Category Archives: Community Building

Social media and Vermont Open Meeting questions

The Rutland Herald reported recently that…

A proposed social media policy that would cover both town employees and elected officials was met with pushback last week in Rockingham, with Select Board members saying they felt the proposed policy was a threat to their First Amendment rights…

Abby Friedman, director of the municipal assistance center for the [Vermont League of Cities and Towns], said Friday that many larger towns and cities in Vermont have social media policies, but she said she didn’t know whether they had adopted the one drafted by the league.

She said Barre City, Williston and Colchester were among the larger communities that had policies.

“The policy was written back in 2010. It was before Front Porch (Forum) existed. We need to look at our policy too to see if it needs any updating,” she said, noting that a lot of towns were concerned about the social media issue.

Chris Winters, deputy director of the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, said his office so far had not given towns and town officials any official guidance on the issue.

“Eventually, this summer, we were thinking of putting together some guidance,” he said. “And give the towns some help on online and social media behavior.”

In many Vermont communities, more than half of the households participate on their local FPF.  So many more residents of these Towns read comments on FPF than would ever attend selectboard meetings.  If we want healthy local democracy, we should update state and local policies to encourage participation… not the opposite.

One correction… FPF has been serving Vermont Towns since 2006, and we’ve had public officials participating during each of the past ten years.