The Hubbardston Cultural Council met Tuesday, Aug. 21, and spent the meetingreviewing proposed local guidelines for the 2026 program year, including new language that prioritizes local venues and clarifies how projects will be judged against community priorities.

Council members focused on several edits submitted by Secretary Laura (identified in the meeting transcript as Laura). Members agreed to give priority to applications that have "secured a local venue that can accommodate the anticipated size of the audience," and to keep eligibility open to projects in Hubbardston and the surrounding area so that nearby towns are not automatically excluded.

The council also consolidated overlapping prioritization language. Members recommended replacing a sentence beginning "in addition to the criteria" with a single consolidated list of local priorities so that applicants and reviewers have one unified set of criteria. That consolidated list now reads as a single set of bullets that will appear on the townwebsite and the state filing.

Members discussed how to interpret "community support and involvement," with questions about whether that refers to attendance, volunteer help, or inferred interest from the survey results. The council agreed that community support could be demonstrated by the venue and by survey or outreach results, and that the guidelines should not be so granular as to exclude otherwise eligible projects.

The council edited a phrase regarding "ability to address the diverse cultural needs of a community or support diverse forms of cultural activities" to remove the word "underserved," opting instead for a shorter formulation: "ability to address the cultural needs of our community or support diverse forms of cultural activities." The intent, as discussed, is for the survey and community outreach to help identify which needs are not being met rather than the council predefining those groups.

A few editorial changes were made for clarity (for example, changing "event" to "program" in one place and simplifying duplicate bullet items). Members also proposed listing suggested local venues and their approximate capacities alongside the announcement of the grant round so applicants can better match proposed programming to an appropriate site.

The council emphasized that its local guidance must remain consistent with state HCC requirements; any locally posted guidance cannot conflict with the state pages. Members asked staff to ensure the town- and council-level text remain aligned on the state portal and the council's own site before filing.

The council did not finalize every detail during the meeting; members agreed to a final read-through and to submit the adopted local guidelines to the state by the councilsubmission deadline (discussed later in the meeting).