While recently attending a “Select Chat” at the Senior Center featuring Ben Sparrell, Select Board Chair, I spoke to Millie Kampersal, long-time Holliston resident, about the ease of accessing Select Board meetings.  She admitted that although she’d like to access some meetings, she didn’t know where to go for directions to do so.  This short conversation with Millie made me think that there might be others who would like the process described for them. 

The Holliston Reporter publishers have been fortunate to attend selected meetings of the town’s boards and committees during the isolating time of COVID from the comfort of our home.  Our attendance was possible through the Governor’s emergency accommodation to the Open Meeting Law that permitted public groups to hold remote meetings without a quorum gathered at a meeting location—like the Town Hall, or the High School Library. The question is—Do you know HOW to access these meetings?

What follows is one of many ways to access any live or recorded meetings for anyone with a computer and Internet access. 

Attending Live Meetings: (Dates and times of all meetings are posted at least 48-hours prior to the scheduled meeting.)

•  Access the Town’s website.  Click here or retype the address in your browser: https://www.townofholliston.us/

The Calendar of meetings is shown in the left-hand column (enlarged above). Meetings for the entire month appear. Dates that are underlined represent meeting dates.

• Click on the date of the meeting you plan to attend. In this example: February 13, 2023

• Click on the name of the Board / Committee meeting. In this case the Select Board.

• Click on the on the word Agenda (either line). Included in the Agenda will be a link to click and a password to enter when requested.

• When the meeting ends, Click the Leave button.

Viewing a Recorded Meeting: Missed a meeting?  No problem.  As they are fully recorded, you may access this recording at your leisure!  It generally takes 24 hours after the meeting for the recordings to become available to you. Let’s say you want to see the February Council on Aging meeting but you’re not sure of the date.

Near the top of the Town Home Page you will see a navy-blue horizontal bar on the page.  This strip is a menu bar.  Hover your cursor (the cursor is a visible and moving pointer—like an arrow or a pointing finger) over either “Departments” or “Boards and Committees” (whichever holds the group you seek). As your cursor hovers, choices will appear.  Move your cursor to the group you seek and click on the group name. 

• Find the calendar on the group’s website.
• Click on the underlined date of the meeting you would like to listen to or watch. (Calendar months may be changed forward and backward using the arrows next to the month name.)

• Then click in the dialogue box (it will open when you click on a calendar date).

• Click either blue link to access the recorded medium you prefer.

Would you like to print out these instructions?  Copy this article and paste it into a word document.  Now you may print it out or save it for future reference.

Welcome to the electronic world of town governance transparency!  I only wish I had thought to share these instructions with you—our readers—during those isolating days of COVID.  I am hopeful that the MA legislators will extend the Open Meeting Law accommodation that helps make the town’s meetings more transparent.  And many thanks to you, Millie, for being the catalyst to this article.