David Karr and I have worked to make remote participation available to our Town Meeting. May we share some of what we have gleaned from that going-on-10-year effort as you respond to the Town Meeting Study Committee’s survey now released?
Some of us — such as those with children at home or some of us oldsters — are able to be part of our citizen legislature only from home. While Massachusetts legislation will be required to enable this, Concord can prepare now.
Centrally, we aim simply to extend the experience in the room to those remote. For deliberation and debate of warrant articles, which is the main work of Town Meeting, those who are remote appear visually and speak, both to those in the room and to others remote. For the vote, when we raise our voting slips, everyone is included equally without requiring clickers in the gym or auditorium.
There are, not surprisingly, many facets involved to get there. For a full picture, you can find an extended FAQ here: bit.ly/concord_tm_remote.
When we think about it, our main purpose with debate and then the vote is to resolve the differences among us on the various questions. To do that, of course, we bring our differences out amicably. We function well as a town when we expect to hear from our neighbors, and we also share those differences toward a resolution.
May we invite you to join us in supporting remote participation and also in saying “no, thank you” to so-called clickers, an anonymous vote which would hide differences — the opposite of a healthy community?
David Allen
Heaths Bridge Road
