Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Chooses Hybrid Meeting Format
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Regional Planning Commission on Thursday voted to continue with a hybrid model for future correspondence, hosting in-person meetings at the BRPC offices with the option for members and the public to participate remotely.
This is reportedly the "best of both worlds" for accessibility and is made possible by the act Gov. Charlie Baker signed on June 16 extending certain COVID-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency until April 2022.
The Executive Committee decided to continue Zoom meetings. BRPC has a setup that allows members to participate remotely from its offices with the help of BRPC employees if need be.
Many full committee members favored in-person meetings because of the quality of communication but did support the hybrid model.
"I think something is lost by not meeting together because it just has a totally different quality," Tyringham alternate Sarah Hudson said.
Mount Washington delegate Jim Lovejoy said that after having remote meetings for "quite some time," there is something missing without in-person conversation.
The hybrid model, he added, will require some additional management as will learning how to engage with people in person and remotely during a meeting.
The commission purchased a $1,000 360-degree conference room camera called the Meeting Owl that connects to Zoom and is intended for virtual meetings.
Executive Director Thomas Matuszko said a few glitches have been experienced with the device but it "seems like it has a lot of promise for technology."
"There will be some learning aspects of how to run a meeting with it, I think, to make sure that people who are participating remotely do get recognized," he added.
"But the camera really kind of takes in 360 degrees, so you see a panorama of everybody in the room, the microphone is really a very good microphone so that it picks up voices from across the way and it is easy to hear people who are participating remotely."
Williamstown alternate Roger Bolton strongly recommended that the chat feature on Zoom is disabled during the hybrid meetings. He said it confuses the meeting and strays from the original model that requires any speakers to go through the chair.
"Personally, I don't like chat because it introduces the possibility of comments between the people present not through the chair," he added. "And I think that is so different from the way the old-style meetings would operate and that it's not nice."
Matuszko agreed and clarified that the chat would be disabled during hybrid meetings.
In other news, the commission elected its slate of officers for fiscal 2022 with Adams alternate John Duval replacing North Adams delegate Kyle Hanlon as chairman.
Duval is currently chair of the Adams Board of Selectmen, and was recently elected to a fourth term.
Hanlon a longtime member of the North Adams Planning Board, served as the chair for several years and members expressed gratitude and admiration for his service. He said most of the things he learned as a chair were from other members of the commission and that meetings were always enjoyable.
"I just have a lot of respect for you in the way you've run the meetings, very positive, very patient, and responding to all inquiries," Duval said to Hanlon. "And I want to thank you for your service as chair of BRPC."
The commission will next meet in person at the Stationery Factory in Dalton on Sept. 16 for its annual meeting.
Tags: BRPC,
