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Concord committee narrows survey wording, schedules Oct. 22 public forum and Select Board check-in Dec. 2
Summary
The Town of Concord Town Meeting Study Committee advanced a revised survey (moving from v7 toward v8), assigned staff to build it in SurveyMonkey, scheduled a public forum for Oct. 22 and a Select Board check-in Dec. 2, and set priorities focused on shortening town meeting and family accommodations.
The Town of Concord Town Meeting Study Committee on Sept. 10 focused its next work on refining a public survey and planning a community forum ahead of a Dec. 2 report to the Select Board.
Chair Eric Moore said the committee’s immediate goal is to finalize the survey text (currently labeled version 7) and hand a near-final version to staff for construction and testing. Shannon agreed to build the survey in SurveyMonkey and Donna will serve as backup to access data while Shannon is offline. The committee agreed to move to a version 8 after editorial changes and to circulate drafts to members before the next meeting.
“Shannon, I can start building the survey within the next week,” Shannon said, adding that the SurveyMonkey URL is customizable and that she would work one-on-one with committee members to test the instrument.
The committee also picked Oct. 22 for a public forum to gather inbound feedback, tentatively at the Townhouse hearing room, and accepted an invitation to present to the League of Women Voters on Dec. 6. Moore said the committee aims to present recommendations to the Select Board on Dec. 2. Moore asked members to coordinate about packet deadlines and to consider alternate forum locations (Harvey Wheeler or library) if acoustics or hours make the hearing room unsuitable.
Members prioritized discussion topics for the fall: first, solutions intended to shorten the overall length of town meeting (consent calendar adjustments, speaker norms, ending motions); second, family accommodations and accessibility; and third, operational items such as a consolidated briefing book that would pair each warrant article with recommendations and motions. Keith Bergman argued a consolidated briefing book would make town meeting easier to follow; he described a model used by another town that places the article, the finance committee report, the select board recommendation and the motion consecutively in a single document.
The committee also set editorial assignments: Carmen Reese volunteered to rework the language of two electronic-voting questions to ensure neutrality; Katie Bresnick will prepare a near-final draft of the first half of the survey for Shannon to build. The group agreed on a two-week timeline to produce materials for the next meeting.
The meeting ended with an open public comment and Moore adjourned at 8:46 p.m., with the committee scheduled to meet again in two weeks.
