‘Don’t take it personally.’ Being effective at town meeting topic of March 28 Truro talk
Denise Coffey
Cape Cod Times
Published March 20,2024
“Don’t take it personally” is one of Dan Winslow’s top ten tips for maintaining civility, especially in politics when talking with people you disagree with.
He and Truro Town Moderator Paul Wisotzky will be giving a workshop called “Engage and Empower: Navigating the Town Meeting Process Respectfully and Effectively” on March 28 at the Truro Public Library.
The workshop comes a month before the special and annual town meetings scheduled for May 4.
And it comes after months of controversy and contentious public hearings regarding the legality of some 66 voter registrations, many of them members of the Truro Part-time Residents Association.
The association sent emails to members encouraging them to register to vote in Truro in time for a special town meeting last year. Articles on a new Department of Public Works facility and a 160-unit affordable housing complex were big-ticket items on the warrant. The special town meeting scheduled for late November was ultimately moved to May 4 on the lawn of Truro Central School because of the large number of voters who turned out.
The workshop will focus on the town meeting process — not on any specific warrant articles.
“This will be a refresher into the town meeting form of government, the processes, how to participate, the rules and procedures,” Wisotzky said Saturday.
Winslow will share 10 tips for maintaining civility at the upcoming town meetings. He is the president of the New England Legal Foundation, a former Massachusetts judge, former Gov. Mitt Romney’s chief legal counsel and a Massachusetts state representative who served two terms.
As a Republican in a “sea of blue,” he attributes getting things done to civility.