What is Town Meeting?

Town Meeting

What is Town Meeting?
Town Meeting is both an event and an entity. As an event, it is a gathering of a town’s eligible voters, and is referred to as “the Town Meeting.” As an entity, it is the legislative body for Pembroke, and is referred to simply as “Town Meeting.”
So, you may say, “I went to the Town Meeting. Town Meeting approved the budget.”

Town Meeting is also the purest form of democratic governing. It has been in use for over 300 years to the present.  In Pembroke, this means that once or twice a year residents show up and vote to approve three major things:

• It sets the salaries for the town employees and elected officials.
• It votes to appropriate money to run the town.
• It votes on the town’s local statutes, which are called by-laws.

In Pembroke we host an Open Town Meeting which means anyone registered to vote in Pembroke, is allowed to attend and vote on Warrant articles. The Meeting is run by the Town Moderator.  There are numbered articles on the Warrant, published before the meeting and provided to attendees of the event. The Article numbers are put into a raffle/lottery drum and picked out at random. There are opportunities to make comments or ask questions on articles, but all comments/questions must be addressed to the Town Moderator.

Town officials as well as Town Counsel will be seated up front, often there to provide info or answer questions.

When is Town Meeting? 
In Pembroke, our annual town meeting is held the second Tuesday of May and the bylaws allow for a second Special to be held in the Fall.