Photo: The newly organized Select Board: (from left) Member Roy Epstein, Chair Elizabeth Dionne, and Vice Chair Matt Taylor.
For the first time since 2019, the annual Town Meeting will be in person without a virtual component to assist members who may find it difficult to attend due to medical concerns or competing interests.
The vote on what format the town meeting will use—required by a state law that will sunset next year—was held at an abbreviated Friday morning session on April 5, during the board’s yearly organizational meeting. Elizabeth Dionne was selected as the group’s Chair, Taylor as vice chair, and Roy Epstein reverted to being a member. Epstein will continue to chair the board to allow for continuity during the two Town Meeting segments in April and June.
Dionne will take the middle seat at board meetings beginning July 1, the first day of the fiscal year.
The newly constituted board’s initial business was determining the setup of the annual Town Meeting. Town Moderator Mike Widmer and Town Clerk Ellen Cushman—the two officials who manage the Town Meeting—were asked for their recommendations on whether the meeting should be held in person, in a hybrid setting, or virtually, as has been the case for the past four years.
Widmer emphasized his own “strong feeling of the importance of an in-person meeting,” citing the value of community engagement and active debate, which has been tempered ever since the meetings were held virtually due to restrictions on large gatherings after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.
When the town switched to a hybrid mix of live and virtual attendees at the 2023 annual meeting, more than 25 percent of members chose to stay at home rather than venture to the high school auditorium. This high number of virtual attendees “undermines the in-person nature of the event,” Widmer said, begging the question of even having an in-the-flesh gathering.
“Because if you think a remote meeting is the equivalent to a live meeting, you may as well dispense with live meetings,” said Epstein.
Cushman acknowledged the challenges of hybrid meetings on the time of town staff and the added cost of $2,100 per hybrid session. Like Widmer, Cushman believed that a live meeting allows members to “read the room” during debate on articles.
“And it’s not just the social aspect … it’s deciding to listen a little more closely when you hear that people are in favor of someone, it’s deciding to understand a little bit better when people aren’t in favor,” said Cushman. “I’m leaning towards, in person [Town Meeting], for connections, community, and understanding.”
Dionne said that in addition to the fact that the quality of debate is better in person and an important piece of community building, “[u]nfortunately … during remote-only meetings, it was fairly clear that often times people were not paying attention to the presentations, based on questions that were asked that had clearly been already answered.”
While the virtual component of a hybrid format was meant for emergencies. “that’s not how it was used,” said Dionne.
He said that he “love[s] in-person town meetings. I think everyone should give it a try,” Taylor told his colleagues that the issue facing the board is “access to being a representative … the ability to attend town meeting still, if you have an illness, or mobility concerns or caring for family or other needs, that might otherwise need you to miss Town Meeting, and not be able to represent our precinct,” which a hybrid option can make a difference.
For Dionne, it is up to members to decide if they can be full-time Town Meeting members.
‘There are different points in your life that you can take on this challenge. ‘Can I give eight nights?’ ‘Can I do that for my community?’ Or is it just not the time I can do that because I care for an elderly parent or children at home. I’m a single parent, and I fear I cannot make childcare arrangements. So [members] need to make that choice long before the Town Meeting happens. Whether they really can do that and I appreciate that it’s not everyone can do it all the time,” she said.
While the board was open to setting aside a small number of hybrid slots for members who need medical care or have unexpected events, the cost and how to allocate the virtual spots could not be resolved.
The board voted 2-1 (Taylor voting no) that the 2024 annual Town Meeting be held in person only, starting with Segment A, the non-budget articles, on April 30 at 7 p.m.
“Put [the date] in your book,” said O’Brien.