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Council Meetings Leap into Cyberspace

September 05, 2008

WINDHAM (Sep 5): Next week, one small click for computer users will mean one giant leap into cyberspace for the Windham Town Council. 

For the first time ever, the Sept. 9 council meeting will not only be broadcast over the local cable access channel but also streamed live online through a link on the town Web site, www.windhamweb.com.

The new software, supplied through a contract with Granicus, a Florida-based streaming media firm, will cost the town around $14,000 for the first year and around $12,000 annually in the following years, said Town Manager Tony Plante.

The Granicus system will change the way council meetings are watched and recorded, and will give residents another way to keep track of how their town government is doing business, Plante said. It will also give Windham residents who do not receive public access Channel 7 an opportunity to view meetings live, he said.

"We have all these different ways for getting information out and providing access to the government process," said Plante. "This was just another way to broaden that."

The Granicus system does more than just stream the meeting video, Plante said. The software allows town officials to attach to the video the meeting agenda and other pertinent documents so that the viewer can follow along easily at home.

Also, once the meeting is over, Town Clerk Linda Morrell will archive the video on the town Web site, complete with any additional documents that were introduced during the meeting. Time stamps entered into the system by Morrell each time a new agenda item comes up will allow those viewing archived video to skip ahead, Morrell said.

"They can just click on it and go right to that part," she said. "If you're only interested in two articles, you're good to go."

The ease and convenience of online video will spur greater involvement by citizens in town government, said Carol Waig, chairwoman of the Town Council. VHS videos of the meetings are often in high demand at the Windham Public Library, Waig said, and by the time people get a copy, the issue in question may have already passed.

Also, she said, residents are often interested in only one agenda item, and don't want to waste their time sitting through a meeting for one short segment.

"No one wants to watch an entire meeting to see the one piece they want," Waig said.

The system will also save time for Morrell, who said it can take up to eight days to create detailed minutes of long council meetings, a duty that pulls her away from other aspects of her job. For $75 per hour of video, the meetings recorded by the Granicus software can be sent away for word-for-word transcription.

"It should save time writing minutes," said Plante. "It should increase the quality of the minutes. It should save (Morrell) a ton of time listening to meetings."

One of the reasons the Town Council supported the implementation of the Granicus software was the need for detailed minutes, Waig said. Councilors wanted their conversations written verbatim, she said.

"That's asking too much unless you have a court reporter in the room," she said.

The ability to transcribe the meetings will not preclude the town from having to hire a court reporter during hearings like those currently underway in the Town Council's review of Peter Busque's quarry application. In those cases which may end up scrutinized by the courts, it is preferable to have an objective third party in the room to record what is being said, Plante said.

The transcripts of the meetings can be inserted and synchronized with the video to give hearing-impaired residents an easier way to follow the proceedings, Plante said.

At first, only Town Council meetings and workshops will be streamed online, though Plante said the plan is to eventually extend the system to include other municipal meetings, such as those held by the Planning Board.

"We wanted to start with the basics," he said.

Ben Bragdon

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