In Other News - What's going on in Town?

by Glenn C. Koenig, webmaster at Town Wide Mall

Maynard, MA - Although Maynard is a small town, both in size (just 3 square miles, effectively) and in population (around 11,000, give or take), it's a very active place!  But, without any central reference, such as a local newspaper, how does anyone find out about all the events and activities going on, in order to choose those in which they might be interested?  To help answer that, I decided to post this article.
Here are some links to sources I know about so far.  If you think I’ve left something important out, please let me know and I will add a link.  Also, if you see any errors here, please inform me.  I want this to be a true community effort, and as such, I invite you to help maintain and improve it.

• Discover Maynard
https://discovermaynard.com
This site includes a calendar of community events, along with a list of shops, restaurants, and activities in town.  It's sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and donations.

• Maynard Town Government
https://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov
As you might expect, this site includes information related to all town departments, a calendar of meetings and other events related to government, including voting and elections, as well as a guide to services the town provides and how to access them.

• Maynard's School Department
https://www.maynard.k12.ma.us
Although the public schools are part of town government, they have their own web site, with its own calendar of events, and other information regarding resources provided by the schools.

• Maynard Public Library
https://www.maynardpubliclibrary.org
Again, the Library is a part of town government, but it also has its own web site, calendar of events, and other information about library services.

• Action Unlimited
https://www.actionunlimited.com
The Action Unlimited is a for-profit weekly publication with a primary content of display and classifiec advertising by local businesses and individuals.  It is intended to be mailed to every household in Maynard, typically arriving on Fridays.  It also carries some notices of community events. Each edition typically covers a group of two, three, or four towns.  Their web site provides a way to read each edition online, even if you don't receive one in the mail.

=== Comment ===

Inspiration for this article:

Last Saturday evening (6 May 2023), my partner and I walked down to the center of town, just after 5 PM, to participate in ArtWalk, an annual event with artists and musicians all along Nason and Main streets, sponsored by the Maynard Business Alliance.

https://www.maynardbusinessalliance.org/spring-artwalk

After it was over, I realized that I didn’t post anything on the Town Wide Mall news feed, to herald this event.  I wondered, after this great start at creating a news site, am I slipping?

I realized that, as I’ve started to post news articles here, a few weeks ago, I’ve focused on events and issues of interest to me, or what I happened to learn about from a variety of sources.  Many people I have met, since starting this, have expressed support for what I’ve been doing.  But I'm only one person and there is so much going on in Maynard! I can only post just so much information on a regular basis; how can I possibly keep up with all that's going on?

The answer is, I don't have to! All I have to do is provide the links to other web sites, already being maintained by other people, to help people find what they are looking for.

History & Intent:

I believe that the future lies in sharing, networking, and collaborating to support and enhance life on the local level. To make that work, it's our job to link up with each other, so that each can refer to the others in a true “web like” fashion.

I designed this web site for two reasons:
• To provide a list of community groups, as suggested to me by David Mark, back in 2022
• To create a news feed, something I felt a need for, myself.

I have begun the news feed, and you are reading it here.  The list of community groups is still a work in progress, but I will have it ready soon.  I am designing it to be a “living document,” continuously updated as groups form or change (or cease), as people join or move on, as web sites are created, and so forth.

Unlike a newspaper printed on paper, this web site allows me to utilize any media that seems appropriate for the content, be it text, sound, photos, or video.  A printed newspaper cannot do that.  However, one drawback is that people without good access to high speed data, and the understanding of how to use it, are at a disadvantage.

Here is where a new idea in networking might come in.  People with high speed internet access might print out selected news or information on paper to give to their neighbors who don't have any.  Right now, this is just an idea, suggested to me by Denise, whom I know through ArtSpace.  There are questions to be answered, of course, such as how can we help people match up with each other for such a service? How might we help the people doing the printing to cover their expenses (paper, ink, printer maintenance, and their time)?  We're open to suggestions.