March newsletter submissions

[Ericka & Todd Pritsky]

A few people have asked for time to submit content post-Town Meeting,
so if you have anything you'd like included, please send our way by
Sunday, March 10th. Thanks!

PS--Yes, this is a few extra days on the extension we told folks about
before. :-)

[jon]

I want to thank everyone who was able to attend Town Meeting this year.
Please let your representatives on the Select Board and on the School
Board know what you thought about the new meeting format. And please
let your Select Board members know about any suggestions you might have
about how we should proceed to identify land on which to build a new
Town Office building.

Jon Bondy

[Matthew Webb]

I thought the new format was excellent.  Please keep it up!

Matt

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[Pam Jedlicka]

I'm late getting to this, but I thought the town and school portions of the meeting were supposed to be separate (to allow people to attend that portion which was 'most important' to them, if they had to pick one, and couldn't attend the entire meeting).  The school portion of the meeting seemed to be wedged in between town agenda items.   

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Pam

[jon]

Pam:

I am not sure what you mean by "supposed to be".  Both the Select Board and the School Board wanted to try a single integrated meeting, as is done in other towns.  Many people feel that it was a success.

Jon

On 3/10/2013 8:29 PM, Pam Jedlicka wrote:

I'm late getting to this, but I thought the town and school portions of the meeting were supposed to be separate (to allow people to attend that portion which was 'most important' to them, if they had to pick one, and couldn't attend the entire meeting).  The school portion of the meeting seemed to be wedged in between town agenda items.   

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 9:08 PM, Matthew Webb <matth...@gmail.com> wrote:

I thought the new format was excellent.  Please keep it up!

Matt

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 7:20 PM, jon <j...@jonbondy.com> wrote:

I want to thank everyone who was able to attend Town Meeting this year.  Please let your representatives on the Select Board and on the School Board know what you thought about the new meeting format.  And please let your Select Board members know about any suggestions you might have about how we should proceed to identify land on which to build a new Town Office building.

Jon Bondy

On 3/6/2013 11:48 AM, Ericka & Todd Pritsky wrote:

A few people have asked for time to submit content post-Town Meeting,
so if you have anything you'd like included, please send our way by
Sunday, March 10th.  Thanks!

PS--Yes, this is a few extra days on the extension we told folks about
before.  :-)

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[Pam Jedlicka]

I recall comments after the Australian Ballot vote on this topic. Yes, it was going to be an integrated meeting, but with school and town agendas separated to accomodate those who couldn't attend the entire meeting but wanted to cast a vote on whatever issue was most important to them.   

I gather 'many' is a percentage of the 107 registered voters who did manage to show up this year.  

I didn't mind the format myself, having stayed most of the entire day but I didn't understand why the school budget vote came at Article 12, well into the meeting, and after a couple of town budget matters were discussed and voted on (the backhoe matter, and the town budget itself).  If you were not there from the beginning of the meeting, but wanted to be cast a vote for the school budget,  you'd have no way of knowing when to show up, if you were only able to get there for part of the meeting.  I presume there's a rationale for the structure of the meeting (that I obviously didn't understand it) because then, after lunch, we discussed the purchase of the Lidster property and selling some town land. 

It doesn't appear to matter either way.  The majority of the townspeople don't come to the meeting and we have no real control over the school budget (my big take-away), which takes the larger slice of our tax dollars. 

I remain impressed with the work the select board does on behalf of the town, and your work on the property search for a new town clerk's office was obviously very thoughtful.  I am very appreciative of your efforts on our behalf.  

[Todd Baumeister]

The combined format of this year's meeting allowed those who attended in the morning to vote on the biggest items of the day. Those people got to vote on both the school and town budget and elect school board members and select board members. It just so happened that the longest portion of the meeting took place after lunch when land for a new town office was discussed.

I think both the school board and select board are very sensitive to the fact that very few people used to vote on the school budget compared to the town. Last year the school meeting was moved before the town meeting as an experiment to attract more votes. This year the hybrid meeting moved both budgets and elections to the morning. If the town liked this year's format, then voters can expect the opportunity to express themselves on both budgets in the morning going forward.

Although it was awkward having the select board and school board swap chairs between articles 11 & 12, I think it was worth it. I hope we'll do the hybrid meeting again next year and for many years to come.

Thanks,
Todd Baumeister

[jon]

We had a number of reasons for the change in schedule:

1) with one meeting, we did not have to schedule a second meeting at a specific time.  This meant that we could just keep chugging along in the one meeting format.  In the two meeting format, there always was a worry that the first meeting might go short (leaving everyone milling around, and likely leaving) or long (forcing us to "pause" the first meeting to a specific time later in the day).  The combined approach allows us to just stop at lunch time.

2) We wanted to avoid switching between school and town repeatedly (as Cambridge does), so we did some town stuff, then all of the school stuff, and then the remainder of the town stuff.  We certainly could do it differently going forward (all town and then all school, or all school and then all town).

3) Keeping everyone through lunch allows the 6th grade school class and the Historical Society to both raise money and make sure that food is available. Having food and childcare is important, so that everyone possible can attend.

Jon

[Matthew Webb]

Again, I thought it was quite good.  With practice, the boards will get the transitions down.  Barry clearly wanted to make sure to keep things moving and not to lose folks in the transition.  By the time of the second transition, it felt kind of seamless, in fact.

I would be fine with a half hour lunch and then moving back into the meeting.  An hour is more time than I know how to use sitting around the school, so I go home, but I'd be happy to bring or buy a sandwich or hot dish and get back to the meeting more quickly.  I'd also be fine with a 9 a.m. or even 8:30 a.m. start time.  It's conceivable that in a year without a big item near the end (like the town office land), we could even finish by noon or 12:30.

Overall, very well done.  I also agree with Jon that it's important not to have too many transitions.

Matt

[Pam Jedlicka]

I appreciate the info, Jon. As usual, you and the board members have thought through the details to make the most of the meeting format.  I was disappointed the measure to purchase the Lidster property did not pass, and wondered if those who left after the school budget vote might have made the difference.  I might suggest moving that discussion to an earlier time frame next year ? We sure do need an new town office building.  

Thank you again.

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 7:25 AM, jon <j...@jonbondy.com> wrote:

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Pam

[jon]

Thank you for your kind words!

We thought hard about the tradeoff between putting all of the "exciting" stuff up front, and then having no one left behind to do the boring stuff (elections).  It is not clear how to prioritize and schedule the agenda items.  I think we came up with a reasonable compromise, but there is no way to justify our decisions precisely.

Jon

[N. Todd Pritsky]

Democracy is messy, full of compromise, and cannot please everyone at all times!