2026 Life Logs, Day 153: Heather Named Select Board Chair
Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Chilly AM; High Temp 69, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The Early Edition of The Falmouth Enterprise came online today (see article below). At last night’s Select Board meeting, Heather was nominated and elected chair by the other four members of the Board. A Select Board Chair is not the same as a mayor, but they both hold the top leadership roles in their communities. Select Boards act collectively as the executive arm in their communities and the Chair runs the meetings and signs documents and probably gets thousands of complaints and the ‘opportunity’ to address those issues. However, the Chair, along with the Vice Chair, set the meeting agendas, and that is a type of power. Falmouth’s Select Board hires a Town Manager and an Assistant Town Manager to deal with the day-to-day issues, but still, as I have observed in Heather’s two years on the Board, it is almost like a second job as it is huge time commitment. As Heather’s very proud mother, I wish her the best in this new venture as Chair.
THE ENTERPRISE Falmouth
Goldstone Named Chairwoman; Reed Vice Chairman
By LIN LIN HUTCHINSON
The Select Board held its first meeting following the Annual Town Election this week and unanimously selected Heather M.H. Goldstone as its new chairwoman.
Goldstone was nominated by board member Colin W. Reed, with the nomination seconded by outgoing chairman Robert P. Mascali. Douglas C. Brown expressed interest in serving as chairman but did not receive a nomination from fellow board members.
In accepting the nomination, Goldstone reflected on her reasons for seeking elected office and the challenges facing the town.
“I ran for office because I saw our town had major issues that we needed to be confronting,” Goldstone said.
She noted that board members identified similar motivations during the town’s strategic planning process and pointed to the board’s achievements.
“We have made a lot of progress in my time on the board in surfacing some issues that are a bit overdue and starting to develop action plans,” she said, citing long-term finances, coastal resilience and housing among the topics receiving the most attention.
Looking ahead, Goldstone said the board will need to work closely with town management to address competing priorities.
“I think we are at a point where we really need to step up and level up how this board is working together as a team,” she said.
Goldstone also highlighted her experience as a facilitator.
“I am a trained and certified facilitative leader,” she said. “That means I’ve spent a bunch of time gaining a skillset to help groups coalesce around a shared vision and work strategically to achieve that.”
Paraphrasing advice she recently received from state Representative David Vieira (R-3rd Barnstable), Goldstone said, “Elections are a competition; governing is a team sport.” She said it is important to recognize that board members bring different strengths and represent different constituencies and life experiences.
