Brochure aims to promote civic engagement

Mass Innovations, From The Beacon, Summer 2012

A brochure created by a small group of Sandwich officials aims to demystify local government and boost attendance at Town Meeting.

The four-page, glossy pamphlet, “How the Town of Sandwich is Governed,” includes a brief mission statement, a flow chart of the local-government process, nine paragraphs of boldface type under the heading “How Town Government Works,” and an article about the history of government in Sandwich, where Town Meeting has been taking place since the 1640s.

The back page, which summarizes the town’s long-range plan, prominently displays a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “The success of democracy depends on the participation of an educated and informed electorate.”

The brochure, the cost of which was paid partly through sponsorships, went out to more than 9,000 Sandwich households less than two weeks before the May 7 Town Meeting.

“When I went around and talked to folks, they seemed to view government as much more complicated than it really is,” said Selectman James W. Pierce, explaining why he felt the brochure was needed.

The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, the League of Women Voters, and The Enterprise, a chain of newspapers on the upper Cape, all signed on as brochure sponsors. The Enterprise printed the 6,000 brochures at its own cost and delivered about 3,300 of them as newspaper inserts, according to Pierce. Flyers also were sent home with schoolchildren.

The League of Women Voters contributed $200, and the Bank of Cape Cod kicked in $100, according to Pierce, who developed the idea for the brochure with other members of the Sandwich Charter Review Committee. Pierce said that he and other volunteers covered the remaining costs, which amounted to $234.

The brochure failed to have much of an impact on the turnout at Town Meeting this year, however, with only about 3 percent of the roughly 15,00o registered voters attending. But, Pierce noted, the brochure also is useful as a means of drawing attention to other elements of local government, including the town’s long-range plan.

Three years ago, accessing the long-range plan required browsing through 127 pages of documents stapled together with a cover sheet, according to Pierce. Now it exists in a five-page version that can be downloaded from the town’s website.

“Now when I meet someone on the street and they say, ‘I don’t understand the issues,’ I say, ‘I’ll send you a copy of the selectmen’s long-range plan, and while I’m doing that I’ll throw in a copy of the brochure,’” Pierce said. “‘Read those things and you’ll be up to 80 percent of the learning curve.’”

For more information, contact James W. Pierce at (508) 888-5622.