Outdoor Annual Town Meeting Presentation Guidelines and FAQ
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2021 Annual Town Meeting will be held outdoors, where environmental conditions (sun, heat, flying insects, etc) may impact physical voter comfort over an extended period. In order to assure as efficient a Town Meeting process as possible, Town Meeting Article Presentations will be pre-recorded by SudburyTV and available on the Town’s website. While not required to do so, all presenters are strongly encouraged to pre-record their presentation.
PLEASE NOTE: Pre-recorded presentations will not be shown at Town Meeting. Attendees are asked to view them in advance. However, Article Proponents who provide a recording will be invited to introduce their article and answer questions live at Town Meeting.
Sign-Up to Record a Presentation
Recorded presentations by the proponent of an article must conform to the usual standards of live presentations at Town Meeting. Only the proponent (or their designee) may speak (no other speakers on any video included within the presentation), and each presentation must be 10 minutes or less in duration. Recorded presentations by Town Meeting members who are not proponents of the article on which they wish to present must conform to the same standards, but are limited to 5 minutes in duration. As is the tradition on the floor of Town Meeting, there is no time limit for the pre-recorded Select Board’s “State of the Town” or Finance Committee’s “State of the Budget” addresses.
Time Limits
Article Presenter
- 10-minute limit
- This is submitted by the Article Initiator (a member of the Committee, Department or Petitioner who submitted or sponsored the article for Town Meeting)
- No more than one speaker may be on the recording
Article Debater
- 5-minute limit
- This is submitted by any voter who wishes to speak on an article.
- Please state your full name and address at the start of the recording
- No more than one speaker may be on the recording
FAQ
- Why are presenters and debaters being asked to pre-record their Town Meeting presentations?
- Are all Town Meeting presentations being pre-recorded?
- Is it mandatory for Article Presentations to be pre-recorded?
- If the presentation is pre-recorded, will that be used for the article at Town Meeting?
- What will the presentation file (PowerPoint or PDF) be used for?
- If pre-recorded, will a presenter have the opportunity to make a live presentation at town meeting?
- Is there a time limit for the pre-recorded presentation?
- May those opposing an article pre-record a rebuttal/opposition?
1. Why are presenters and debaters being asked to pre-record their Town Meeting presentations?
As there are 57 articles on the warrant, Article presenters are strongly encouraged to forego live presentations at this outdoor Annual Town Meeting in order to keep the meeting as short as possible to mitigate the public health risks inherent in gathering a large group of people during the pandemic, as well as the risks of meeting outside exposed to the elements and insect borne diseases.
2. Are all Town Meeting presentations being pre-recorded?
We are NOT requiring all presentations to be pre-recorded, but rather strongly URGING presenters to do so in order to make outdoor Town Meeting as efficient as possible and to mitigate various risks. The proponent/petitioner of every article is being asked to utilize the pre-recording option.
3. Is it mandatory for Article Presentations to be pre-recorded?
No. While it is not mandatory, all presenters are strongly encouraged to utilize this method. (Please see Question 1 for details.)
4. If the presentation is pre-recorded, will that be used for the article at Town Meeting?
No. The pre-recorded presentations will be available on the Town Website and SudburyTV for residents to view, but will not be played during Town Meeting. The Town will publicize the need for voters to watch the presentations in advance of the meeting.
The presentations are not intended to be played in their entirety at Town Meeting. However, presenters will be able to refer to slides of their presentation to answer questions. Pre-recorded presenters are asked to provide a copy of their PowerPoint presentation to the IT department in order to expedite this process.
5. What will the presentation file (PowerPoint or PDF) be used for?
The presentation will be available to view on the Town website in the Town Meeting Articles information section. Example: The budget presentations for Town Meeting 2019 – Article 3 are located here on the Town’s website: https://sudbury.ma.us/townmeeting/tmarticles/?twn_mtng=TM-2019&article=TMWA-1713
In addition, providing the presentation in advance expedites the setup process if the presentation or slides from the presentation need to be used at Town Meeting.
6. If pre-recorded, will a presenter have the opportunity to make a live presentation at town meeting?
Under Town bylaws, article proponents/petitioners have the right to make a presentation at Town Meeting and may still do so if they so choose. However, all presenters are strongly encouraged to pre-record presentations for voters to view in advance of Town Meeting. (Please see Question 1 for details.) Those who pre-record presentations will have the opportunity to briefly introduce their article live at Town Meeting and answer questions live.
7. Is there a time limit for the pre-recorded presentation?
Article Presenters have a 10-minute recording limit and Article Debaters have a 5-minute recording limit. See Time Limits for details.
8. May those opposing an article pre-record a rebuttal/opposition?
Yes. This would be considered an Article Debater. Per Town Meeting procedure, they will be limited to 5 minutes. See Time Limits for details.
The signup page to pre-record your presentation with SudburyTV can be found at: https://sudbury.ma.us/tmpresentationvirtual/
Please complete the standard Town Meeting Presentation form if you will be presenting live at Town Meeting: https://sudbury.ma.us/tmpresentation/