Politics & Government

Paul Reynolds: The 'Skyping' Selectman

Paul Reynolds joined the Board of Selectmen meeting Thursday from a hotel room in Scottsdale, Ariz.

 

For the first time, a Dedham Board of Selectmen meeting spread across 2,665 miles.

"Live from Scottsdale, Arizona," selectman Paul Reynolds said to open Thursday's meeting.

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Thanks to a new policy approved by the Board of Selectmen last month, Reynolds joined the meeting using an online video conferencing program called Skype.

"We do have a quorum present, we will allow Paul Reynolds to be able to participate in the meeting," board chairman Jim MacDonald said. "Paul’s votes and comments are apart of the official record."

Find out what's happening in Dedhamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So instead of Reynolds sitting in with his laptop or iPad, he sat on an Apple computer screen, tieless, with palm trees in the background.

And while the other four selectmen flipped through the hard copy of the , Reynolds swiped through it on his iPad.

The board's first venture into video conferencing ended without major problems as the connection held throughout the meeting.

At about 7:50 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, Reynolds moved to adjourn the virtual meeting.


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