Natick Town Meeting Video — Curriculum Project

A video production package for a 2–3 minute learning video that teaches 3rd-grade students how Town Meeting works in Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts, towns are run by a Select Board and either a Town Meeting or a Town Council. At Town Meeting, elected Town Meeting members vote on local laws, projects, and how money is spent — and any resident can come and speak. The video brings this concept to life through two real debates from Natick's Fall 2024 and Fall 2025 Town Meetings, showing students how anyone can speak up, how arguments are debated fairly, and how every vote counts.

Production Approach

The video features Town Moderator Jeff Alderson speaking directly to camera with a Massachusetts flag visible behind him. Slides appear on screen as visual references as he walks through each topic. The tone is natural and conversational — not a produced voiceover.

Video Summary

Title: How Does Town Meeting Work? Two Big Decisions in Natick

The video explains:

• What Town Meeting is and how elected members vote on big decisions
• The role of the Town Moderator (Jeff Alderson) as a neutral referee
• Article 32 (Fall 2024): The debate over phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers — voted 79–27–1 to refer for further study
• Article 33 (Fall 2025): The debate over a three-year moratorium on artificial turf fields — voted 74–28–3 to pass
• What students can learn about democracy: anyone can speak up, debate leads to better decisions, and every vote counts

Video Recording

Final video with slides: Town Meeting Recording with Slides.mp4

Watch: Open the video

Transcript: Readable transcript | VTT captions

Additional recording exports:

• Town Meeting Recording only Video.mp4
• Town Meeting Recording only Slides.mp4

Artifacts

File	Description
storyboard.md	Storyboard describing the speaker-to-camera format, slide flow, and production setup
script.md	Conversational speaking guide with key points to cover per slide
Town_Meeting_Video_Slides.pptx	11 widescreen PowerPoint slides formatted with the Town Meeting Orientation template (town seal in top-right corner)
Town Meeting Recording with Slides.mp4	Final recorded video with speaker video and slides composited together
video_thumbnail.jpg	README preview image linked to the final recorded video
Town Meeting Recording only Video.mp4	Speaker-only video export
Town Meeting Recording only Slides.mp4	Slides-only video export
video_transcript.md	Readable transcript for the final recorded video
video_transcript.vtt	WebVTT caption file extracted from the final recorded video
Camtasia Project from 12JUN2026.zip	Camtasia project archive used to produce the final recording exports
references.md	13 compiled sources covering the gas leaf blower and artificial turf debates, each with key-point summaries and position labels (For / Against / Neutral)
video_transcripts.md	Transcript analysis of Fall 2024 and Fall 2025 Town Meeting sessions — Article 32 gas leaf blower debate (79-27-1 referral) and Article 33 artificial turf moratorium (74-28-3 passed), with full debate quotes from all sides and vote outcomes
auto-generated-r.vtt	Raw auto-generated VTT caption file for the Fall 2024 ATM Session 3 recording, containing the full Article 32 leaf blower debate
author.md	Official bio of Town Moderator Jeff Alderson from natickma.gov, natickveterans.com, and Natick Report articles
generate_slides.py	Python script that regenerates the PowerPoint slides using python-pptx, pulling the town seal image from the orientation template
regenerate.sh	Shell script that checks source files and regenerates all build artifacts
SKILL.md	Reusable skill definition documenting the full workflow

Regeneration

Run ./regenerate.sh to regenerate the PowerPoint slides from the Python script. Requires Python 3 with python-pptx installed:

pip3 install python-pptx
./regenerate.sh

To update the content, edit the source Markdown files (references.md, video_transcripts.md) and then regenerate the slides.

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. See LICENSE for the full terms.