The Brattleboro Selectboard got off to a late start then quickly put their meeting on hold for technical reasons. Forty-five minutes later, the meeting was postponed until Thursday to give BCTV and Facebook time to fix themselves.
Those interested in discussing EMS and downtown safety will have to wait.
Preliminaries
They start late. (While we wait I can tell you the kittens are now 5 months old and are like mini-hurricanes. They’ve carried both rocks and hot peppers, among other things, around the house as toys.)
Did I mention they start late? (While we continue to wait, I’ll say there is a nice sunset getting started on at 6:20 pm after a hot day.)
6:22!
Chair Ian Goodnow – no remarks.
Town Manager John Potter – Mention passing of Jane Southworth and Stu Thurber. Thanks for their years of service. Peter Lynch had comments about Harvey and Mike retiring from DPW. They’ve been there since the 80’s and they can diagnose and repair anything, and build most anything. And, it is Library card sign-up month. Free for Brattleboro folks.
Ian – come over into the Hanna Cosman room to make room. (Ian and Peter go talk to the public about seating and bring some more chairs in.)
Franz Reichsman – I am willing to step forward for potential ridicule….
Patrick Moreland – no sound on BCTV… (says Fish’s wife Vicki who is watching.)
Ian – 2 minute break while we figure this out.
BCTV – recording stopped. Picture stopped. Audio stopped.
Preliminaries 2.0
Everything back and recording back in progress. Testing. 15 seconds of chattering about chattering. And Tim Wessel.
Ian – I appreciate your patience.
Franz – is this a glitch?
Ian – yes.
Daniel Quipp – better than zoom bombing.
Liz McLoughlin – that was the worst.
Daniel – thanks to Peter’s wife for pointing this out.
Peter – she can’t hear you.
Ian – hoo boy.
Franz – we can chatter again.
Ian – zoom isn’t the issue.
Ian – I’m just going to wait for BCTV.
Moreland – Facebook and BCTV have lousy sound.
Daniel – how was the first day of school. Did he have a good time? That’s nice. I saw the picture. How big is the class?
Liz – my friend who teaches there says no class bigger than 18.
Daniel – it would be a shame to just adjourn.
(They discuss tennis matches.)
Moreland – BCTV and facebook don’t sound good. Room and zoom are good.
Three board members are wandering around the room. Liz and Franz sit with the town manager. This is rather odd. Town manager gets up to stretch. Liz leaves. Franz is still sitting and discussing old Brattleboro with Potter. Ian is talking with Tim Wessel. It’s 6:40. What to do?
Liz – very unusual.
(CG – they could go on, record the working zoom feed, then post that later…)
Ian – we’re still on break. BCTV is trying to bypass something. We’ll hear in a few minutes. Important to wait and see. Don’t eat anyone to miss out. If it doesn’t work we’ll discuss amongst the board.
Wessel has a nice plaid summer shirt on, which we see when he wanders in from of the camera. Ian and Daniel huddle in a corner. Liz talks with the Town Manager.
Daniel – How many ways are we broadcasting? We have people in the room, tv, facebook, and zoom…. Classic stalling tactic by the Brattleboro selectboard.
Ian checks his watch. Franz discusses elephants. Dick Degray goes up to their table and talks things over with Potter.
It’s 6:47. Board members still wandering about. Cor is on the scene for BCTV.
(This is comically terrible – CG)
Ian – we will reconvene. I understand they can’t get the TV to work including facebook live stream of the meeting. It’s my opinion that we shouldn’t move ahead if we can’t do this, especially for a meeting like this, and we lost lot of time. I suggest we recess this meeting and warn it again for ASAP, which would probably be Thursday night. I know members who only access us through BCTV. Some can’t hear us now.
Franz – will a rebroadcast on BCTV have the sound available if we continue now? (yes)
Cor – people can access it through zoom so it can be watched live and we can record it and upload it, but …
Franz – people watching on TV wouldn’t get sound tonight, but could watch it later. Since FB and TV is not interactive, they are missing out on what happened rather than participating, like zoom and people here. I favor going ahead.
Ian – people can call in while watching TV.
Daniel – people watching on TV and could get on zoom or come on down.
Liz – I support Ian’s proposal.
Peter – we have people here who want to be heard and I agree with Franz that the interactive elements are working. I’m inclined to go with Franz.
Ian – I make a motion to recess… all in favor? I feel all of this discussion isn’t available to the public.
Daniel – so this is a large number of people in the room which is important. To have it in two days, maybe some can’t attend. We have professional guests tonight. Let’s go ahead with it and some people won’t watch it live but recordings will be available.
Peter – they will stream the zoom address on BCTV.
Ian – people in the community do not access zoom and may want to call in. It’s not sufficient… you potentially disenfranchise people.
Liz – this is too important to have the meeting flawed in any way.
Peter – all fair points.
Ian – we could recess for an hour, but holding everyone in suspense is not good.
Peter – is that OK Cor?
Cor – we are willing to work on it. If you give us an hour…
Peter – 30 minutes
Franz – perfect meeting isn’t possible – so let’s go ahead with this.
Liz – 30 minutes…
Degray – I agree with you Mr. Chair – to have people not able to hear for a few days then want to ask a question, who do they call? People will get back here for the meeting. It’s a highly charged issue and look how many participants we have who can’t hear… many are older and can’t use zoom. I’d be one of those people if I was home. I want them to hear what you are saying. Warn this meeting for Thursday. Guests can come back, attend on zoom, or leave a statement. Too big and important for just people here to be able to hear.
Ian – I really think we can warn this for Thursday and everything will be working for everyone in the community dos I urge you to recess.
Liz – the right thing to do.
Ian – a motion to recess til Thursday.
passes 3-2 (Peter and Franz against)
Ian – really sorry about this. See you Thursday.
Another post-meeting meeting?
I’ve now been told by more than one person that three board members went out after the failed meeting to the American Legion.