Information for Boards & Committees

The Town of Plymouth relies on our elected and appointed officials for much of the Town’s important business. As a member of a public body, you must comply with state and local requirements. This page will give you the resources of what first steps you must do as a municipal official and link to resources and staff who can help you with any questions. 

Oath of Office

Before you can attend your first meeting as an elected or appointed official, you must have an appointment letter from the appointing authority, acknowledge the Open Meeting Law regulations, and take the oath of office. Elected and appointed officials can take the oath of office at the Town Clerk's Office during normal business hours.  

Conflict of Interest

As a member of a board or committee, you are considered to be an "employee of a municipality" by the State Ethics Commission. All municipal employees are required to take the Conflict of Interest Law Online Ethics Training within 30 days of beginning public service and every two years thereafter. You must submit your Completion Certificate for this training to the Town Clerk's Office, and should also keep a copy for yourself. 

Open Meeting Law

The Open Meeting Law specifies that all deliberations of a public body be conducted in a meeting open to the public and includes requirements for posting of meeting notices and agendas and how to generate and approve minutes.

Within two weeks of your election or appointment or when you took the oath of office (whichever is later), you must complete a Certificate of Receipt of Open Meeting Law Materials. Please see the links below for materials and the certificate, submit this certificate to the Office of the Town Clerk.

Posting Board / Committee Agendas & Minutes

On January 24, 2023, the Plymouth Select Board enacted a policy to direct the submission of meeting notices for public posting and minutes submissions from Town Boards, Committees, and Commissions for all public meetings conducted in the Town of Plymouth to the Office of the Town Clerk.

As required by the Open Meeting Law, Chapter 30A, Section 20, a posting of any public meeting shall provide the date, time, place, and agenda for Board, Committee, and Commission meetings.

Public bodies are required to create and maintain accurate minutes of all meetings, including executive sessions. These meeting minutes should be submitted to the Clerk's office in a timely manner. A "timely manner" is considered to be within the next three public body meetings or 30 days from the date of the meeting, whichever is later, unless the public body can show good cause for further delay.

This policy is intended to provide the Town Clerk's office with sufficient and timely information to post meeting notices and receive completed minutes. Timely submission of proposed agendas will help ensure that the agenda is ready for posting in accordance with Massachusetts Open Meeting Law

All submissions to the Town Clerk shall be in electronic form and legible. All agenda submissions shall be emailed to Meetings. All minute submissions shall be emailed to Meetings.

All submissions must give the public 48 hours of notice before the meeting occurs, not including Saturdays, Sundays, or State Legal Holidays. To meet this requirement, agendas must be received by the Town Clerk's Office no later than 3 pm (Fridays by 11 am) on the last day which allows 48 hours of proper notice.

All agenda submissions shall include the date, time, and location as well as all topics that the committee reasonably anticipates will be discussed at the meeting.

If meetings are to be held remotely or in a hybrid format, the links to attend the meeting virtually shall be included on the agenda. Hybrid/remote meetings need to be recorded where the recordings are available when requested.

Minutes must include a record of the date, time, and place of the meeting, the members present and absent, documents discussed at the meeting, and any actions taken at each meeting, including executive sessions. The recording of a meeting is not considered to be the minutes of a public meeting.

The Town Clerk shall have the discretion to determine if any agenda submission satisfies the requirements of this policy before permitting the agenda to be posted on the Town website. Submissions that are determined not to meet the requirements of this policy may not be posted. Such determinations shall be made in good faith. The Town Clerk may delegate this authority to the Assistant Town Clerk.