[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Special Meeting Computer and Technology Group

[Michael Alexander]

[From Mike Alexander]
I was able to cut & paste this:

New technology helps Select Board move towards hybrid meetings
Ross CristantielloWicked Local
Slowly but surely, life is returning to normal for Lexington and those that lead it. Town staff are back working fully in-person, and town buildings will be open to the public once again in mid-July. The next decision that must be made revolves around the Select Board, and when the five-member group will convene for an in-person meeting for the first time since spring 2020.  

The specifics have yet to be ironed out. But headway was made during the Select Board’s last meeting on a plan to slowly make the meetings hybrid. This would mean that some board members and town staff would be in-person, and other board members would call in remotely. Members of the public would still only be able to participate remotely at first.

How would it work?

Lexington recently purchased a device known as a Meeting Owl. This machine features a 360-degree camera, a microphone, and a speaker to mimic normal meetings in a hybrid scenario. It has been tested in the Select Board meeting already, Town Manager Jim Malloy said. But more practice is needed, Director of Information Technology Tim Goncalves said during the last Select Board meeting, which was held remotely. The town is purchasing two more Meeting Owls, he added.  
Your stories live here.Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it.Create Account
Select Board member Doug Lucente recommended a “pre-hybrid” meeting, where he and a few colleagues gather in-person while interacting with other Board members and the public remotely. He added that the School Committee has found success doing something similar in recent months.  

“I think we need to push that envelope so that we can take hold of the technology, and then we can take the next step of doing hybrid with the public... hopefully we can back to in-person at some point,” Lucente said.  

In late July, the Massachusetts Select Board Association is hosting a session with representatives from a number of nearby communities who have moved to hybrid Select Board meetings. Funding from the CARES Act has been used to purchase the necessary equipment in these towns, Select Board Chair Jill Hai said.  

Hesitation remains about in-person meetings

Not all Lexington Select Board members feel comfortable returning in-person at this time, however. Joe Pato said he hopes to resume normal meetings by the fall, and suggested using the summer to practice these hybrid models.  

“I think we should use the summer to be firmly in place,” Pato said. “I’m unlikely to be very comfortable being in the Select Board meeting room before September.” 

Mark Sandeen expressed a similar sentiment, bringing up the fact the Select Board meeting room and others are relatively small. Sandeen added that he would prefer meeting in a larger room, like Batten Hall. This large space in the Cary Memorial Building would allow the Select Board and staff members to socially distance themselves better than the smaller meeting room.  

While COVID rates have plummeted in Massachusetts, Sandeen expressed concern about the highly contagious Delta variant. This mutation of COVID-19 has prompted the World Health Organization to recently recommend that everyone, including vaccinated people, to wear masks indoors where the varie.  

“I’m not comfortable,” Sandeen said. “I’m not doing this based on scientific data but... The parker room and the Select Board room are some of the rooms that at least feel to me to have more ventilation challenges. They also have space challenges, as both are small rooms.” 




On Thursday, July 8, 2021, 5:28 PM, palbin24 at yahoo.com <palbin24 at yahoo.com> wrote:

I sent a link earlier today 

Peter

On Jul 8, 2021, at 4:37 PM, jjrudy1 <jjrudy1 at comcast.net> wrote:



Can you send a pdf to those who do not subscribe 


Sent from Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------From: George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com> Date: 7/8/21 12:44 PM (GMT-05:00) To: 'jjrudy1' <jjrudy1 at comcast.net>, 'Michael Alexander' <mna.ma at yahoo.com>, 'Harry Forsdick' <harry at forsdick.com> Cc: 'Lex Computer Group' <lctg at lists.toku.us> Subject: RE: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Special Meeting Computer and Technology Group 

This week's Lexington Minuteman has a good article about what the Town is doing to evaluate Hybrid meetings. Worth reading.

“We Are Not Alone”

George


 

===============================================
::The Lexington Computer and Technology Group Mailing List::
Reply goes to sender only; Reply All to send to list.
Send to the list: LCTG at lists.toku.us      Message archives: http://lists.toku.us/private.cgi/lctg-toku.us
To subscribe: email lctg-subscribe at toku.us  To unsubscribe: email lctg-unsubscribe at toku.us
Future and Past meeting information: http://LCTG.toku.us
List information: http://lists.toku.us/listinfo.cgi/lctg-toku.us
This message was sent to palbin24 at yahoo.com.
Set your list options: http://lists.toku.us/options.cgi/lctg-toku.us/palbin24@yahoo.com



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.toku.us/pipermail/lctg-toku.us/attachments/20210709/08e4e93c/attachment.html>