Cape Ann public meetings

Every public meeting in the Meeting Finder: the main town boards in Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea back to 2024, plus every meeting coming up on the town, school district and library calendars. Each row has the date, time, place and status, links to the town's own agenda, packet, minutes and video, our meeting page and a calendar file.

Type: Dataset (downloadable files)
Towns: Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea
Topics: Government, Meetings, Schools
Geographic coverage: Public boards and committees of Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, their school districts and the Sawyer Free Library
Time coverage: January 2024 to the meetings now scheduled, with older years added as the archive grows
Version: Data release 1.0.20261008
Last released: 2026-10-08
Expected updates: Daily, after the evening calendar and agenda check
Rights: Public meeting notices and records of Massachusetts towns and school districts. We publish facts (board, date, time, place, status) and links to the government's own copies. Our summaries, structure and meeting pages are offered under our Free Access and Attribution Policy.
Policy: Cape Ann Current Free Access and Attribution Policy, version 1.0

Preview of the data

First 8 rows of the meetings table (478 rows in all), first 6 columns.

Sample rows
meeting_id	town	board	date	weekday
gloucester-city-council-2024-01-01	Gloucester	City Council	2024-01-01	Monday
manchester-by-the-sea-select-board-2024-01-02	Manchester-by-the-Sea	Select Board	2024-01-02	Tuesday
essex-board-of-selectmen-2024-01-08	Essex	Board of Selectmen	2024-01-08	Monday
gloucester-city-council-2024-01-09	Gloucester	City Council	2024-01-09	Tuesday
rockport-select-board-2024-01-09	Rockport	Select Board	2024-01-09	Tuesday
essex-board-of-selectmen-2024-01-11	Essex	Board of Selectmen	2024-01-11	Thursday
manchester-by-the-sea-select-board-2024-01-11	Manchester-by-the-Sea	Select Board	2024-01-11	Thursday
manchester-by-the-sea-select-board-2024-01-16	Manchester-by-the-Sea	Select Board	2024-01-16	Tuesday

Download

Before you download: This resource includes data from external sources. Reusers must comply with all applicable source licenses, terms of use, policies, attribution requirements, and redistribution restrictions. Cape Ann Current's reuse policy does not override those requirements or grant rights held by others. Credit Cape Ann Current as shown below. The README and NOTICE files travel with every format.

JSON (everything)CSV files (ZIP with notes)Excel workbook README (methods and fields)NOTICE (credit and source rules)Schema Changelog

Single CSV tables

meetings.csv (478 rows)
boards.csv (4 rows)
sources.csv (6 rows)

Each CSV is plain UTF-8 with one header row. Missing values are empty cells. Read README.txt for the fields and NOTICE.txt for credit and source rules; both are in the ZIP.

Stable addresses

Always the newest release: https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/cape-ann-public-meetings/latest/cape-ann-public-meetings.json
Fixed version 1.0.20261008: https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/cape-ann-public-meetings/1.0.20261008/cape-ann-public-meetings.json

These are static files. There is no API, key or account. Files are cached for up to an hour; please download once and reuse your copy rather than fetching on every page view.

How to credit

Every public use, including on government websites, must show this credit near the reused material, with a clickable link to this page:

Source: Cape Ann Current. Link: https://capeanncurrent.com/data-tools/cape-ann-public-meetings/

If you change it: Adapted from Cape Ann Current. Changes made by [organization name].

Copy this credit (HTML)

<p>Source: <a href="https://capeanncurrent.com/data-tools/cape-ann-public-meetings/">Cape Ann Current</a>.</p>

A credit only in metadata, code, a tooltip or a site footer does not count. Read the Free Access and Attribution Policy.

Methodology

Built each night from the same records as the Meeting Finder. Past meetings of the four pilot boards (Gloucester City Council, Rockport Select Board, Essex Board of Selectmen, Manchester Select Board) come from the Public Meeting Archive, our index of the towns' agenda centers and minutes archives. Upcoming meetings of every board come from the town, school district and library calendars, read every morning. Status is upcoming, cancelled, minutes posted or minutes not yet posted. The short version is our own plain words summary and appears only after the editor approves it. Links go to the town's own copies; we do not copy agendas, packets or minutes into this dataset.

Definitions

status: upcoming (today or later), cancelled (the calendar or agenda says so), minutes posted, or minutes not yet posted.
start time: 24 hour time (HH:MM) in Eastern Time, from the calendar or agenda. Empty when the town did not list one.
pilot board: true for the four boards whose past meetings we track back to 2024 and summarize.
short version: Our plain words summary of the agenda or the minutes. Empty until the editor approves one.
listed by: Where the meeting came from: the town agenda center (archive index) or a town, school or library calendar.
calendar file: An .ics file for Apple Calendar or Outlook, for meetings still to come.

Limitations

Calendars change. Always check the town's agenda before you go; the town's own posting is the official notice.
Past meetings are complete only for the four pilot boards. Other boards appear once they are on a town calendar.
Some calendars list only the next two weeks, so meetings further out appear as towns post them.
Times and places are as the towns listed them. Meetings can be added, moved or cancelled after our nightly check.
The town's approved minutes are the official record of what was decided, not our summaries.

Sources and their rules

External sources. This resource includes data from external sources. Reusers must comply with all applicable source licenses, terms of use, policies, attribution requirements, and redistribution restrictions. Cape Ann Current's reuse policy does not override those requirements or grant rights held by others.

Our policy and each source's own conditions both apply. Where they differ, the source's conditions govern the source's material. Underlying facts are not owned by anyone; we never claim them.

Sources, rights and required credits
Source	Rights and terms	Required source credit	Not covered by our policy	Retrieved / rights reviewed
Agenda center, minutes and meeting calendar City of Gloucester, Mass.	public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the city's own copies.	City of Gloucester	Our policy does not cover the city's documents themselves; link to the city's copies.	2026-10-08 2026-10-08
Agendas, minutes and meeting calendar Town of Rockport, Mass.	public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the town's own copies.	Town of Rockport	Our policy does not cover the town's documents themselves; link to the town's copies.	2026-10-08 2026-10-08
Agendas, minutes and meeting calendar Town of Essex, Mass.	public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the town's own copies.	Town of Essex	Our policy does not cover the town's documents themselves; link to the town's copies.	2026-10-08 2026-10-08
Agenda center, minutes and meeting calendar Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.	public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the town's own copies.	Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea	Our policy does not cover the town's documents themselves; link to the town's copies.	2026-10-08 2026-10-08
School committee and district meeting calendars Gloucester Public Schools, Rockport Public Schools, Manchester Essex Regional School District	public record Public meeting notices of school committees and district boards. We publish facts and link to the district's own calendar.	The school district named on each meeting	Our policy does not cover the districts' documents themselves; link to their copies.	2026-10-08 2026-10-08
Board of Trustees and committee meeting calendar Sawyer Free Library, Gloucester	public record Posted public meeting notices of the library's trustees and committees. We publish facts and link to the library's own calendar.	Sawyer Free Library	Our policy does not cover the library's documents themselves; link to its copies.	2026-10-08 2026-10-08

Restricted components

Not included: minutes text, packets, public comment and anything about private residents.

Rights and reuse

Public meeting notices and records of Massachusetts towns and school districts. We publish facts (board, date, time, place, status) and links to the government's own copies. Our summaries, structure and meeting pages are offered under our Free Access and Attribution Policy.

Free under our Free Access and Attribution Policy for websites, businesses, news organizations, government agencies, schools, libraries and nonprofits whose website or publication does not run a paywall for news or informational content. School systems that require logins for student privacy qualify.

Report a correction

See a wrong date, time or link? Email [email protected]. The town's own posting is the official notice.