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In order for town meetings to work, residents must do more than just vote. Standing up and speaking out on issues that one feels passionate about may be difficult for those who are not used to public speaking, but it is necessary. Richard DeVries, a long time resident of Westport, Maine, says he speaks out because it gives him input in the process that goes beyond what representative democracy offers. "It gives you an opportunity to voice your opinion. To me, casting your ballot doesn’t give you much of an opportunity to voice your opinion. You’re casting your ballot to agree with the person you’re voting for, for their views, not your views." DeVries also believes that speaking out is one of the most important parts of the process, because it forces residents consider all sides of an issue before voting on it. "It really lets you know what the community sense is all about. If I have one opinion and everyone else seems to have a different opinion, then you got to go back and say why are you really here. Why are you at that opinion point when everybody else is over there? It really makes you reexamine yourself."
 Residents speaking during the town meeting usually have something useful to say, but inevitably some will ramble on, get off topic, or worse, start yelling or verbally attacking others. To insure that the meeting stays orderly and lasts no longer than the issues require, someone is needed to oversee the proceedings. This person is the moderator, and he (or she) is probably the single most visible person at a town meeting. "I think the success of the town meeting, in part, is dependent on the town moderator. A sophisticated moderator can keep the meeting moving. What turns some people off about town meetings is that they drag on and go on too late at night and then they don’t finish the business, so they have to come back to one, two, three adjourned meetings. At those adjourned meetings you never have as many people attending. That’s a real problem. It’s the moderator, to some extent, that determines the length of the meeting" says Prof. Zimmerman. "The moderator, to me, is probably the most important officer there. Generally he is a very well respected person of the town who’s viewed as being basically non-political, very honest, very ethical and certainly has no special interest in anything on the agenda."
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