What is Town Meeting and Should We Care?

Does Town Meeting matter? It sure does — going way back to Colonial America!

In 1774 the crown’s attempt to shutter town meeting as part of the Massachusetts Government Act could well have been the trigger that brought Massachusetts’ rural towns into the independence fray.

In August 1774, the newly appointed royal Massachusetts governor Gen. Thomas Gage threatened to arrest the organizers and sent troops to Salem to shut down its August 24 Town Meeting. The move backfired. Badly. Thousands of angry colonists gathered. Roxbury and Danvers immediately scheduled their Town Meeting, and as news rippled across the region defiance grew. Even towns that didn’t engage in righteous anger over closing the Boston’s harbor or the imposition of stamp taxes became roused and riled as that elemental colonial right to self-determination came under royal attack.

Yes. Town Meeting mattered...and it still matters today.

What is this Town Meeting Guide?

Flash forward a few hundred years and Town Meeting continues to provide a direct and local form of democratic engagement. Its citizen-legislative body still plays a core role in Cape Cod town government. Democracy doesn’t get any more grassroot than local Town Meeting! But — just because it functions at a hyperlocal level doesn’t mean it operates in an ad hoc manner. In fact, Town Meeting runs under a specific set of rules, with its own set of terms, definitions, and processes.

Think of this Users Guide as an interactive guide with text and video, and several related sidebars that let you explore and understand how to participate in this most direct form of democracy.

Whether you’re new to the process or have been part of Town Meeting 20 times but always wondered what a home rule petition means, welcome to the Cape Cod Town Meeting User’s Guide!