 Okay. All right. Oh, wait, we have an attendee, Steve. Let me allow him to come in. Do you want to let him in? Okay, good. Yep. Perfect. If you could just unmute, Steve. There you are. There he is. I guess I was using the wrong link. I don't know. I used the one from the email, but. Oh, okay. You're here now. It's okay. There we go. We were giving you a couple of minutes and there you are. I've already started recording the meeting. So we'll call this meeting to order. We have a quorum of the board of registrars, and I think what we're going to do first is just do, you know, call to order and out loud because we're on Zoom, out loud roll call. So Susan Auddeck, town clerk here. Jamie Wagner. Here. Stephen George. Here. Jackie Gardner. Here. And Amber Martin, assistant town clerk here. All right. That is who's present here today for this meeting for the board of registrars. And it is now 1007. Okay. And public comment is always our second thing on our agenda, but I don't see anybody here in the attendees list, so we have no public attending. So there is none. And then our third agenda item is to discuss the role of non-voting counselor liaisons and whether the board would like to have a liaison this year as we were asked. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share my screen. I have the attachment that the counselor sent us. Let me just do that. Screen one. Can everybody see it? Yeah. Yes. All right. Well, cooking with gas. Okay. All right. So how about I read this so that we can just refresh our, is that okay with everyone? Yep. Yeah. Okay. All right. So the council, town council rules of procedure has this section, counselors as non-voting liaisons. And the council may designate counselors as non-voting liaisons to multiple member bodies, the school committee and library trustees. The function of a liaison is to serve as a link between the council and the multiple member body to which they are assigned. They are there to observe, share information, answer questions to the degree that they can, and make sure that the council is kept apprised of the work of the body to which they are a liaison. They are not there to advocate or promote a particular policy or course of action. And then under this, it states that liaisons are not voting members of the body, liaisons shall identify themselves as liaisons prior to the first instance of speaking at each meeting. When recognized by the chair, liaisons may ask questions and make comments during discussion. And I just wanna stop at that point because it says when recognized by the chair, we already voted as a body on, I looked this up on January 9th, 2023 that no chair was needed for this group. So if we had a liaison, I don't know how we would have to work around that. Liaison shall not participate remotely. Liaison shall not comment during public comment. Liaison shall not express personal opinions when recognized by the chair to speak. Liaison shall not commit the council to a course of action and are not to speak on behalf of the council. Liaison shall sit where the public are seated. Liaison shall receive meeting postings, agendas, reports, and minutes from the other body. Liaisons are not required to attend all meetings of the other body, but should be familiar with the materials provided as above and maintain contact with the other body's chair. Liaisons shall report any of the other body's pending policy or budget recommendations to the full council in a timely manner. Not all town, multiple member bodies will have liaisons. The town council shall maintain a priority list of bodies most likely to propose measures to the council. The president shall send a list of all liaisons together with a copy of this rule to all town multiple member bodies, the school committee and library trustees after each annual reorganization. Bodies without a current liaison may ask the council to assign one subject to availability. And then lastly, councilor shall indicate their liaison preferences annually. Okay, so with all of that said, can I stop sharing this or do you want it to stay up? I'm all set with it. Okay. Okay. Good, Steve, no? Yeah, okay. No need. Okay, all right. Back to your full faces and not a little tiny thumbprints. All right, who wants to talk first? What do you think? Oh, well, I'll just jump in here for a few things. And I know that this is like a town charter, but is there like a job description describing the job duties that the person has to do? Because it seems kind of strange too that this person's supposed to be liaison, which to me means a communication link between the council and the board. But it seems like it's a one-way street that all the information is going to the council but nothing's coming back to the board. For example, this person could have like a list of issues or whatever it is, not let us know what they are and just report them to the council. So it seems like somewhere in there in the job duties it should be mentioned too that they were also to give the board a copy of the information that they are distributing to the council, seeing as the council's getting everything that we have. I don't know if that makes sense. So I think we have to go back and take it back to what does the board do? What is the board of registrars responsibilities? And basically meetings are called when the need arises. So like for a review of non-certified signatures for any state candidates, we would be called if that should happen. We would render any decisions on any matters referred to us, anything that might come before us like say somebody challenged a voter their address. We would have to meet and research and decide whether somebody was legitimately registered in that address. Recounts, as you know, recounts. If there's a recount call, we have to preside over the recounts for any ballot questions, anything like that. So the thing is, so I know what you're saying. So all of our information is going to the board but none's coming to us. And I think none would be coming to us because we're not under the boards. We are a state. Yeah. No, that part I do understand, but as far as like the requirements also, like whether or not to attend meetings, because that seems kind of shaky. I mean, as far as like they're not really required to attend the meetings and I don't know. But anyway, those are just the, shall we say the comments or the issues? Cause I personally, because a lot of what I'm saying that this is from the town charter. And this is, actually it's, sorry to jump in. It's from, it's the Amherst town council rules of procedure. That's where it's from. Okay. And that's what I'm saying. It's like a local thing. So as far as I'm concerned, what I'm mentioning also is like policy. I mean, because for example, this person as far as I'm concerned, I understand what their job to do that, but they could be sitting in on a council meeting and making notes and they may disagree or may or whatever it is and just report that incident or whatever it is back to the town council without giving us a copy of it is what I was kind of like wondering about. That's all. Cause again, to me, everything seems like it's a one way street. And I understand about all those other things that you had said, but again, and if they're not required to attend all the meetings, but they could pick up on something, they could have a personal axe to grind or whatever it is. And that might be the thing. I don't know, but inquiring minds would just, you know, curious. Well, my opinion is like, what would their function really be? Thank you. And that's why I'm talking about job duties that were listed as the job duties because what they're talking about is like the charter and what the chosen the charter, but it doesn't say what the, how that's being turned into a job, in other words. So there's no task or anything of that nature. I do have one small concern about it. You know, there are times when, for example, in the case of a referendum vote on something that council has decided, the council might have as a group a strong position, but there might be a vote of the town to validate that, to confirm it or to reject it. And in that case, you know, having a person from the council, even though I know they would be totally scrupulous and they would not try to influence it, the perception of the public might be that the council has a special kind of, you know, relationship with the board of registrars, whereas our job is to be totally non political and not take a stand. So even though I know they wouldn't do anything bad, it could be perceived as in some cases as not being necessary. And so since it's optional for that reason, I would say let's not do it. Well, again, it's an inquiring question that I have because to me, it seems like it isn't one way street because everything that we do is already out there. You know, as far as like, you know, through announcements and meetings and different things of that nature. And it's governed by MGL, right? Yeah, we're governed by MGL, but they're not. Correct, correct. And that's what I'm saying as far as like, and this is where the policy comes in, the town policy, the interpretation of, you know, whatever it is that they have written up is what I'm getting at. I mean, it's an inquiry in mind, and it means to say that anybody's being unscrupulous, but if everything is supposed to be on board, then why are you, you know, put that on board too? And I have the same thoughts too, where it's just kind of like everything is what we do. We have to stick by the letter of the state law and we're, you know, run off of what they say. So I feel like there's no real reason to have any other interference or just anybody else being there, taking up somebody else's time to be a part of that. I just don't feel like it's necessary, but I guess I'm on the same. Like, I guess I could go either way. Like, do I really care? Like, I mean, if somebody else is there and sitting in meetings and a part of the stuff because we have to do everything in the way that we have to do it, and that's it. Like that's where it ends. So it's like, I don't feel like there needs to be any sort of other like middle person because what we're going to do is what we're going to do. But at the same time, what we're going to do is what we're going to do. So it doesn't really matter if somebody else is there. I think it just kind of gums it up a little bit where it's just another body in the room or whatever. I don't know. But I just don't see why it's necessary either because it's it, you know, we're guided by how we have to look at things and do things. So I'm not sure that it's necessary to have somebody else there being in on it or whatever. Because I sort of see that position also as oversight, but it's not mandated under the law to have the oversight. Right. No, and I mean, the times that we meet that we have to recommend to the town council, you know, do we recommend in person early voting for a town election? That's one of the times that the board meets. But the thing is it's going to the town council already. So they're all going to, so it's not like it's going to get there any faster with somebody sitting in, you know, and then they have to meet twice as a council before they vote on things as well. So they don't even vote on at the time that it goes there the first time. They meet again on a second meeting and then they vote. So it's not like it's going to speed things along between us and the council. And I think that's the only time that we make a recommendation to the council is on in person early voting. Otherwise we don't really interact with the council. All the decisions are made within the body by state law. Yeah, I was a little bit confused too, as far as which council that they were talking about because also it could be like a subcommittee council or I'm not sure. Oh, you know, this is one of the members of the council. They have a lot of subcommittees and they have, so all the counselors in the beginning of their term say, I'd love to serve on the finance committee or I'd love to serve on the CDBG committee or what have you. And then they allocate, okay, we're gonna put so and such and so and such on that other committee. So it's a link to those other committees so they're a prize of what's going on within the committee but these are committees that meet all the time. Yeah, okay. And that's the difference between I think us and them. I hate to say that, but we're a really odd, different committee because we only meet as needed. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm a little worried about, well, not really worried but just curious about as far as like, well, what other things do they meet on? And this is what I'm talking about, how the information could get back to us. So, no other than that, it was like, you know, who were these people in other words? And even if they had something to tell us, they can't tell us how to do anything because we're already, yeah, we have our own rules, our state laws. Yeah. Well, to be honest, I don't really don't see this job having any power. It's pretty much like, I won't say an investigative, whatever, but like the eyes and ears or either like a watchdog or oversight or something of that nature. And that's what I was just sort of like looking for, you know, in the job duties to the actual explanation of what they do. Because to me, a liaison pretty much like facilitates the communication between the groups as opposed to just gathering information. This person just seems like that they're gathering information. Yeah. Anyone? Anyone? Okay. That makes sense. It sounds like we're all on the same page here. I'm going to make this short and sweet. Do we want to come? Do we want to, who wants to make a motion on a vote? Does that, are we at that point yet? Or do you want to discuss? Yeah, I'll move that we politely decline into the awkward. I'll second that. Okay. Okay. You know, I'll third it. Okay. All right. Well, okay. So motions made by Steve to decline the offer seconded by Jamie, all in favor. Aye. Aye. It has to be roll call vote. Roll call, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So roll call vote. So Susan Audette. Aye. Jamie Wagner. Aye. Steve George. Aye. Jackie Gardner. Aye. Okay. It's unanimous. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. And then the last thing we have is any topics not anticipated within 48 hours before the meeting. Do we have anything else we want to talk about? I love the shoulder shrug thing in the high. Okay. I hear none. Okay. So that's none. All right. So we have, we're going to approve today's meeting minutes today like we've been doing. All right. So I think give us a minute because Amber was taking the minutes and actually Amber you've got them in electronic. Are you all set with them? Yeah. Yeah, just about. Okay. Do you want to read them out loud? I can just share my screen. Okay. Share your screen. Perfect. Just one second. Can you tell I'm old school? I'm just going to read them out loud. I know. One thing up here. Yeah. I was going to say when I did the template I didn't take out on number three, you know all the wording. So we just changed it around. Yeah. And I will share my screen. Can you share the screen as co-host? If you can't, I could do it. If you just save it and close it, I could open it. There we go. Perfect. There we go. All right. Oh, it says Susan, I didn't read the minutes. Yeah, I'll change that. Yeah, I'll just say. Amber Martin's shared. And if there's any changes or anything that needs to be clarified, just please let me know. Under point three. Do we want to add anything in there? That's the big one. Amber, can you add where it says Susan described what the functions are under point three, voter registration, then before the, et cetera can you put in, yep, right there. Render any decision on any matter referred to them. Perfect, thank you. Or you can still say et cetera, et cetera's fine. Oh, you have and yeah, okay, that's fine, that's fine. Are we all done reading? Are we still reading? I'm set. You're all set? Any changes by anyone besides that? No? Mm-hmm. Can I make a motion to accept the minutes from today's meeting as presented by Amber to us? Do we have a second? I'll second it. All right, then let us vote on today's, agreeing on today's minutes. All in favor, Susan Audet, aye. Jacquie Gardner, Jamie Wagner. Aye. Steve George. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. All right, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. Do we have a second? I'll second that too. Well, all in favor, Susan Audet, aye. Jackie Gardner. Aye. Jamie Wagner. Aye. Steve George. Aye. All right, meeting adjourned, 1027. Okay, excellent. All right, thank you everybody. Aye. Okay, I know, we're off. Okay, till the next time. So, thank you. Bye now. Bye. Yep, I know, I gotta end this. Bye. Okay, bye Jackie.