it should go out to all households on the voter checklist. The group discussed funding the mailing; Greg and Barb will look into the costs involved. The group discussed the possibility of the Selectboard signing onto the letter, and possibly even funding it, but didn’t know if they’d be interested. Susan said she would consult with Selectboard members. The group agreed that they would seek individual donors to fund the mailing if necessary, and everyone committed to asking friends and neighbors to sign onto the letter, with a goal of at least 100 signatures.

4. Discretionary Funding Committee
Susan reported that the Selectboard continues to be interested in the Solutions Committee’s help in reviewing (or creating a committee to review) discretionary spending in the budget (i.e. the various non-profits, etc. that ask for money from the town at town meeting). Susan reported that at the Selectboard’s most recent meeting, they asked our committee to look into forming a new committee to review all funding requests and make recommendations to the town. But in a subsequent conversation with Peter Hood, Peter indicated that such a committee might simply ensure that the non-profits supply all the necessary information, and not make recommendations. The Solutions Committee discussed it and agreed that the latter suggestion made more sense. We will suggest to the Selectboard that they announce the formation of such a committee (or possibly a sub-committee of the solutions Committee) and solicit volunteers at town meeting this year.

5. Contacts Sheet
Susan reported that she had received information from Greg and Dave on the Middlesex Contacts Sheet, and would try to finish compiling it into a handout by Town Meeting Day.

6. Child Care
Kelly reported that organizing child care for town meeting is underway, and Ann Gilbert at Community Connections is following the same plan as last year. She is working with Kelly and Susan to find more adults and teenagers to volunteer, so that they can end up hiring only one paid staff person for the event.

8. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the TMSC was not determined. However, the group agreed that if we need to meet to stuff envelopes for a mailing, we will set aside Sunday, Feb. 25 at 6 pm to do so (location TBA).

This meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm.


Minutes recorded by Susan Clark