Most meetings in Wellfleet are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting that interests you on the calendar at wellfleet-ma.gov for details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, June 12
- Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m., online only
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m., Adult Community Center
Tuesday, June 17
- Community Preservation Committee, 9 a.m., Town Hall basement
- Open Space Committee, 4:30 p.m., Town Hall basement
- Select Board, 6 p.m., Adult Community Center
Wednesday, June 18
- Nauset Regional Schools Communications Subcommittee, 9 a.m., Nauset Administrative Building, Orleans
Conversation Starter
Webinars Win Out
Select board members voted on June 3 to abandon “Zoom meetings” as their platform for online participation and switch to holding only “Zoom webinars,” which allow the town more control over what online participants can see and say.
The reason for the change was serious, said select board member Barbara Carboni: over the past two years, unauthorized users had hacked select board and other board and committee meetings and displayed disturbing images, a practice known as “Zoom-bombing.” The webinar format will help prevent that, she said.
The trouble with webinars, said board chair John Wolf, is that people attending online will no longer be able to see who else is watching the meeting. “I think that really impacts negatively on the spirit of these public meetings.”
Board member Josh Yeston said that even granting that argument, pornographic images were a greater deterrent to participation. “Your only option is to exit the meeting,” and people often don’t know how quickly to return, he said. Many people never rejoin meetings that have been Zoom-bombed, he added.
Subjecting town employees to such images was not only upsetting but could be considered “a hostile environment for employment purposes,” Carboni said.
Just before a unanimous vote to switch to webinars, board member Ryan Curley suggested that all of the town’s boards and committees should change to the webinar format. The idea was worth taking up later, Carboni said, but the board moved forward with her motion to change the format for select board meetings only. —Tyler Jager
