[Massplanners] Hybrid Public Meetings

[Katrina O'leary]

Hi.

I'm preparing for our first "in person" meeting in over a year.  Even if legislation passes allowing an extension of remote meetings, we had to include a location for our June 24 public hearings in the required legal advertisements 3 weeks before the meeting and could not "wait and see" if the extension legislation would become law before that time.  However, I have decided to add a Zoom link to the agenda for the meeting because as I read the Open Meeting Law, it is only the "public body" that has to be "in person."  This means that members of the public can choose to go to the meeting "in person" or log into the meeting via Zoom.

Is anyone else trying out a hybrid version of their public meetings?  I plan to have each member use the chromebooks we have stored at the meeting site for them and I'll set up a chromebook at a podium facing the public so that if anyone from the public speaks, they will stand in front of the podium and be seen/heard on Zoom.  Hopefully, the "in person" public participants will be able to hear members of the public that are participating remotely via Zoom, too.  I'm hesitant to try and connect my laptop to the projector as I'll be sharing via Zoom, etc.  I'm fairly tech savvy but I'm afraid I'm going to struggle with all the new technology.

Is there a better way to arrange a hybrid meeting?  I don't have much tech support other than the crew that usually video records our meetings - which may become obsolete if Zoom recordings are made every meeting.


Katrina O'Leary, AICP
Middleton Town Planner
195 North Main Street     Middleton, MA   01949     PH: (978)777-8917
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