Town meeting day.

One the first Tuesday in March of every year (and many years before that) since I moved onto this dirt road in our small town we have held our town meeting. This is a time of year when some of us residents come out of hibernation and once again elect officials to such offices as lister or fence viewer and determine our budget needs. And we also enjoy visiting, arguing with our neighbors and friends plus there might be a table full of treats for some worth while group in need of donations.
Its not always friendly and sociable. Feelings get hurt, tempers flare and sometimes an elected official who has been in office since the creation of dirt gets voted out.
This year we had an old fashion town meeting. I mean we did not even break for lunch. The first few articles were the usual thing. Not much excitement there. But then came the articles concerning how to collect taxes, delinquent taxes, the good stuff. This is when people started to say something. For too many years we had a moderator than moved our town meeting along at a good pace. For those of you unfamiliar with the idea of a town meeting and a moderator. Well the town meeting part is easy. Anybody can attend. Only those registered to voted in your particular town can vote. And people not residents and not voters are only allowed to speak with permission from the voters. The moderator is the person who follows set guidelines (called Robert's Rules) and keeps the meeting from turning into total mayhem. The problem with that is too many times articles were voted on without discussion. Before you knew it, you had said yea or nay and moved on to the next article. This year the old moderator didn't show and we elected a new one. Which was good because she didn't expect it and was rusty on Robert's Rules so the meeting pace slowed down a bit. Yes there were other factors that helped with the slower pace but having a different moderator made a world of difference.
It was a long meeting for our town. Four hours with no lunch break. But at the end of it things had changed. Something that I and my husband had hoped for started. New blood came in and some old went out. A problem with a little town in once you are elected to a position death seems to be the only way not to be re-elected. But this year that changed. Not completely. We still filled a couple of positions (that are mostly honorary and involve no money) with people who weren't there and have held these positions as long as I have lived in town. Change comes slowly but it is coming. And I for one am happy about that. Now if I can find someone to fill my position next time I come up for re-election. Hopefully this is my last 3 year term and I don't want to have to die in order to be replaced.
So hold onto your hats boys and girls. The road ain't gonna be paved but it just might shift direction.