Charter commission endorses student observers, agrees to gender‑neutral language and flags document version controls

At the June 3 meeting commissioners agreed to support participation by high‑school students under a VOICE program that would place one student observer with each board or commission chair; the students may ask questions, take notes, or perform assigned research tasks.

The commission also approved a motion to include a single generic paragraph in the charter’s definitions section declaring that terms are intended to be gender neutral rather than manually changing every pronoun throughout the document. The chair said the paragraph would be placed in the definitions section (article 9 / section 91).

Members discussed practical drafting logistics: who maintains the working Word document, version control, and meeting FOI constraints. Nick, the town attorney, said the town clerk maintains official hard copies and the e‑code site hosts an editable electronic version. Commissioners agreed to request editable access and consider using the town’s SharePoint or a controlled cloud repository for collaborative drafting while avoiding deliberations outside public meetings. One commissioner recommended designating a commission member as the custodian of the working draft.

Next steps: staff will confirm which office hosts the editable charter file and provide access; commissioners will schedule invitations for the agricultural commission, TPZ and board of finance to appear at future meetings and plan for focused agenda items with invited witnesses.