Remote meeting styles evolve with good and bad experiences, technology

 

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The recent move by Green Mountain Unified School District Board to prohibit comment from those who attend its meetings by Zoom – including board members – prompts the question of where other boards stand on the issue of remote vs. in-person meetings and what goes into making those decisions.

At the Aug. 17 meeting, GM Board chair Deb Brown explained the change as a return to the way meetings were held before the Covid pandemic emergency, which allowed for remote meetings. But rather than eliminating Zoom altogether, she suggested that continuing with Zoom was “still very important…to keep our meetings transparent and accessible.”

Aside from a few notable exceptions – such as the meetings around the issues of school restructuring and branding – board meetings are usually pretty tame and not particularly well-attended either in-person or remotely. But that changed this spring with contentious meetings around the issues of school branding and elementary school restructuring culminating in May with a raucous meeting at Cavendish. 

In that instance, Cavendish resident Steve Perani was the only board member attending in person while the rest of the board was on Zoom —  along with dozens of Cavendish residents who were upset about several actions the board had taken.

Currently the Two Rivers SU and Ludlow Mount Holly School boards continue to use Zoom with participation by the public and members attending remotely.

Differing experiences with and attitudes toward remote access

The Andover Select Board has been discussing going to a live stream format with Okemo Valley TV, but while the technology and other arrangements have not been made yet, the board did eliminate remote access at its July 10 meeting because members have been upset by the comments left in the chat function of Zoom.

At that board’s Aug. 14 meeting, Lenore Szuchman — who serves on the ZBA/Planning Commission that  continues to use Zoom — said, “We no longer have that great democracy of Zoom … that’s kind of a mystery to me because it’s not exactly in the minutes what’s going on.” Szuchman was asking the board to go back to Zoom as well as lead the way in bringing the community together.

But board member Susan Leader said that it was “like Zoom was getting merged into social media.” And fellow member Melissa Gates-Perry said Zoom chat “was turning ‘Facebooky.’ ”

Town Clerk Jeanette Haight says that she has been working on finding a simple way to live stream the meetings, but that working with FEMA has been taking up a lot of her time recently.

Okemo TV has been live-streaming public meetings in its service area but it does not have the equipment or personnel to manage more than one meeting at a time. Okemo TV Executive Director Patrick Cody said one meeting involves bringing a lot of equipment and having two employees on hand.

Meetings can be live-streamed remotely from the studio, but that requires a town or school to invest in a powerful, dedicated computer, one or more robotic video cameras, controllers, microphones, speakers and other equipment for the meeting room. Cody thinks the cost would run $5,000 to $10,000. He also notes that it’s a specialized installation that not every AV contractor can do. But once that has been set up, a public access station can live-stream meetings on its channels, on Youtube and even over Zoom.

And as the demands of covering multiple meetings every month with greater technical capabilities increase, public access channels are feeling the pinch. Channels that were created to be supported by cable television as it built out decades ago are feeling the pinch as cable subscriptions and revenue decline.

Aside from the earliest days of the pandemic when its board met entirely remotely, Cavendish has not used Zoom for select board meetings. Former Town Manager Brendan McNamara said that it was not for a lack of interest in remote meetings, but a lack of infrastructure. Current Town Manager Rick Chambers said he is writing an application to the town’s ARPA committee for funding such infrastructure. The grant application is due at the end of September.

Chester worked with SAPA-TV in Springfield to set up live-streaming and Zoom access with cameras that can be operated by a producer back at the studio. It’s not without problems and Town Manager Julie Hance says that she looked into a full-on bells-and-whistles setup for the second floor of Town Hall, but it was too expensive. Instead she is looking into a wireless system that eliminates the jumble of cords for microphones and video.

As for public participation on Zoom, Hance says that the Chester meetings have been pretty civil. “We’ve seen a lot of benefits from (Zoom) and haven’t had meetings with disruptive people.”

One such benefit will happen at the Wednesday, Sept. 6 meeting when two candidates who have applied to be on the new Housing Commission but cannot be there in person for the board’s interview will be participating remotely.

Accessibility, safety and convenience are also factors

Grafton used Zoom as an accessibility tool to allow the board to use the second floor meeting room above the town offices, said former Town Administrator Bill Kearns, who also noted that while a new elevator eliminates the need for Zoom, the town is continuing to use it with remote participation. Kearns also said the town is using an Owl camera which gives a full room view of the meeting and focuses on whoever is speaking.

Londonderry Town Administrator Shane O’Keefe told The Telegraph that the town’s select board has arranged with GNAT-TV to live-stream its meetings on its cable system and also on a Youtube channel. O’Keefe told The Telegraph that Londonderry doesn’t have someone to tend to technical issues that often arise with Zoom. He added that the board also is concerned that if Zoom fails, it would have to cancel a meeting, which would risk valuable time as they manage recent flood damage.

McNamara is now the town manager in Ludlow, whose board meetings are conducted on Zoom and recorded by Okemo TV. McNamara likes remote meetings, telling The Telegraph that it gives him access to many more meetings that he might not be able to attend physically.

And while some restrictions are being placed on remote access, the Town of Windham has gone all in on Zoom, holding all of its select board meetings remotely and with public participation. According to board chair Kord Scott the same people come to the meetings and it’s convenient for everyone. “It’s worked well for us so we continued using it.” Scott said he expects they will use Zoom only meetings as long as the state allows it.

Scott also noted there are opportunities for members of the public to speak during a public comment period as well after the board has discussed agenda items.

“There’s no intention of shutting down public comment – that’s the point of public meetings,” said Scott.

McNamara sees more, rather than less, participation with remote meetings as good. “People aren’t involved enough now, why would you stifle that?” said McNamara.