Minutes for Town Meeting Rules Committee

October 19, 2005

In attendance: Peter Burns, Bill Fonseca, Tom Florence, and Donna Utter

Meeting commenced at 7:05pm with Tom Florence as the chair. The minutes from 10/19/05 were approved and seconded by Bill Fonseca.

The participants reviewed and discussed issues form the 10/19/05 meeting as well as the following:

• Contact other towns and corresponding town clerks and moderators to have them visit and discuss town meeting rules. We would like to have them visit either 11/16 or 11/30.
• Discussed one-way entrance through the high school in order to better control out of town voters. If they enter from different hallways they can enter the auditorium easier.
• Discussed the group’s recommendations of not having day care facilities for children. We will try to get the message across to obtain babysitting plans prior to Town Meetings.
• Handling of non-voters. Discussion to keep non-voters out of the Auditorium and send then to a wired gymnasium, especially with an overflow crowd. They can still approach the Moderator and request to speak. Tom Florence called the Secretary of State’s office and was told that if Board members from out of Town want to sit in front amongst the voters, this should be written into the town by-laws.
• Time constraints for speakers. Recommendations were suggested limiting speakers on the floor to 3 minutes. It will still be in the best judgment of the Town Moderator to ensure speakers have a valid point. It was mentioned that there would no time constraints for presenters.
• Tom Florence has requested to put the current Town Meeting By-laws on the Town’s website. He called the Secretary of State’s office and they said that Town Meeting warrants could be posted on the website but recommended not to write into the by-laws.
• There was the question discussed regarding the function of the rules committee, specifically to re-write and change the existing by-laws.
• Update the by-laws with terminology pertaining to what majority is needed to pass an article, i.e., ½, 2/3, or 9/10.
• It was discussed that a deputy moderator for a variety of reasons would be beneficial to have at Town Meetings.
• The importance of starting each meeting on time was discussed to make sure the most number of articles could be addressed.
• Important to monitor the progress of a new sound system in the High School auditorium. We also discussed having two microphones in each row instead of one.

The next meeting was set for Wednesday, November 2, 2005 and will be kept on Wednesdays.

There was a motion to adjourn at 8:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas P. Florence

Town Clerk, Treasurer, Collector