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When Winchester News launched, we did several stories on how certain departments and entities in the community worked. One of those was Town Meeting.
Believe it or not, there are still some folks in town who aren’t aware that Winchester has a representative Town Meeting or that they can still be involved in the running of their town.
We go back to one of our first stories from our president, Tara Hughes, from 2023 explaining just what representative Town Meeting is.
For those interested in being a Town Meeting member, you can still pick up your papers at the Town Clerk. Click here for more information on how to run.
If you want to be involved with Town Meeting, but don’t know where to start, you can reach out to the Town Meeting Members Association to find out who represents you and what the issues are.
In the meantime, we invite residents to email us at editor@winchesternews.org with any ideas or suggestions for future articles for our DID YOU KNOW series of stories.
And now....check out our primer on Representative Town Meeting:
What do you know about Representative Town Meeting?
Did you know that the town of Winchester has a Representative Town Meeting form of government? It can also be referred to as a Limited Town Meeting.
Town Meeting is the legislative branch of municipal government that enacts laws, passes budgets and authorizes spending.
In a Representative Town Meeting, members are elected by voters from election districts or precincts. In an Open Town Meeting all registered voters may attend, speak and vote (no absentee voting allowed).
The use of Town Meeting as a form of government is particularly unique to New England.
In Winchester, there are 8 precincts and each precinct has 24 elected members, for a total of 192 Town Meeting Members.
Town Meeting is held twice yearly, in the spring and fall.
The Town Moderator, elected by the voters, presides over the business and conduct of the meeting.
Operating procedures and rules are dictated by statute, charter, by-law and/or vote of Town Meeting and in the absence of such by Roberts’ Rules of Parliamentary Practice.
The Town Clerk reports the actions of each session and takes the official minutes.
A Warrant is mailed out to all residents containing the Warrant Articles to be discussed and voted on at Town Meeting. Only those Articles contained in the Warrant will be voted on and only elected members may vote.
Residents may attend and may be allowed to speak, but they cannot vote on the articles.
To learn more, visit this guide to Town Meeting by the town.
Tara Hughes is the president of the Winchester News Group. She is also a former Town Meeting member from Precinct 1.
