Selectmen trade paper for iPads at meetings

Mass Innovations, From the Beacon, Summer 2011

North Reading has purchased Apple iPads for its five selectmen and five Planning Board members in order to reduce paper costs and provide immediate access to relevant information.

Office staff no longer prepare paper packets for board members; information is downloaded to the iPads instead.

Town Administrator Greg Balukonis said it’s too early to estimate the cost benefits, but, “to have someone on my staff, which isn’t very large, not have to be involved in photocopying represents a significant savings.”

Previously, board meeting packets would be printed on Thursday, three days before the Monday meeting and well before Balukonis was able to include addendum items.

Robert Mauceri, chair of the Board of Selectmen, said there was no practical way to bring along the range of documents that might end up being relevant to a particular discussion – “unless you felt like carrying a dolly with a large box on it to every meeting.”

Instead of a box, selectmen are using Dropbox, a free application that enables board packets, addendums and other documents to be downloaded to iPads. The documents are stored in the iPads’ iBooks feature, creating what Mauceri describes as a “bookcase” of PDFs that is easily searchable.

Mauceri, the co-founder of a company that provides IT support to small businesses, proposed the use of the iPads. He said town officials favored iPads over laptops not only because of the lower cost, but also because they are easier to carry and not as likely to obscure the audience’s view of a board member.

“Having a laptop with a screen stuck up, it’s a little bit of a distraction,” said Mauceri, who has served on town boards and committees since the early 1970s.

He said there are no plans to use iPads to allow board members to participate in meetings at which they are not physically present.

The 10 iPads, at a cost of $600 each, were purchased using grant money from the state’s expedited permitting law, a portion of which was earmarked for information technology, according to Balukonis.

For more information, contact Robert Mauceri at (508) 265-5047.