Name change for Upton board?

‘Selectmen’ may switch to gender-neutral title

UPTON – Upton could be the latest Massachusetts community to switch to a gender-neutral title for its top governing board, depending on what happens at next month’s special town meeting.

Selectmen plan to bring two articles to this year’s special town meeting Nov. 7 that would change the name of their panel. The first article proposes to change the name from “board of selectmen” to “select board” in Upton’s local general and zoning bylaws. The second article seeks residents’ approval to petition the Legislature to change the name.

If both articles receive majority approval, the town would join a growing list of communities that have done the same.

“It’s not something new,” Upton Town Manager Joseph Laydon told the Daily News. “Many towns have made this change. The state agency that represents board of selectmen members (the Massachusetts Select Board Association) changed its own name to reflect change.

“The board of selectmen identified at this time that this might be the right time for Upton,” Laydon added.

Upton’s current three-member board of selectmen contains two women – Chair Maureen Dwinnell and Laura Hebb, the latter of whom joined after winning election in May. The third member is Brett Simas.

None of the three selectmen returned requests from the Daily News for comment.

More municipal boards switch to gender neutral designations

Several towns near Upton – including Milford, Hopkinton, Westborough, Grafton, Mendon and Hopedale – have made the change. In January 2021, the former Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association was renamed to become the Massachusetts Select Board Association.

Advocates for the change have flagged the use of “man” or “men” in titles as casual gender bias and have said the gender-specific term is a subtle way of discouraging women from running for the highest local office.

Most cities already had genderneutral titles, such as “city council,”

when a push to remove gender from top boards began to gain momentum in 2019. Massachusetts’ last “board of aldermen,” in Melrose, changed to “city council” that year.

That made title changes an issue for towns, where townwide approval was needed at the centuries-old New England tradition of town meeting.

The movement to change the names of municipalities’ governing bodies has faced opposition, citing tradition and cost.

How much does it cost to change to select board?

A 2021 Daily News survey of seven communities in which “board of selectmen” either became “select board” or “selectboard” in the previous year, or were in the process of doing so, found that expenses ranged from less than $1,000 to close to $8,000.

Costs cited by the seven communities included those associated with calling a town meeting or local election, changing letterhead or nameplates and legal fees.

Most town officials pegged the cost as not significant or “minimal.”

Milford changed its top governing body’s name in 2021. At the time, its finance director estimated it would cost $1,000 to $2,000.

Ashland ended up with the highest estimate, about $8,000, as the change required hiring an outside company to rework the town’s bylaws, replacing “selectmen” with the newly chosen title, select board.

The Nov. 7 special town meeting, which will be conducted in open town meeting format, takes place at 7 p.m. at Nipmuc Regional High School.

The movement to change the names of municipalities’ governing bodies has faced opposition, citing tradition and cost.