In an effort to guarantee a quorum, Brattleboro Selectboard members called as many Town Meeting Representatives as they could to remind them of the Special Town Meeting being held Thursday night at Academy School.

Jesse Corum transformed the Law Offices of Gale, Corum, Mabie, Cook & Prodan into a local call center for the evening, providing pizza and Pepsi for his fellow board members and assembled members of the press (me).

He handed out short scripts to Dick DeGray, John Allen and Dora Bouboulis. Martha O'Conner couldn't be there but was said to be making her calls at another time.

"Dial 9 to get out" said Jesse, and they were off.

They had varying success reaching representatives. 58 members were home and said they planned to attend. Only 4 said they couldn't make it. Dick said that 71 members were needed.

Many answering machines took recorded messages when representatives failed to pick up. There was some joking speculation that seeing a law office on the caller ID might be giving pause to a few people.

"Jesse, do I have to call you?" yells John from one room to the other.

"No."

"Thanks" says John.

Most calls followed the script:

"Hi, I'm _____ from the Selectboard. I'm calling to remind you about the Special Town Meeting at Academy School at 6:15 tomorrow night. Voting is all day Friday at the Town Clerk's office. Hope you can make it."

Occasionally a call would reach a an acquaintance, and Selectboard members demonstrated skill at sticking to business.

"No. I have to go. I have 8,000 calls I have to make tonight. I'll talk with you soon."


In just over an hour, the calls had been made and the lists tallied. No clear quorum had emerged, but most Selectboard members were optimistic. A special meeting, one told me, has never failed to reach a quorum.