The Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) has recognized the towns of Leyden and Phillipston for their 2023 annual town reports.

Both towns were honored in the category of towns with a population under 5,000 people, with Leyden earning second place and Phillipston getting third place. The last time a Franklin County or North Quabbin town won the award from the MMA was in 2019, when Erving took first place in the same population category.

“We’re very proud,” Leyden Selectboard Chair Katherine DiMatteo said.

Under Massachusetts General Law, municipalities are required to produce an annual report that includes financial reports, summaries of the year’s activities, election information, and statements from town officers and boards. To encourage high-quality reports, and to celebrate outstanding ones, MMA hosts an annual town report contest to see which town can produce the best report.

Reports are judged on visual appeal, organization of material, presentation of data, ability to summarize the year’s achievements, evidence of planning for the future and the practical utility of the report.

Leyden Administrative Assistant Janell Howard said the report was a joint effort between the town’s various departments and committees, the Selectboard and herself. The boards and departments wrote and submitted their reports, Howard compiled them into a single document and DiMatteo made edits.

DiMatteo said for the 2023 report last year, they created a template that departments could use while writing their reports, which streamlined the process and made the reports more consistent.

“They could fill it out and that gave consistency,” DiMatteo said. “We made sure the typefaces were all the same, that the layout was the same, and we put a lot more pictures in.”

She said town officials switched the reports to be consistent with the fiscal year rather than the calendar year, allowing the financial reports to align with the rest of the year’s activities, and which allows the School Committee to include its financial reports.

Howard added that creating the templates was time-consuming, but made the overall process of producing the annual town report faster and easier.

The town just finished creating the 2024 annual report, which will be presented to Town Meeting voters for approval this spring, and the process was relatively quick and simple.

“This year it was pretty quick. Last year I was starting from scratch and creating the templates, so it took me a while,” Howard recounted.

In Phillipston, Selectboard Clerk Nicole Gough said the report was written by the town’s former Chief Administrative Officer Melanie Jackson, and that while the town was sad to see her go, as Jackson resigned last October, the Selectboard was incredibly grateful for all the work she did over the years, including putting together an award-winning annual report.

“We give her a lot of credit for that,” Gough said.

She said creating a report that is easy to read and understand aligns with the town’s current efforts to incorporate social media into its operations.

The Selectboard is working to get more residents involved in government by posting meeting agendas, minutes and recordings to social media.

“We’re dedicated to making sure everyone is informed and everyone has a voice,” Gough said. “That is our main goal.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.