I have become more involved in the political process of my town recently.  As a newly minted member of the Advisory Committee I am a part of the nine-person team that makes recommendations to the townspeople on issues that are voted on at Town Meetings, and we make budget recommendations to the Town Selectmen.

A part of the process has been spending time learning about the specific rules and processes around the legislative process.  It has been somewhat tedious, but I recognized it is a necessary part of the appointment I accepted.  Then yesterday, a chance meeting put me in a spot to use my newly acquired knowledge to use.

A parent-teacher organization had been asked by a representative of a lobbying organization to set up a table and promote their lobbying point and agenda at an event being hosted by the parent-teacher organization, and being held on school grounds.  The parent-teacher organization did not want to allow the lobbying to happen, but was not sure if they had the grounds to deny the representative the opportunity to set up a table.

With a quick review of some of the material that I had recently read through I found the specific state rules against the use of school property for these such requests by lobbying organizations.  I have forwarded the relevant information to the parent-teacher organization and will follow up by ensuring the school’s administration is aware of the request to the parent-teacher organization and the rules against the request.