How to use the carverma.org website
Welcome to carverma.org, the official web site of the Town of Carver, Massachusetts!
Here is a presentation on how to use the major features of the web site.
Here's how to contact the Website Committee.
This site is designed primarily to communicate important information to the residents of the town. As such, it is designed to allow efficient access to frequently-updated information. To provide this efficient access, this website employs several ways of presenting information that are used on most pages of the web site.
The only three things you have to know...
1: Toggle Items
Not all information is of interest to every visitor to the website. Therefore information is often presented as a title that may be clicked to show additional detail. You can recognize these toggling titles by the right-pointing triangle to the left of the headline. (You don't have to click on the triangle to toggle the item; clicking anywhere in the red rectangle will do.)
2: More Information Buttons
Whenever you see a "plus sign" button next to some text, it means there is more information available about the text. Click the plus sign to display the information. When you click the plus sign, the information is displayed and the plus sign turns into a minus sign. When you click the minus sign, the information is hidden again. Try it:-
This is some informational text. Click the plus sign if you want more information.
This is some additional information. Try clicking on the minus sign to hide this information again.
-
This is a link to a file, or to another web site, or to a picture, or...
Here's some information about the link. For instance, it might tell you that the file is very large, or give you a snippet of information about the web site that will help you decide if you want to go there, or provide some background information about the picture, or... In the case of this link, we might point out that it's a farily large photo that may take some time to download. Or we may simply point out that it's an unusual picture.
3: Look to the right!
On the right side of the home page there are several toggle items that display important information. You may not notice these if your browser window does not display the whole website page. So when you visit carverma.org...scroll your window to the right!
Additional information you can skip over...
General Site Navigation
The navigation bar to the left of each page (including this one) is probably the most straightforward way to move around the site.
Additionally, in all pages (except the home page) you may click the Town of Carver logo in the upper left corner of the page to return to the home page.
Additionally, in the black bar beneath the logo (in all pages but the home page) there a "breadcrumb" navigation (think Hansel and Gretel) that tells you where you are in the website. This may be useful if you have clicked through several different pages and would like to return to an earlier level.
Additionally, in the black bar beneath the logo on the home page only, are convenience links directly to frequently-visited parts of the web site.
Main Headlines
At the center of the home page, below the large photograph (try clicking the photo), you'll find the "News and Recent Developments" section. These are important and/or urgent announcements from the Selectmen, Town Clerk, or Town Administrator's offices. Other town departments may request that the Town Administrator's office post information as well, provided it is of general interest and otherwise appropriate.
You may click each item for more information.
Departmental Headline Summaries on Home Page
Headlines are an efficient way for a town department to keep the residents informed of any department-specific issues.
Rather than ask residents to visit each department page to see if there are any headlines of interest, headlines for all departments are summarized on the home page.
Additionally, Boards and Committees that do not have their own town web page may also post headlines.
There is a toggle item on the upper right side of the home page that gives a summary of departmental headlines from all departments. When the item is toggled, a short summary of each headline appears in reverse chronological order (newest headlines first).
When you click the bar, a summary of each headline is displayed. If a particular headline looks interesting, you may click on the department name to go to that department's headline page to investigate the headline in detail.
If there are too many departmental headlines to display in the space available, click the "see all department headlines" link at the bottom of the list to see all headlines.
Public Meetings
On the right side of the home page, beneath the toggle item for department headlines, is a toggle item for public meetings. Toggling it will display summaries of upcoming public meetings for the 100-or-so Town of Carver and Regional Boards, Commissions, and Committees.
For reasons of space, only the first several upcoming public meetings are displayed.
- To see all upcoming public meetings, click the "see all upcoming public meetings" link at the bottom of the displayed list.
- To see public meetings that have already taken place, click the "see recent past public meetings" link.
- To search all public meetings on record, click the "search public meetings" link.
Getting More Information About Public Meetings
Public meeting information is provided as a service to visitors to the Town of Carver website. While we make customary efforts to provide correct information on this website, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is correct. Please see the website disclaimer.
Before you attend a public meeting, it may save you time or make your time more productive if you get information about the meeting beforehand:
- If a public meeting has been canceled, there will be a red "canceled" label next to the Board, Commission, or Committee name.
- If the time, date, or location of a public meeting has been changed since its original posting, there will be a blue "changed" label next to the name.
-
If you click the plus sign next to the time and date of the public meeting,
additional information will be displayed about the meeting:
- The day of the week the meeting will take place.
- The location of the meeting.
- The meeting agenda as well as any revised agendas.
- The meeting minutes (only if the meeting has already taken place, of course) as well as any revised minutes.
- A video of the meeting, if the meeting has been recorded by CCAT. Generally, only Board of Selectmen, Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and School Committee meetings are recorded.
- Any other files, maps, spreadsheets, photographs, etc. that the Board, Commission, or Committee has uploaded for the meeting.
Subscriptions
You can "subscribe" to receive automatic notifications to your personal email. For example, you can subscribe to be informed of new public meetings, department or main headlines, upcoming elections and tax bill deadlines, and non-emergency public safety announcements. See the subscriptions page for more information.
Special Note About "Fake" Meetings and Headlines
This website does not have a single webmaster or a website administrator, because the Town can't afford one. To deal with this issue the Website Committee has designed the web site to have several dozen administrators.
Each department, committee, commission, and board is responsible for posting its own public meetings and headlines. As a result, new administrators are continually being trained to post meetings and headlines. For that reason, you may see a posting or two from a department called "Administrator Training (ignore)" or "Admin Trn (ignore)" or something similar. These headlines and meetings are simply byproducts of an administrator training session, and will be removed, typically within minutes of their being created.
Please ignore the content of such headlines and meetings, because it is likely to be completely ficticious.