Select Board may turn off the camera during workshops

Select Board workshop meetings are supposed to be informal affairs where they can discuss policies and plan future agendas.

The problem is, the business of the town keeps getting in the way.

Last week, the top of the workshop meeting was spent with the Planning Department, an item that normally would be part of a regular meeting.

“Workshops should be just for us: planning, strategies, policies,” argued Select Board member Ray Mead later in the meeting.

The rest of the board agreed Mead had a point. Doreen DeFazio, recalling a workshop the board held at the Grafton Lions Club last year, suggested they could try for another outdoor workshop.

“We could sit in a circle and have a discussion,” she said.

Mathew Often suggested the best way to make the workshops more collegial would be a simple change: removing video broadcasts and recordings of the workshop meetings.

“It becomes more of a board hanging out,” he said.

Select Board workshops are still public meetings, which anyone may attend. Prior to upgrades to equipment in Conference Room A at the Municipal Center, most workshops weren’t filmed at all. During COVID-19, many Grafton boards that previously were not recorded had their Zoom meetings posted on YouTube by GCTV for the first time.

Select Board Vice Chair Colleen Roy argued that adding video is useful to those who might not attend and would eliminate a valuable resource. She said she often re-watches the meetings to insure she hasn’t missed anything.

“I’d rather just continue to be documenting them,” she said.

Often suggested that the workshops could be documented with better transcription in the meeting minutes.

“I just know how I feel on camera and off camera,” Often said. “I strongly feel it’s a component of it.”

Editor’s note: This story was reported via a recording posted to YouTube.

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