Three of the four Selectboards in southern Franklin County have returned to in-person meetings with hybrid aspects as the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the nation loosens, but town officials suspect some level on online engagement may be here to stay.
In Deerfield, Conway and Sunderland, meetings are currently a mix of town Selectboards, in-person audience members and a large screen in the room hosting remote participants on Zoom. Whately continues to host fully remote meetings.
Deerfield has led the charge in embracing hybrid meetings. The Selectboard voted at its June 22 meeting to spend $7,500 on audio and video equipment for the ease of conducting meetings with remote participation.
Deerfield Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel said the town’s investment and help from Frontier Community Access Television (FCAT) staff will allow town officials to hold hybrid meetings wherever they want, such as on the town common.
“We’ve invested quite a bit of money to continue to run Zoom meetings,” McDaniel said. “We’ve had great help from Kevin Murphy and FCAT.”
Still, McDaniel believes having people in the room talking face-to-face is great for everybody involved because people are more likely to say hurtful things on Zoom because of the disconnect of being behind a screen.
“It’s better for democracy,” McDaniel said. “In person, people can be civil and can learn from one another.”
McDaniel said hybrid meetings will be held through April 2022 under Gov. Charlie Baker’s order extending remote meeting laws, but he is hoping the town can continue running them beyond that because of increased attendance.
Conway Selectboard member Philip Kantor said the return has brought back the personal interactions and flow of conversation that are lost through the computer screen.
“It’s great in general. It leads to a kinder, gentler world,” Kantor said. “It’s easier to disagree without being disagreeable.”
He said in-person meetings are the “essence of small towns” and he is glad to be back. Kantor added there is “definitely a preference” for in-person attendance, but he hopes to keep hybrid meetings for now.
“It’s more convenient and we want to keep that capability,” Kantor said. “We have the Zoom subscription for a year anyway. … We’re lucky we have the technology.”
Sunderland Selectboard Chair Tom Fydenkevez said town residents have been asking to return to in-person meetings for a while.
The silver lining of the pandemic, he believes, was it taught the town to be more adaptable.
“We were forced to explore different ways to meet. … We always had a phone line for meetings, but it was more difficult,” Fydenkevez explained. “The video conferencing was very good.”
The second benefit of remote meetings is the convenience of them, which Fydenkevez said encourages people to attend.
“I hope Zooms don’t go away. We had great attendance at Zoom meetings,” Fydenkevez said. “To make towns work, you need participation.”
Of the four towns in southern Franklin County, only Whately is still hosting fully remote meetings. Selectboard member Fred Baron said the return date to in-person meetings has not been set yet, but he is hopeful to return to live meetings soon.
“I would certainly prefer them,” Baron said, “but remote meetings have worked perfectly fine.”
Whately’s next Selectboard meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14. Despite being unsure of when in-person meetings will return, Baron said online aspects will be present from now on.
“We will have the impact of online meetings even when we return in person,” Baron said. “There will be online elements there.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.