Presentation Guidelines

 Falmouth Town Meeting Electronic Presentation Guidelines 

The Town Meeting Rules & Procedures Committee developed these guidelines to draw attention to the need for clear and concise electronic presentations at Town Meeting.
 

1. Individuals interested in making a PowerPoint presentation at Town Meeting should prepare their electronic presentation in advance and contact the Information Technology Department prior to Town Meeting to make arrangements for the presentation to be loaded onto a computer assigned for Town Meeting presentations.  (IT Department 508-495-7400) If the presentation file is not too large, (less than 20 MB) please email your electronic presentation to ithelp@falmouth.freshdesk.com no later than 10:00AM on the first day of the town meeting.  The IT staff will scan the presentation for viruses; make sure that your presentation opens properly and place them into the electronic presentation folder for the meeting.  Please make sure that you provide your contact information in your email.  Additionally, if you have special instructions regarding how you would like your slides advanced, please include these in your email.  IT staff will not modify the content of your presentation.  
   
   
2. 
   
   • A PowerPoint presentation using the supplied template is strongly suggested. We are unable to present non-PowerPoint files effectively. 
     
   • PDFs and image files should be placed into the template PowerPoint. 
   • Videos should also be embedded into a PowerPoint. 
   • We are unable to display content that is hosted on the internet.
     
     PowerPoint template: https://www.falmouthma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3949/Town-Meeting-PowerPoint-Template
      
3. Slide Presentations should meet the following guidelines, designed to allow for best possible viewing in the auditorium.
   
   
   • Recommended text styles include Arial, Times New Roman, and Verdana.
   • Title text should be a minimum of 32 point font.
   • Bullet text should be a minimum of 28 point font.
   • Sub-bullet text should be a minimum of 24 point font.
   • Background color should be light or dark (for example; white, black, dark blue)
   • Font color should be at the highest contrast possible from the background color. If you choose to use a light background color, then a dark font color should be used. If you choose to use a dark background color, then a light font color should be used. For example, a white background should have a black, dark blue, or maroon text. A dark blue background should have a white text color.
   • Graphs, charts, pictures and maps should have clear, visible titles.  Detailed charts and graphs that may be difficult to view on the screen should be provided to the Meeting as handouts.
   • For your convenience there is also a PowerPoint template that has been preset to meet the above guidelines. The Town Meeting Presentation Template can be found at this link: 
     https://www.falmouthma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/3949/Town-Meeting-PowerPoint-Template
     
   • Please do not remove the first or last slide with the Town Seal.  This slide serves as the placeholder on the viewing screen while presentations are being loaded between presenters.
4. Once you have completed your presentation, please save your file (Save As command) using the following naming convention: 
   Meeting-Article#-PresenterName.ppt example: 2019april-03-smith.ppt
   Email final presentations to ithelp@falmouth.freshdesk.com. If you do not receive confirmation of receipt of your presentation by noon on the day of town meeting, please reach out to the IT Department at 508-495-7400
   
   
5. The Town Meeting Rules & Procedures Committee highly recommends rehearsing your Power Point presentations and being mindful of the length and clarity of your presentation.