[Adopted as Art. II of the General Bylaws]
[Amended 4-6-2010 ATM by Art. 6]
The Warrant for each Annual Town Meeting shall be closed January 31 preceding the Annual Town Meeting in each year. No article, including articles consisting of resolutions, shall be taken up at Town Meeting unless it appears in the printed warrant. The preceding sentence shall not apply to resolutions memorializing townspeople and Town employees. Except as hereinafter specified, the Warrant for any Special Town Meeting shall be closed at least 25 days prior to the scheduled date of the meeting; provided, further, that there shall be at least 10 days between the call of any Special Town Meeting and the closing of the Warrant therefor. This section shall not apply to any Special Town Meeting held for the purpose of considering the approval or disapproval of an amount of debt authorized by a regional district school committee, in accordance with MGL c. 71, § 16(d), or held for an emergency purpose.
Except for the election of Town officers, no meeting shall be legal unless a quorum is present, and a quorum shall consist of 100 registered voters; once a quorum has been assembled, the continued existence of a quorum shall be presumed until a count of the voters present, which shall be taken upon the call of seven or more registered voters, establishes that a quorum is not present.
The Moderator shall, at the time and place appointed, call the meeting to order, and forthwith proceed to read the call for the meeting, and the return of the person or persons who served it.
The powers and duties of the presiding officer, not especially provided for by law or by these bylaws, shall be determined by the rules and practices contained in the most recent edition of Town Meeting Time, so far as they are adapted to the conditions and powers of the Town.
The Moderator while presiding over a Town Meeting shall not participate in the discussion of any matter under consideration of the said Town meeting, but they may upon request answer all questions relating to procedure in Town meetings as may be submitted to them and to correct any errors of procedure which may occur.
Every person speaking shall address the Chair standing and uncovered. No person not a voter shall address the meeting without first obtaining consent of the meeting.
When an article comes before any session of the Town Meeting, the proponent(s) shall be recognized first for the purpose of making a motion under the article and then for making a presentation in support thereof, if the motion is seconded. If the proponent is an elected or appointed board or committee within which there is a minority position in opposition to the article, a spokesperson for that position will be recognized next. Thereafter, the Finance Committee shall be recognized if it wishes to speak on the article, followed by the Planning Board and/or any other Board or Committee which is required by law to report on the article.
No person shall speak more than twice upon any question, except to correct an error or make an explanation until all others who have not spoken upon the question and desire to do so shall have an opportunity. The initial presentation by the proponent(s) of an article may not exceed 10 minutes in length, and no other speech may exceed five minutes in length unless consent is given by a majority of those present and voting.
When a question is under debate, motions may be received to adjourn, to lay the matter on the table, to move the previous question, to postpone indefinitely, to postpone to a time certain, to commit, and to amend; which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are herein enumerated, and the first three shall be decided without debate, provided that the Moderator need not allow a vote on a motion for the previous question unless, in their opinion, there has been a reasonable opportunity for debate on the question.
[Amended 10-23-2023 STM by Art. 2]
A motion to reconsider a matter previously acted upon at the same session shall require an affirmative vote of 2/3 of those voters present and voting. A motion to reconsider a matter after adjournment of the session at which it was acted upon shall require a unanimous vote of those present and voting unless written notice of an intention to move reconsideration of the matter, signed by 15 voters who attended that session, is given to the Town Clerk on or before 12:00 noon of the next weekday (legal holidays excluded) following the session at which the matter for which reconsideration is sought was acted upon. The Town Clerk shall publish notice of such intention by advertisement or by posting in their office or elsewhere in the Town Hall. The Moderator shall at the start of the next session announce the matter on which reconsideration is sought and shall further announce that the motion for reconsideration shall be the first order of business at the next succeeding session of the Town Meeting unless all business is completed prior to 10:30 p.m. of the same session, in which case the motion for reconsideration shall be the last item of business that evening. When the matter to be reconsidered comes before the meeting, the Moderator shall recognize for the motion the person who gave notice to the Town Clerk, unless they shall defer to another. All discussion on the motion must be confined exclusively to the merits or demerits of reconsideration. Passage of a motion to reconsider shall require an affirmative vote of 2/3 of those present and voting. If notice of reconsideration is given on more than one matter, they shall be taken up in the order in which they were submitted to the Town Clerk.
Every vote, resolution, amendment, order or other action of the Town Meeting which instructs or requests any Town inhabitant, official, committee or board to study, propose, prepare, draft, present, file, petition for or otherwise initiate new legislation by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the Congress of the United States shall specify in terms whether or not such inhabitant, official, committee or board is required to present a draft of such legislation to the Town Meeting for approval before submitting it to said General Court or Congress.
If a legal error in an action of the Town Meeting, attested to by the Town Counsel, is discovered, the Moderator shall, when presented with such error, recognize the Town Counsel for the purpose of identifying the error and explaining its effect. Following the explanation of the Town Counsel, the Moderator shall request a motion by the Select Board to correct the error. Such motion shall not be subject to the rules of reconsideration and shall require a simple majority unless otherwise mandated by state law or any portion of these bylaws. Action under such motion shall be limited to correction of the error.
If the Town Accountant or, in their absence, the Assistant Town Accountant discovers that information presented to the Town Meeting contains an accounting error, they shall request to be recognized for the purpose of identifying the error and explaining its effect. The Moderator shall recognize the Town Accountant for such purpose. Following the explanation, the Moderator shall request a motion by the Select Board to correct the error. Such motion shall not be subject to the rules of reconsideration and shall require a simple majority unless otherwise mandated. Any voter or Town official who discovers such an accounting error shall notify the Town Accountant, who, if they concur, shall proceed as described above.
The Moderator may determine, without a count, that a two-thirds, four-fifths, or nine-tenths vote has been achieved, which determination shall satisfy the provisions of MGL c. 39, § 15, or any other law requiring a two-thirds, four-fifths, or nine-tenths vote, unless a count is requested in conformance with the procedural requirements set forth in Town Meeting Time.
All persons speaking on any article may be recognized by the Moderator after the presentation by the proponent(s) of the article, if any, but no speaker may be recognized in accordance with any prearranged speaking order. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event there is no speaker identified as the proponent, the Moderator may recognize speakers after the motion on the floor has been seconded.
[Added 5-2-2022 ATM by Art. 25]
A. 
Voting. When a question is put, the sense of the meeting shall be determined by a vote held using voice votes, raised hands, a placard, an electronic voting system or other voting indicia; the preference would be to use an electronic voting system, if the same is available, for action on main motions and any motion requiring more than a majority vote. For purposes of this bylaw, the term "electronic voting technology" shall mean any electronic voting system approved by the Town Clerk and the Town Moderator which allows for the counting of votes using a wireless or mobile device, including handheld clickers, mobile phone application, or the like, as it may be decided from time to time.
B. 
Counting: electronic voting. If the count is taken using electronic voting technology, the Moderator shall declare the vote and provide an opportunity for any voter to notify the Town Moderator that they believe their vote was recorded in error; if so, the Moderator shall direct that the record be corrected by the Town Clerk. If seven or more voters doubt the vote, the Town Moderator may request another vote using the handheld technology or otherwise set the manner of voting. If Town Meeting approves a motion for reconsideration, the motion at issue immediately prior to the vote will be back before the voters, and the electronic voting system shall be used to record and tabulate the votes taken on the main motion.
C. 
Counting: other methods. If such electronic voting equipment is unavailable, the Town Moderator shall notify the Town Meeting as to what manner of voting will be used and, unless 20 people stand in opposition, such method shall be implemented. If 20 voters do stand, then the Moderator's recommendation is pending before the meeting, subject to amendment like any other motion. If the Moderator is unable to decide the vote or if the declaration by the Moderator is immediately questioned by 10 or more voters rising in their places, the Moderator shall then direct that a count be taken, whether by counting raised hands, raised placards or other indicia of vote, or by secret ballot or otherwise, as determined by the Moderator in the Moderator's sole discretion.