Thankful for Town Meeting improvements
In addition to calling for no new business after 9:30 p.m., we should also table the ongoing discussion until the next night.
Kudos to the organizers of Town Meeting for a number of improvements, including the earlier start time and the inclusion of handouts inside the briefing booklet. The clickers worked well, and using a combination of paper ballots and the clickers made the meeting run efficiently.
For next year, in addition to calling for no new business after 9:30 p.m., we should also table the ongoing discussion until the next night. People don’t make good decisions when they are tired, and I suspect that Article 35 would have passed on that Tuesday night if we hadn’t had to stay so late. Many people had already left the meeting when the vote was finally called. Now we have to suffer bad cell service in Acton Center for another year.
Perhaps the creators of Article 35 and the substitute article could work together to come to a compromise and draft a new article that will pass instantly.
Thank you again to all the folks who worked so hard to make Town Meeting a success.
Ellie Garvey
Damon Street
