First off, KUDOS again to all the entities in government that have audio recordings and are making them available in a timely manner so that ANY CITIZEN can go listen to a meeting after it happens. The City of Glen Rose got a digital recorder a couple of months ago and had been testing it out. The quality is excellent and the 2 built in microphones on the Tascam DR07 pick up the entire room, in a crisp manner. Anyone that wants to get a copy of the recording will find it quick work to do, as the audio is an MP3 file. (That's as opposed to having to listen to an entire tape recording while feeding out to a digital recorder-there's no way to speed it up, if it takes 2 hours to listen to the tape, it takes 2 hours to make a copy).

I don't know what the reason is that this last 4b meeting didn't have the digital recorder handy nor any tapes. So neither method was available for making an audio. Seems to me that, while the city clerks might have the responsibility to make sure that equipment is out there, the people running the meeting need to double-check that that is so. This particular meeting was held on a Tuesday instead of a Monday and that increased the chances for someone to forget to lay out the recorder/tapes in advance. At this last meeting, none of the newspaper reporters were there and no recording was made (except by me). So the ONLY way that anyone could know what exactly was said was because he or she comes to this site to listen or download the file.

That's the second time in a row to happen. The GREDC meeting that was held in October at Barnard's Mill was also not recorded. That's a shame, because several times in the discussions held in the meeting the other day, someone would reference what was said at the other meeting. 

My own personal goal is to get to the point where I attend a government meeting only particularly because I see something on the agenda that makes me want to be there in person. Otherwise, being able, after the fact, to easily hear what happened is a wonderful action by the governmental body which held the meeting. That includes GRISD, Somervell County Water District, GRMC (which typically holds meetings at 8:00 in the morning), Somervell County Commissioners Court, and the City of Glen Rose. The GREDC should, in my opinion, take an extra step to make sure that meetings are recorded as well.