STRAFFORD — Strafford residents will have the option again to attend or participate remotely in town selectboard meetings, though the town hopes volunteers will step forward to help administer the online platform.

On Aug. 10 the selectboard voted 3-2 to return to a hybrid meeting format, allowing residents a choice to attend meetings in person or remotely through the virtual platform Zoom. The vote reverses a previous board decision on June 29, when the board voted 3-1 to cease the use of Zoom, citing board frustrations with technological and communication issues.

Following the stoppage of Zoom, board members said they received at least 25 emails from residents asking the board to reconsider, and were criticized by residents in comments on the town listserv.

“I just didn’t want to fight this battle,” Selectboard Chair Toni Pippy said. “We don’t have the time. We have other work to focus on.”

Pippy, who voted in June to end the use of Zoom, changed her vote following the pushback from residents, voting with board members David Paganelli and Brian Johnson to restore an online meeting option.

Pippy told the Valley News on Monday that she still has strong concerns about providing a remote meeting option, due to its technical and communication challenges. Meetings were sometimes delayed or interrupted due to issues with the video or audio feed, or being unable to record a meeting for the public archive. In addition, some online participants would have their video camera turned off, so the board could not see their face, or would not have their microphone on when attempting to speak.

Board member Mary Linehan, who voted against resuming Zoom, said her primary concern is a lack of experienced people willing to host the Zoom meetings.

Town Clerk Lisa Bragg typically hosts the Zoom meetings, but when Bragg is unavailable, that responsibility has fallen upon Linehan.

“Hosting Zoom is not easy,” Linehan said. “And no one else on the board knows how to do it.”

Linehan said that she is no longer willing to volunteer as the Zoom host, as it requires too much attention from her board responsibilities.

The board discussed soliciting residents to host the Zoom during meetings, though so far no residents have offered to volunteer, according to board members.

Though approximately 40 residents, in emails or comments, voiced support for resuming Zoom, “not one of them has stepped forward to ask if they can help (administer it),” Linehan said. “Not a single one.”

Should volunteers fail to emerge, selectboard meetings may only offer Zoom access when Bragg is available to host, Pippy indicated.

Pippy and Linehan said they believe recent pushback from residents, including the emails to the board, resulted from an organized effort by one or two individual residents who had advocated strongly for keeping Zoom access at the June 29 meeting.

“About 90% of them haven’t attended the selectboard meetings,” Pippy noted. “So we will see how many people start attending (now).”

Pippy said she also took exception to residents who accused the board of not acting with transparency. To the contrary, Pippy said, the board’s discussion about Zoom was held publicly and was posted on the meeting agenda.

“We are being transparent all the time, whether we are using Zoom or not,” Pippy said. “The whole idea of people thinking that we weren’t being transparent bothered me.”

While Vermont law under Act 78 permits municipal or school boards to meet fully remotely under specific guidelines, until January 2023, the law does not require boards to provide a remote attendance option.

Strafford, a town of 1,094 residents according to the 2020 census, has “varying” public attendance at town selectboard meetings depending on the agenda items, anywhere between two to over 25 people, according to selectboard members. The Zoom platform averaged an additional attendance between two to 10 people.

Pippy said she foresees situations in which a remote option is advantageous, such as a scheduled discussion with a guest or official who lives in another location, or when seasonal conditions make travel difficult on the local roads.