Franklin Matters: Franklin TV: Open Meetings

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Franklin TV: Open Meetings

If You Build it, They Will Meet.

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 05/04/2025

It was quite busy in the Municipal Building last week. They scheduled seven open televised/streamed/Zoomed meetings. A new record. Why? Because they could.

MONDAY    (LAST WEEK’S MEETINGS)
7:00 pm    Finance Committee CHAMBERS
7:00 pm    Planning Board TRAINING Rm Floor 3
TUESDAY
7:00 pm    School Committee CHAMBERS
7:00 pm    Finance Committee TRAINING Rm Floor 3
WEDNESDAY
7:00 pm    Town Council CHAMBERS
THURSDAY
7:00 pm    Finance Committee CHAMBERS
7:00 pm    Conservation Commission TRAINING Rm Floor 3

Looking back to 2023 when we began our planning for the Master Plan meetings (Yes, there really was a plan for covering the Master Plan. It sounds like something the Department of Redundancy Department would dream up. )

The decision at that time was simply a matter of logistics and cost. We were looking at having to bring what was perhaps 250-300 pounds of video gear – three cameras and tripods, sixteen microphones, and all the monitoring, switching and control equipment to support a live event up to the third floor for each meeting. Then there’s setup and testing before each meeting and the teardown afterward.

Considering the labor involved, added wear-and-tear on traveling equipment, and the testing and occasional troubleshooting that must happen before each event –

Umm – Perhaps we can install something permanent. A second TV control facility in the Training Room. Once it’s in place we’ll have an alternate means for covering the meetings if our main facility should suffer a significant failure.

So, build we did. A leap of faith (and funding). After comparing the build cost to the anticipated cost of not building, we’ve more than recouped our investment.

And – as always –