Why Do Voters Need to Attend Town Meeting?

By Moderator Cathy Cordes

The Town Meeting form of government “speaks for the belief that a society is safer and freer when the bulk of its citizens understand the programs and goals that their government has chosen and when they have achieved this understanding because these programs and goals have been honestly discussed in public.” Quote from Town Meeting Time: A Handbook of Parliamentary Law, published by the Massachusetts Moderators Association 2001

When we are removed from the decision-making process it is easy to feel that we have no control of the how and why of government.  Attending TM gives us the opportunity to vote on local expenditures – for schools, roads, police, water/sewer, fire, etc., and to decide how we want to regulate our town through bylaws.  We get to know our elected and appointed officials and town employees and they get to know us through our participation.

“Freedom in the concrete, freedom as it is experienced in daily life, is the experience of having a hand in the determining of issues that touch the individual closely and intimately.” From Rockefeller Panel Report on American Democracy: The Power of the Democratic Idea

Editor’s Note: This is Part V of a six-part series of articles to prepare residents, new and experienced alike, for Town Meeting on Monday, November 6.

• Click this link to read the series’ Introduction – Everything You Ever Needed to Know about Bedford Town Meeting (but Were Afraid to Ask!)
• Click this link to read Part I – What Town Meeting IS and What it IS NOT
• Click this link to read Part II – What is the Warrant? Why is the Motion Made at Town Meeting Sometimes Different
• Click this link to read Part III – Who can attend Town Meeting? Who can vote? Who can speak?
• Click this link to read Part IV – What to Think About Before You Speak at Town Meeting
• Click this link to read Part V — Where Can I Read the Rules and Laws That Govern Town Meeting

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