Letters

Virtual participation in town and village meetings has become something that we want to keep going, even when public in-person meetings resume.

People who have jobs, families, caregiver responsibilities and commitments to community organizations often find it difficult to attend in-person meetings and share their input on municipal initiatives. Meetings should all be scheduled in the evenings as well. That way mothers, teachers, professionals and others working during normal business hours can attend and contribute.

Scheduling in-person only meetings during working hours leaves meeting attendance to mostly those who either must attend or who have nothing better to do than come and fight against the initiatives on the agenda. “CAVE people” (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) are typically fear-based retirees who see everything as a threat and fill their days writing nasty letters and then show up at meetings shaking their fingers at board members, spreading their fear about “the end of life as we know it.”

It’s been said that this pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology for health and safety reasons, and the fact that virtual town, village and community meetings are here to stay, giving everyone in the community the opportunity to contribute to important decisions, is a very good thing.

Michael Daly

Sag Harbor