Currently seeking volunteers!
Click here for the online interest form. Or you may send a letter of interest to Executive Assistant Gretchen Gallimore at ggallimore@carlislema.gov
Charter
The Select Board establishes the Town’s Town Meeting Study Committee to investigate and recommend strategies to heighten citizen engagement in the Town Meeting process and improve Town Meeting.
Focuses of the committee include:
- Development and review of the Warrant Article submission process
- Public understanding and engagement before Town Meeting
- Logistics of Town Meeting, including scheduling, childcare, accessibility, etc.
- Conduct and process of Town Meeting, including debate rules, voting, remote access, etc.
- Alternatives to Town Meeting
The Town Meeting Study Committee should consider Town Meeting as a whole as well as major components, including but not limited to the processes involved with approvals of the Town Budget, the Carlisle Public Schools and Concord-Carlisle High School budgets, zoning bylaws, and Community Preservation Act projects. The Committee is responsible for collating feedback from stakeholders in the Town Meeting process, including the Moderator, Town Clerk, Town Administrator, town boards and committees, and residents. The Committee should, in particular, seek feedback from boards and committees with a recurring role in Town Meeting, including but not limited to the Select Board and Finance Committee, the School Committee (school budget), Planning Board (zoning), and the Community Preservation Committee, Conservation Commission, Affordable Housing Trust, and Recreation Commission (Community Preservation Act). Feedback will be solicited through formal and informal means. The Committee will investigate practices and experience in other towns as needed. Ideas and suggestions may be made by the Committee to relevant actors or stakeholders at any time for their consideration of implementation. The intention of the Committee is to encourage experimentation and rapid implementation.
The Town Meeting Study Committee will submit a final report to the Select Board which shall include evaluation of any interim experiments or changes already implemented. summary of research and feedback, and final recommendations.