FREECAM: Board of Selectmen's Meetings on Cable & on YouTube

While nothing can really replace the timeliness of coming to a meeting of the Board of Selectmen, it certainly is possible to keep up with Selectmen's meetings without attending. Per the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, minutes of every meeting are created and posted for review. To view all available minutes of the Board of Selectmen, please click HERE, or contact the Town Clerk's office for older meetings. 

Public Access Television

Beyond minutes, did you know that meetings of the Board of Selectmen are filmed for cable access television? It’s true! Via a partnership with the Town of Middleborough, regular meetings of the Board of Selectmen & Police Sub-Committee are filmed for later broadcast on Comcast Channel 9, the channel Freetown shares with Middleborough. This is FREECAM (with Middleborough’s portion of the channel being called MCCAM). The schedule for FREECAM varies as meeting lengths allow, but the latest schedule is as follows:

  • Tuesdays at 1am & 10pm
  • Wednesdays at 4pm
  • Thursdays at 7am
  • Fridays at 1pm
  • Saturdays at 7pm

Viewing Meetings On-Demand

Both FREECAM and MCCAM understand that TV schedules don’t always work for everyone, so MCCAM has set up an on-demand video service for these meeting recordings. The way this works is that once a meeting is filmed for FREECAM, the videographer brings the recording to MCCAM offices, who upload it to the on-demand service. From there, when time allows in the Selectmen’s office, the video is then downloaded and re-uploaded to the Town’s YouTube page, where it serves as handy reference for future uses.

Click HERE for a direct link to MCCAM’s on-demand service. Helpful hint: use the search box to locate the video you are looking for. It’s typically easiest to search for the date (in the form of 6-3-19, for example!). Videos are typically labeled with “Freetown Selectmen”, “FBOS” or simply, “Selectmen”, along with the date of the meeting.

Click HERE to visit the Town’s YouTube channel.

While we would very much love for these meetings to be aired or streamed live, current technological, budgetary and staffing limitations prevent this, so unfortunately, there is a bit of lag-time involved with getting these videos on the air and online. Typically, videos are uploaded to the MCCAM on-demand service within a week of the meetings. The goal of the Selectmen’s office is to get the videos up within a week as well; when that is not possible, they are uploaded as soon as the staff is able.

What about the Regional School District?

Regional School Committee and other Regional School programming is also available! School programming is available via a partnership with Lakeville Community Access Media, or LakeCAM. The LakeCAM staff handles all of the legwork there.

Click HERE for a link to the LakeCAM site, which includes scheduling information and how to access their videos on-demand!