 All right, so this is a meeting of the Board of Registration for Amherst. It's September 27th, 2021, 2.33 p.m. And pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so in the following manner. By accessing via Zoom, ID is 856-7517-9144. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. Okay, and I think that's all we need to say. So the posted agenda starts with we're here to see if we can set some rules and some guidelines for the Board. So the first discussion or first topic is discussion of any regulations or rules of procedure that the Board may want to establish. Well, I've sort of picked out some stuff in a couple of places. One was like the appointed committee handbook, and there are some guidelines on page eight as far as like how the meeting should be set up, so I don't know if people had a chance like really just to sort of like go through those kinds of things just to make sure that we're all on the same page. Sue, can you share that so we can see it directly or Jackie, can you share that? Unfortunately, I'm not the best techie and they just upgraded this computer and a butt chair about some of this stuff. Yeah, and this is just being said to me for the first time, so let me see if I can find an appointed committee handbook. Yeah, because I really haven't, you know, like discussed it was just like one of these things where I just sort of like read stuff over and I'm not sure exactly what our starting point would be because in some respects I thought maybe these were the types of things that we were going to be discussing. Let me see if I can find an appointed committee handbook. Kind of be on the website. No, this will take me some time. So why don't you guys talk a little bit about anything else while I'm looking this up because this isn't what comes from our office, comes from the town manager's office. Okay. Okay. All right, we'll find it. Those would be like, and then also too, as far as like the duties of the chair, they were like in the same guide, 3.2. So I thought that these two things could be sort of like our writing type thing. And then like on the last page, and I thought that it was good on the handbook, was a nice page as far as like the sample of the committee minutes. So you know, it'd be nice just to have like a standardized policy on how we're going about doing that. And I just found it. So, okay. Can you see it? Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yay. All right. So page eight, you said. Yeah. Page eight, four, three, when it talks about the journal guidelines, as far as like I'm setting up with the, the, our Robert's rule of parliamentary. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That right there. And I think that these first three paragraphs are like applicable. As far as just so that we're aware of, you know, some of our duties and responsibilities are. Yeah. No. Thanks for reminding me of that. It seems pretty normal and procedural. So yeah. Yeah. No surprises. It's just that when I just want to make sure that we're again all on the same page as far as like what we're looking at, what we're doing. Okay. Comments. Jamie, are you still reading? No. I think that, I mean, it all kind of makes sense. Yeah. I think the standard kind of thing. Great. Then also, I just wanted to point out because there was a, in some respects, one of the meetings on people talking about the town clerk and there is participation, but there is a town of Amherst committee charge in the committee charge says voting members to include where possible the town clerk of Amherst is to be a member. Four members of the committees must consist of two registered Democrats and two Republicans. I just want to make sure that the people on the same page as far as like Sue can be here. Oh, of course. And she's a voting member. That's in the guidelines. Yes. Exactly. And that's when I, again, I'm making sure we're all on the same page. I'm looking at the same. Oh, okay. But you haven't got to the chair yet, so we're going to get there. Okay. No. I don't have time while we had a little, while we were reading. Okay. All right. And then the next part is, let's see, to look at the chair duties on three two from pages five and six. Right. Okay. Yeah. That might take a little bit time to, time to read just to make sure, yeah, again, all on the same page. Nope. Appreciate it. I read it before. So. Cool. It doesn't include that the town clerk should be the chair. And again, this is not personal towards Sue. Sue and I are working on another committee together. And you know, there is a chair from that committee. And Sue was the, the lays on it in that capacity. So and it seems to be a well functioning committee. Correct. And you know, I want to say when we had all of our meetings back April, May, maybe June. And as you know, I'm, I'm newly elected or newly appointed clerk as of February. I know I've been in this office for almost 16 years, but I've never been directly Jamie's laughing. It's something I've never been the person to be the liaison with the board of registrar. So this was all new to me. So with all of the, you know, the meetings that we've had, and I've had a chance to look through all of the folders for the board of registrar's, I see that in the past, all prior clerks, the way they sign off on the minutes is clerk, a board of registrar's. So the clerk, yeah, yeah. So that seems to be, you know, a member of the board of registrar's, but not the chair. I would never expect to be the chair, but definitely the clerk to the board of registrar's because I'm, I'm the one that's contacting you when things come up to let you know that, okay, you need to meet, you need to do this, you know, so really absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So no, so that, that became blatantly clear through this whole process is the clerk's role with the board and any titles and things like that. So I appreciate that, Sue, you know, providing some of that history. And again, this isn't personal. You, you know, have been doing this job more and longer than a lot of folks I know. So that's not the, the issue. It's that we as the board of registrar's have a role and responsibility, you know, to represent the voters and to keep things in my, and this is my opinion and that's why I'm discussing it during the public discussion part of this, of course. And to be on record is that it helps to have these clear roles and responsibilities. So that when there is a moment of tension and dispute, you know, it won't be questioned in terms of whose authority or who's doing what. So I just feel having a chair from one of us three would provide that clarity. I also wanted to let you know last Thursday I was at a town clerk conference. So Michelle Tassenari, our elections, you know, head of elections was there, you know, a lot of the city and town clerks were there. I got a chance to ask people, what do your board of registrars do? Just to get an idea, and it's very interesting, but I did find out that Michelle does do some kind of training for board of registrar's, which I'm going to, I'm going to look into. But I can tell you the most of the answers from other city and town clerks where we meet three times a year and that's it. They do this, they do that, they do that and that's it. And it's really, I know when you were interviewing for the position, you know, when you submitted your CAFs and sat with the town manager and myself and I think Jim Pistrang and Paul said, so Sue, can you tell the member, you know, tell, tell whoever what the board does? And I pretty much said not much because it's really a kind of a standby role. So that's just something I really would love to have Michelle Tassenari's take on so you can understand. I know the law says one thing, but in reality it's really another thing entirely. So I would love to, I'm going to look into that and see when she has some time or even if she's got a PowerPoint presentation would be very helpful. And from my reading of the state bylaws, there is some leeway. So, you know, not all the towns in Massachusetts handle it the same way, but I hear you in general and through tradition, there is a limited role. My concern, as always, is about the voters and we have a very active, you know, group here in town, very active groups who are very politically involved. And you know, again, it's not about whose side are you on or what have you, it's about providing transparency and clarity. And I feel if we are able to facilitate that, then if possible, we can create some middle ground where the board of registrars has a role in doing so. Because actually, in some respects, there's a couple of things I wanted to address on that in regards to like if you look at the officers, they do have additional officers and I know like if people wanted to like try and fill those positions, as far as like the vice chair and secretary courting and that kind of thing, you go further down in this officers bunch here. Because again, as the chair does, and then it talks about like a vice chair, secretary clerk, rotating secretary treasurer, then there's, you know, there's more titles than there are people, but you know, you might think about, you know, for example, having a vice chair in case of someone sick or whatever, or, you know, having a secretary or that kind of stuff. Because these are also to me things that we should be thinking about too, not only just the chair, and then they have like the duties that they do too. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Well, it seems to me, well, a lot, some of that does not apply to us because we have to have a quorum in order to meet first of all. So some of you may have to take on if you wanted to have different titles, have a couple of titles each. And again, it's, it's up to our discretion when just as you mentioned, Jackie earlier about looking at the protocols for meetings and making some decisions as Sue opened the meeting with and how the meeting should be run. So it sounds like it's up to our discretion. Obviously, we can't fill all these titles or else we'd have duplicate roles. And I don't, unless you can explain to me, Sue, why we would need a treasure on the board of registrars, that's one that we can already discount and eliminate. Yeah. And then also there's, as they sound that commercial wait, there's more, but there's also a couple more titles down there that we probably don't need either. No, because this is the appointed committee handbook. So this is, you know, the board is kind of special. Yeah. But I didn't know like if anybody was interested in like the vice chair or either assigned somebody to be the secretary, that's the concerns that I was thinking about. Again, something that we can talk about so that we'll know where we stand. Well, the secretary's been the clerk slash clerk has been the town clerk, as I had stated earlier, because that person's taking the minutes, unless one of you wants to take the minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Usually nobody wants to do that. I'm happy to do that. Okay. Okay. Our minutes are generally fairly, you know, straightforward and easy. Yeah. And then, well, they did have like a template on the back of the handbook. So the last page where, as far as like for a minute, and I thought that that was a nice template. Oh, that's, yeah, that's our standard format for doing minutes. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We're already following that. Okay. Yeah. I just want to make sure that we're all in the same page. And then also there is some additional stuff. It's in the open meeting laws, but I think that what we looked at is sufficient. But in section 22 on page 31, they have like a whole big, so we say expansion part on it, but that would be in the open. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One should take me not too long. Let's see here. Silly. Convert my Adobe open meeting law guide into word. I'm mistaken. Now it's not letting the X out. Stop. Escape. Let's try that again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Share screen. Let's see. Can everyone see it now? Oh, wait a minute. All right. Now, can you see it? Yes. Okay. What page were you on? 31. 31. Okay. The minutes section 22. Yeah. Well, there's two. It's like a, like a translation part. And that's that, that first part. Yeah. That's it. That's it. That's it. Section 22. Yeah. That's it right here. Yeah. That's it. That's just more expensive as far as like, shall we say the do's and the don'ts. As far as like for the minutes. Reporting them and all that kind of stuff. Well, to let you know, as of today, all, all three of you are 100% compliant with your open meeting law guide receipt. I'm sorry. All three of you are 100% compliant with your open meeting law guide receipt, your online training, and your summary page. Yay. Yay. This is, this should be old hat. Yes. So was there a particular area on here, Jackie, that you felt we should pay more attention to? So this is just an expensive, um, um, uh, read through just to be aware of where to find these to just, you know, later on, because again, I went through everything just to see what was like, shall we say the highlighted events, but we didn't skip on and go move, move forward as far as I'm concerned. That's what, you know, if you're, you know, as long as you're aware of where it is, I'm good with it. I can stop sharing this. I'm okay with it. Like I said, I had read them and I just wanted to highlight areas. So under the discussion of any rules or regulations or rules of procedure that the board may want to establish, you just would like to point out that in the appointed committee handbook, page eight and page five, and then this section on minutes of open meeting law. Right. Are there any other things like, um, I mean, we're the board of registrars. We're not a really big formal group. And I mean, you know, some committees will address the chair before they're allowed to speak. I mean, do we want to set things up like that? Once we have a chair. Raise our hands. Because in that, in the, uh, going back to the other one, it does talk about like, if there's small, um, small groups that you can like pretty much just not do the Robert's rules things, but if you as long as you have like your own methodology in place and I think as long as the, the chair has like a, you know, certain, um, methodology because, um, um, because one of the things that I did was I did find like, um, like some cheap quote unquote cheat sheets and, uh, I don't know if you can see this, but it's like a grid. And to me this is sort of like overly complicated for, for our purposes, but, but it's nice, but it's nice to, um, well for me, and this is how my mind works is pretty much to see what happens in certain types of case you know, so, um, that's what I like about that. But I mean, as far as like, um, you know, making the motions point of privilege and those, those kinds of things out, you know, I don't think we need to go that deep into it. I thought I would just throw that out as far as like, um, getting some background on us, how we're actually going to function. I think basic Robert rules of order are, uh, important in, in terms of, uh, folks taking their turns, but also when we have public comment, um, and there's discussion, it helps to keep things, uh, clean and clear. Um, but yes, there is, there, there are whole books written on Robert rules of order. And, um, I don't think we need to, you know, from my opinion, again, from my opinion, uh, most of these committees don't pay attention to the minutia, unless it is needed in a very chaotic circumstances. Um, and then we can maybe ask that Robert rules of order be instituted. Um, but you know, basic Robert rules of order with the chair calling on folks, um, including the public. I, I see nothing wrong with that. We have to take, um, uh, a roll call vote, you know, for anything. Um, because our names have to be attached to that vote. Um, I think that's important and necessary for public record. Yeah, some of that stuff is included in the minutes. Um, as far as, um, what you're referring to, as far as like emotions and that kind of thing. But again, I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. There are things out there that we have to look at to be cognizant of. But because the only time to meet Robert rules that we really would need it, um, would be if you had a big meeting. And so far we really haven't had a, had a, had a big meeting. Well, I think last, um, over the summer that, uh, using Robert rules of order, um, kept things, uh, clear so that folks could have their opinions aired, particularly the public and, uh, the attending lawyers, uh, uh, advising on behalf of the town. Mm hmm. Okay. All right. Do we want our, have we, do we have anything else to say on this topic? I don't know. We're going to go to the, um, next one signature stamp authorization at time of swearing into office. So I added that time of swearing into office because as you know, um, quite a few years ago, the process was changed. If you look back through the old, uh, registrar's minutes, there was a meeting in July every year of the board at that time after everybody was reappointed and they would just give the town clerk staff permission to use signature stamps. Um, but somewhere, I think around 2017, 18, uh, that got changed to the authorization on a piece of paper, which you all signed it on. It clearly states that, you know, you give permission to use your signature stamp. So it was, it was moved at that time. So I just, but I want to have it clear that on this meeting of the board just acknowledges that they did sign an authorization form at the time of reappointment or appointment and, um, gives the town clerk staff permission to use their stamp. So yes. And I'd like to open up that discussion, um, to have it go on public record. Um, because, you know, and looking at the Massachusetts, um, general laws, and I don't know if you could bring that up, but I'd be happy to bring it up under, um, part one, title eight, chapter 53, section seven. Um, yeah. So you want me to bring it up? Yes, please. Yeah. I have it exerted, but I can also bring it up one moment. I think I've taken out the whole thing. Let's see. One. I just exerted it, but I think it'll be helpful to see the whole book. Oh, where am I here? One moment. Oh, I haven't shared anything yet. Hold up. Let me, and now my computer's running very slow. It's coming up now. It's just taking its time. What chapter was that again? So, um, chapter 53 here, I can now share went to, so it's part one, title eight, which is there chapter 53, and then section seven. Okay. I'm on the same, um, explanation of certification of signatures, which I had sent to you to everybody. Yeah. The board of registrar's and election commissions from Secretary Commonwealth office. So that's what they're quoting. Okay. Right. So, you know, one of, one of the things that I felt is that maybe we could, you know, cause of what happened last time, those, those moments will come up again, you know, um, that maybe there is a middle ground because this seems open here under each nomination. Let me get to that part. Each nomination paper shall be marked with the date and time. I had exerted it and now to find it. There it goes. Okay. So here, um, and then it says the registrar shall place next to, well, I'll, I'll just read the whole thing or y'all can read it. But what I'm paying attention to is the registrar shall place next to each name, not check symbols designated by the state secretary, indicating the reason that name was disqualified. The registrar's shall certify a number of names that are required to make a nomination increased by two fists. So they're including the registrar's within, meaning the board of registrar's, um, within this description. And, you know, the, for the purpose, what I'm looking at for the purposes of the section, a registered voter, uh, signing their name to a nomination paper. You know, for instance, inserts and it talks about inserts a middle name or initial in or omits a middle name or initial from, and this is in there. His name is registered, shall be deemed to have signed his name substantially as registered. I know personally that this is very, um, this is a very iffy area and arbitrary to some extent it could be looked at because my husband's name repeatedly, um, he's not the only one, but I know it personally as evidence. My husband's name keeps getting disqualified. And on the voter rolls, there is a junior and my son, it's a mill car e-shabazz. And my husband, it's a mill car shabazz. And so the reason keeps changing why his signature is disqualified. Now we've been told it has to have a senior or a junior. We were told previously that it was illegible. And, you know, I on some level, I'm thinking, you know, he can't be the only one because I know this is not personal and he wouldn't be singled out. Um, but that there has to be this kind of, uh, you know, looking at these signatures and having the board of registrars in certain cases perhaps come in and be trained to also qualify signatures when this has repeatedly happened or there is some conflict within the town. Because otherwise we are just, you know, sitting outside of this whole process and we are not just being used as a rubber stamp, the board of registrars, but we are being used as a validation, right, to simply override anything having to do with the qualification of these signatures. You know, so again, it's not personal, not saying that, you know, those in the town clerk's office aren't doing their job, but these signatures, it's all personalized in the sense that everyone has a different signature. You may sign it different on one day than the next. Um, there are several, uh, stipulations within the state certification of signatures where, you know, some of it is like, yeah, you can leave off a letter. So, I think it's different on the local level and perhaps trying to be very, very careful in what they are approving, which I respect, but here we have three boards, uh, board of registrars in this role. Why not utilize us with training to come in in special cases and make those determinations? May I say something here, too, in regards to what you're talking about? Uh-huh. Go to, uh, 950 CMR and look at 5503 and standards. It talks about exactly the stuff that you're talking about. Yes. That's how they make the determination. Okay. Uh-huh. All right. As far as they talk about, uh... Right. And that's what I'm talking about, Jackie. What I'm talking about is that, yes, that is what is in the state, uh, law in terms of this is how you make the determination. And what I'm saying is on the local level, and I'm sure Amherst is not, you know, uh, uh, any different than any other town, with sometimes there are... It's arbitrary. It's like, you know, I don't want to call it guesswork, but these are signatures that are made by people and sometimes they differ from one election to the next and having the town clerk's office, uh, with one or including the assistant town clerk, be the final say when we were brought in and appointed as the board of registrars, with some capacity to... With training, with some capacity to look at these signatures and help make that determination when it is difficult or when there is something such as what happened with the petition, um, a few months ago. Okay. Do you like to speak? Uh-huh. So, um, when nomination forms and petitions come in, there are seasons for them, um, we'll be doing things daily on these forms and people pick them back up again daily. So I'm trying to figure out the logistics of having one of you coming in daily to go over anything that we have certified because there always are things in question. It's not just a special case. Every single, you know, you'll know if you look, if you've looked at them, yeah. I have looked at them and that's why I saw like my husband's signature once again. Yes. I spoke with him as a counter. Uh-huh. And he understood. And, you know, when somebody, Emile Carr, East Shabazz and Emile Carr, Shabazz, now Emile Carr, East Shabazz, yes, he's differentiating himself. But if we can also certify without a middle initial, how do we know, you know, that, that's that person without a date of birth? It's just there are too many things where it's iffy. You don't know when you're looking at a name against a name on the voter registration system that that's the person that signed. Because you don't have that person. Absolutely. And I'm in agreement with you, Sue. And that's, that's what I'm saying. I think it, in cases where it is iffy, particularly if it's a petition where this is something where the whole town is involved, bringing in the board of registrars in that capacity, I think will help add transparency. So would you only propose it for town petitions and not for state petitions or nominations? No, I have a few questions. And what I'd like to do is perhaps postpone this and ask for guidance from the Secretary of State, because these are my possible questions, for instance. Can the registrars opt to do the certification of signatures themselves rather than delegating the job to the town clerk? And this is just, you know, an open, you know, I want to open up that possibility first off in discussion with the Secretary of State too. If the registrars opted to do the certification process themselves, how would they be granted access to the databases needed to do the certification? And would the Secretary of State provide training on how to use those databases? So, you know, these things have to be kind of rectified or settled in my mind in order for us to even, you know, say this is how it's going to go for another year. Three, are there any towns where the registrars do the certification of signatures themselves rather than delegating that authority to the town clerk? Four, where are the rules or guidelines that allow delegation of authority from the registrars to the town clerk? I'd like clarity on that. And then five, would it be possible for the registrars to request that the town clerk certifies signatures but then still be allowed to review and change where there was disagreement? Any signatures that the town clerk declined to certify? And then lastly, can the Board of Registrar certify signatures where the signer has written their street address correctly but has not included their apartment number? And that would also go, I mean, that's just an example, it would also go like for, you know, they're missing a letter in their name. So those are some of the questions that I have after reading this, you know, that I'd like the Secretary of State to answer. Can I say something in regards to that? Going back to 950 of CMR 55 to the section 12, it says the registrars may authorize the office employees of the city or town clerk's office, including the city town clerk, to perform all actions required by the CMR of the 5502, yada, yada, yada. And this application may be accomplished by, among other things, a vote for the Board of Registers. And that's what has been done in the past. Right, and I think the word there, the operative word is May. And so that there is some openness to perhaps what we would conduct business in Amherst as our Board of Registrars. And also one other thing in regards to that too, and this would be more of the candidate for a state office, then we would need three or more registrants to sign the appropriate certificate too, but, and you can do as a stamp for that one. Yeah, okay. That shows where the authorization comes from. So that answers that question that you had. Also to be certified and to be trained and to use a computer, we each only have our own state computer. They'd have to bring in another state computer. They'd have to wire it. They'd have to network it. That would all have to be done because we are all on our computers all day long. We wouldn't be able to leave our workspaces to allow somebody to come over and utilize it. So that would be a hurdle to cross. And you also need to get permissions to go into the system. It's a bit of a process. No, and I'm not afraid of processes. I've worked for universities. They have processes all the time, but I hear you Sue to let us know that it is a process. But I, you know, Amherst is a particular community that, you know, you have folks who are very much engaged and very interested in democracy and transparency. And I'd rather be associated with the committee, with the, you know, with the town committee that particularly when it comes to the vote that we are doing our utmost to make sure that it is transparent and all, all the time, you know, looked upon as fair and that there is confidence, confidence in the Board of Registrar's. And I think during that particular, you know, I know during that particular time, the summer people lost confidence in what we were doing and how things were being certified. And I, I think that's sad because, you know, like I say, I, I'm on this other committee with you and I know that you for, for years have done the utmost to make sure that people should have confidence in the town clerk's office. So, you know, this is my proposal to get some clarity on that from the Secretary of State before proceeding to again say, yes, you know, we're going to, we're going to do the stamp because it ends up really being symbolically just the rubber stamp and what, why are we here as the Board of Registrar's? And before you go any further, I just want to mention you brought, you brought up a memory of what happened Thursday because there was a lot of information given. Michelle Tassenari spoke to the group. The class that she was giving was on 2022 elections, what we can expect and somebody raised their hand in class because they were talking about petitions and nominations going around and certifying and funny enough, they asked, are we supposed to certify if someone doesn't give an apartment number? And she said, well, is the town clerk of Amherst here? And I says, oh, crap. And she says, actually, they're going through this now and what's happening is they're going to be putting together some stricter regulations and guidelines for everybody because right now, as you know, and you've mentioned, it's very ambiguous on some of the interpretations and all the city and town clerks do their best based on what is in print and what's on the petition form itself as far as how somebody should sign. But there are still questions in people's minds on certain occasions. So I think involving them right now would be great. Maybe they can really give us some guidance or tell us when they're going to be coming out with a new updated version on how to certify names. So again, I asked that we hold off until there is clarity and I'd be glad to share these questions if that will help. But that's where I am on it. In the meantime, I'm sorry, one last thing and then I'll shut up. But in the meantime, I do have permissions from all three of you to use our signature stamps. It doesn't have a date. It just states that the date as of you signing when you were appointed and being sworn in. So going forward, I'm taking that as the length of your term. But again, we can bring it up at our next meeting if you want. But for now, we have permission. Thank you. And before that next meeting, people could actually go into find where 950 CMR 55. Point. Oh, two. And Oh, three are to review those because again, that gives a lot of information as far as like, you know, the standards to use not when you might get a little bit more of clarity about how things are rolling out. And I want that entered into the record. All right. Are we ready to move forward with our last election of a permanent chair or discussion about whether we want permanent or for the next year? Well, I'm going to say that I think we do need a chair from the board of registrars and it not rest on you town clerks who are dead. And I'm just going to propose that we maybe break it into, you know, half a year. It is having served on other committees within the town. The town asks a lot. You know, we do a lot because it is Amherst, I believe. And I, you know, I'm not saying that as a negative because I think it's important to be civically engaged. You know, I teach that. I live it. That's why I'm here. So that's my proposal simply because I understand and being chair, there will be extra work. So whether, you know, whoever is chair, but I'm just making a proposal. If folks are interested in it being a whole year, I'd be down with that as well. But that's just my suggestion. And the only thing that I would mean at that particular time is like, because I felt that people thought that Sue wasn't eligible. She wasn't a member in this. And I just want to say that my point was that she is eligible and those are the points personally. I don't think you want to do it six points a year. So I think that's why I think that's why I think that, because I think that's why I'm here. When anybody like to nominate themselves or, and maybe specify a term if you're interested in being chair. I, of course, nominate myself. I nominate Sue. To be chair for a one year term. I'll second that emotion. I second that motion. I'm gonna follow what I think is Robert's rules of order. So D nominated herself and was it there is, I know you guys jumped in there with me, but is there a second for D being chair? No, okay. I'm trying to write it off. I mean, I could nominate it again. I think it needs to come from one of us three. We've had this whole discussion on that possibility. And so we're gonna have it as soon again. Just in my opinion on it, the responsibilities of the chair, I mean, it really, did I unmute myself? I did. There seems like there's a lot there and a lot of things that will come from town hall. And it seems like it'd be a lot on one of us, which again, I'm not against taking on more, but it just seems like to keep things moving with the screaming kids in the background, sorry. Keep things moving effortlessly. And in my opinion, it feels like somebody likes in Sue's position that has all the resources at her fingertips would be easier for her to do it. That's my reasoning for wanting Sue to do it. Okay. So again, this isn't anything against Sue. It's about keeping things separate and having clarity. Sue is a staff, a paid staff person for the town our role as board of registrars are to protect the voter. And particularly town elections, again, not casting any suspicions or whatever, but it's just to keep things clear so that the residents, the voters, the citizens will feel and understand that we have done our utmost to make sure those boundaries are protected. Jackie, would you like to be chair? I'm simply, you know, knowing that in terms of work, I could do it. No, no, thank you. So this is more an issue of the fear of the workload. Not so much the fear of the workload. I think that because of Sue being in the town clerk's office, that they have more access to things because even like, again, going back to that 5502, the board of registrars really aren't in charge of maintaining the security of the files and that kind of stuff. That's already being done by that office because as far as like for the facility of, most of the stuff comes through their office first and to have to stop in town or contact someone on a regular basis to find out what's going on. The only thing that I would have to say that I would like though, as far as like for the signatures, like when things are signed, I think that it is a good point, maybe if we could know when that's happening and that we have the option of coming in and reviewing the signatures that way. Well, I thought we put that on hold. We're gonna talk to have the state come in and discuss that with us. Yeah, okay, okay. But I think I agree with Dee on this on the chair thing. I'm just frantically going through meetings, meeting minutes here from the past. And it's always been a chair of one of the three other members because as clerk, I'm already the liaison. That's the administrative part. I will continue to do that and the minutes if you'd like, but the chair is really for the conduction of a meeting when we have a meeting. And just like looking at the appointed handbook thing. I mean, you know, I suppose I read it and I get nervous or whatever about things, but like the preparing the agendas. So then would Dee, she would be responsible. She'd have to get it out in the 48 hours or the 72 hours, but then you would still post it to the town's website. I just, and nothing would, you know, against you personally with this, you're busy. Like you're always seem like you've got a class or this or that. I just worry that all of a sudden we're gonna be thrown into another open meeting lot violation because the agenda wasn't posted in 48 hours because Lord knows all of us. I'm sure 48 hours goes by. Well, I can tell you working with Sue on another committee. Sue, make sure, you know, and I'm sure that all that will still be done. Sue is the one that makes sure all of those things are done in terms of the posting and alerts the chair of these are pending items that need to go on the agenda, you know? It wouldn't happen without Sue and her input. I will not do the death, yes, I will not do the death. I mean, that's how it works. So whether it's Jackie, you, Jamie, you did a great job, you know, last time. It might have seemed like it was a lot for you, but you really did a great job and you kept things open in discussion and fair. You asked, you know, critical questions when they needed to be asked. It can be you. So it's not about D, D's nominating herself so it's not gonna be Sue. You understand? So- And I think I feel more, I mean, I feel a little more comfortable knowing that Sue kind of is still helping with that stuff to keep everything on point and on the timelines. And again, the meeting, the whole conducting the meeting aspect of it. I mean, obviously you're a lot better at running, a crowd being a professor, having, you know, giving people the opportunity to speak and dealing with a mass of people. Yeah, it's not anything to do with being a professor. Well- It's, I'm just bossy, but- Oh, right. But I get that, I mean, I feel better knowing that that's not all in any one of our laps. Cause obviously if we, I mean, and not obviously, cause even if we did like six months, I mean, we could still nominate D again in six months. It doesn't mean it's gonna be me and then Jackie and then D and then rotate around. I just personally feel like it's, it would be too much for me to take on anymore. So, I mean, as long as, I mean, if D's willing to do it and you're comfortable with it, I think hearing that part of it that, you know, it's still gonna be some guidance from town hall and getting the meetings posted on time and agendas and stuff. I'm better with that, knowing that, you know, again, I just, I dread being thrown into another whole mess of violating open meeting law rules and stuff like that. Can I make a suggestion? And maybe how about if we have a vice chair, not way all the responsibility wouldn't be put on one person? Okay, so you and Jamie, are you all nominating yourself for chair and vice chair? Not me, I would second D's motion for her nominating. I would second your motion if you nominate yourself again for chair, like I'm happy with that. And I, like I said, I don't have it in me, I think to mentally right now with all the kids and the business and everything to do it the way that it needed to be done to be the chair for a period of time. Okay, so what about Jackie's proposal of a vice chair? So you have two, so yeah, if the chair couldn't fulfill her duties, there would be a vice chair available. And if the chair wasn't available to post the agenda, whatever, there would be communication with the vice chair. Right, and I think that makes sense too from the point of, you know, say you couldn't make it to a meeting just to already have something in place. I think that's kind of what some of the point of our meeting today of two was to kind of have plans in place for down the road and how to keep things moving smoothly. So if there was a vice chair already nominated, we wouldn't have to mess around with trying to figure that out on the day of the meeting if D couldn't make it to that meeting because she had a conflict or something in that regards. So I'm comfortable with that. And I would support Jackie if she wanted to be the vice chair. Okay, I'll do it. So do you want Jackie? I have a chair. I don't want to be the chair. Okay. All right, so for Robert rules of order, we still have to, you know. Do it. Yeah, I'm not sticking my soul. So we, someone has to, so I'm gonna get nominate myself as the chair. I guess we should have a different vote for the vice chair. Yeah. So I nominate myself for the chair. Second. All in favor roll call vote. Jackie Gardner. I'm in favor. Yes. Okay. Jamie Wagner. I'm in favor. Yes. D. Shabazz. Yes. And Sue, Sue Audette. Yes. Unanimous. Okay. So D is now our chair. So I nominate Jackie as the vice chair. And I'm sorry, D, for how long? We didn't say a term. Oh, so we were gonna, so maybe that should be a different thought. So we doing half a year or full year? Hold on me. I second the full. Okay, so I guess we can vote on it. Yes, I'm in favor of that as well. Jamie. Yes. Jackie. Yes. Susan. Yes. Okay. Full year. Unanimous. Okay. Now, who would like to nominate Jackie Gardner as vice chair? So I just, I did nominate, yeah. Nope, that's okay. I'll second it. Jamie seconds it. Thank you. All in favor, D. Nope, Jackie. No, all in favor of Jackie as vice chair. It's confusing. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes, D says yes. Okay. Jamie. Yes. Jackie. I guess I said yes too. Okay, Susan. Yes. Okay, unanimous. Jackie as vice chair. Okay. For one year, right? Yes. Okay, same term as the chair. Okay. All right. Got that done. Yay. Is there any other business that you want to discuss? No, I, like I said, I'll send you my questions cause, or maybe the letter or email should come from now the chair and the town clerk pertaining to it. Similar to, and you all haven't seen the meetings probably are the proceedings of the district advisory committee, but when questions are being posed to the state, it usually comes from you, Sue and the chair. Yeah, and Mike too, usually, doesn't know what it is. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, the. Yes. We'll see you, Jackie. Yes, of course. Well, all of you. Yes. Well, everybody. Yeah, everyone. Okay. Maybe for a future meeting too, just cause I literally just popped into my head, but I know when Shaveena was the town clerk, she had tried to involve us more as the board for things that pertain to like the voting days. And I kind of got to feel that it was kind of the same thing where we kind of had a role that just been in place for a long time. So that's just kind of we did our jobs that we did. And I don't know who as the clerk now the town manager, yeah. But now in your new position, I don't know how you feel about that. Are you happy with us kind of continuing how just helping go collecting to do what we're kind of delegated to do on the days of the elections? Or do you feel like we should try to help a little bit more or do a little bit more? And I think with that we would just need some time to prep if need be and kind of learn what we may need to help with or do going forward, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, and no, I'm happy to, I'm open to suggestions first of all, but I sent you the schedule with all the dates of the upcoming, yep. So if you want to be here for voter, I can tell you, nobody comes out, but you're more than welcome to come in the office in case somebody comes in person to register to vote. We're here till late o'clock that night. And election day, of course, I'd love your help. It's great for you to be here. It's just to be at presence, even if you did nothing, I mean, you know, to be here. And if anything else that you can think of that you'd like to be involved in, I mean, past talking to Michelle Tassenari on the certification, but, you know, again, the board doesn't really get involved in a whole lot of stuff unless there's a recount or those kinds of things beyond what I've just mentioned. But if you have ideas, let me know. Okay, sounds good. Yeah. I'd like to do just, you know, for the year, at some point, voter education, you know, when Savina was in office, that was something that I had talked with her about, you know, whether it's about, you know, signatures on petitions, you know, how to do that, I know that you wrote up something, you know, but at some point, having a more public presence to help with voter education, even if it's just about, you know, the timeline and what goes on. I think opening up that process, you know, and talking about it with the public will again provide trust and still trust, you know, in the board of registrars and the town clerk's office. So I'd like to see more of that. And I'm, you know, I'd like you all's ideas on maybe how we could do that as a group. You'd have to identify, I think, we'd have to first identify what areas we wanna educate on. I know just before I came on here today and met with someone from Mass Perg, gave us some voter registration forms and we have a handout on how to register people to vote, which we've also done with the League of Women Voters this round. So we have a lot of players right now helping us register people to vote. That could be another topic that the board could, the board of registrars could get involved and if you're interested. Absolutely. I mean, meeting at the farmer's market, you know, and registering people to vote. You know, I'm glad, yeah, I did see the League of Voters. I was at a funeral in Louisiana this weekend. I participate with the League of the League, but you know, I think that's really important to partner with different organizations and groups to do that. But again, also have our own presence. So that again, people see us as transparent. People see us as, you know, trusting. Come up with some topics. Yeah. Well, for one thing though, last year, they worked with UMass as far as getting students out to vote. Right. So I don't know, you know, it might be the work with the Student Government Association and do it again. If you'd be willing to do that, Jackie, I'd be interested in doing that as well. When's the deadline for registration? October. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Those are pretty close though. Where am I? My goodness, I'm going blank. Yeah, it's simply, we could sit at the Student Union during, okay, during lunchtime, you know, one day or something and have the students register. Okay, because I think what they did last time, they had, they did it for a few days. Cause one of the issues as far as, you know, getting space and different things is wherever is we're gonna be going to sit with our little table and that kind of things. But yeah, but we can work all that out. Yeah, you get a student group to sponsor you. Like at the Student Center, the Republicans, the Democrats, they have a libertarian group. They also just have the Student Government Association. But, you know, you can simply sit, have a table next to them or something like that and register students to vote. I just checked the, from the notice that I had was the last date of register would be October 13th though. That's right, 13th, yeah. Yeah, that's kind of crunchy on. Yeah, that's what she said that, yeah. Yeah, okay. And I will send to you all our handout on how to register people to vote. So you have the formatting on what their address needs to look like so that we're not rejecting voter registration forms. Yeah. Don't want that to happen. Okay, so we could look at, when are we next meeting? We don't have a meeting date. Well, we're not the kind of group that meets regularly. I know, well, that's why I'm asking if we're gonna do any of this. So I think, I mean, for purposes of just setting up a table, you two can talk to each other. That's not, you know, when I find out something from a shell task scenario, I'll email everybody. That way we can look to our next date so we can discuss that. Okay. And then we would just go get the forms at your office. You can get them online, registerdevotema.com. Oh, really? And just print them out or? Yep, yep. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I'll check in with some of these student groups unless you have some connections that you mass on with these groups. Jackie. No, not really. Okay. I don't really have any connection. But the thing is, you can always just go in there like cold, you know, just ask, you know, if you're interested in this. Yeah, no, it's all through email. The students, the students, it's all through email. So I'll email and find out. But I just find that if you do something a lot of times in person, it makes a better impression is that you're really kind of like interested in. But anyway. Oh, yes. And registering people to vote. I'm asking partnering with these different student groups because I think you have to have a student group sponsor you as an outside organization to come into the student union. I don't think that's changed. So I'll. Okay, I see what you're talking about now. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. I was thinking like out the woods. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So are we ready to close out the meeting? Oh, can I make a suggestion? And we like make the close out at this meeting since we really didn't have any, shall we say, business to carry over. Like what we did last time as far as like for the dates on the, the, for the acceptance of the meeting minutes. Oh, you want to accept the minutes as. Set something up so that we can take care of everything while we're here since. Do it live? Well, I haven't, I've just handwritten everything out. It's a mess. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. We're going to maybe do it again. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Within the, within the allotted time. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it does have to be a very short meeting, so. Yeah. Yeah. And that should be a very short one. Yep. Okay. Who would like to make a motion to adjourn? Okay. I'll make a motion to adjourn. I'll second that. Okay. You got to let go of one, stay longer. So everyone, everyone's in favor? Yes. Yes. Okay. So it passes unanimously. 340 3 p.m. All right. Okay. Everyone. Thank you. Okay. Bye. All right. Bye-bye. See, let me get out of here.