Town Meeting has been a vibrant part of our culture for more than four hundred years. This course will provide an opportunity to learn about and discuss local governance. It will feature participation by several Town Moderators, who will explain the challenges faced by towns of different sizes and traditions. As we celebrate the 250th Anniversaries of everything associated with the War of Independence, it is important to commemorate the vital role played by local gatherings. The Stockbridge Declaration (of an economic boycott), for example, was one of the earliest acts of open rebellion in 1774 against the increasingly restrictive actions of the Mother Country. The Sheffield Resolves captured the thinking of the timesand helped influence the creation of the Massachusetts Constitution. Its wording is reflected in the Declaration of Independence and figured in the debates at the Constitutional Convention. Boston Town Meetings were famously involved in fomenting resistance to British Colonial rule. The Town Meeting form of government was carried to these shores from England, and its origins go back at least as far as the time of Alfred the Great, more than one thousand years ago.

Today, in Massachusetts, Town Meeting remains a thriving form of town government, with a bright future. More than 300 of the 351 municipalities in our Commonwealth conduct regular Town Meetings. 262 towns operate with an open town meeting form of government, where all registered voters can participate in legislative matters. Additionally, 41 towns utilize a representative town meeting system, where voters elect representatives to vote on town business. Many ideas are being implemented to increase participation, including remote access, childcare, and other means of giving more voters an opportunity to have their voices heard. While Town Meetings in various forms are conducted throughout New England, the institution, for better or worse, has not been adopted in most of the rest of our country. This course will discuss all these topics (and more).