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Preface To the Citizens of Lexington: December 31, 1966 Last Spring this committee accepted from the Board of Selectmen the assignment of reviewing earlier town reports and redesigning Lexington's 1966 annual report. Attached is our response. Citizens familiar with former reports immediately recognize a change in size. We made this change to achieve greater flexibility in makeup and typographical layout. Of considerably greater real importance, however, is a complete re- organization of the contents. We did this, because of our conviction that an annual report should be oriented to all citizens of the town. We believed that to obtain readability there should be a division between the departmental "state of the union" messages which could be presumed to have wide general interest, as contrasted with the detailed (much of it legally required) statistical information which would have deep interest only for those intimately associated with Lexington's town government. We resolved the problem by dividing the report into two sections: Part 1 intended for the general reader and Part 2 intended for those interested in town government details. Part 1 was delivered to all residents. A limited number of copies (700) of Parts 1 and 2 were bound together for use of town meeting members and others. The combined sections constitute the official town report. Primarily our committee acted as a planning and coordinating agent. We assigned space in Part 1 as equitably as we could but we left to each department or committee the decision as to division of space between photographs, tables, graphs, or the written word. Our responsibility has been to prepare and present as attractively as we knew how the information with which we were supplied. Some of the departments, despite our urgings, modestly preferred not to supply personal photographs. The ice having been broken, we hope in another year to have photographs of all committees and of all department heads. As to cost: Because we typed the report, because we used offset printing, and because we used fewer but larger pages we expect to hold the expense, including delivery, to approximately $5, 000 for 9000 copies. Last year's report, of a significantly greater number of pages but of smaller size, printed by letter press and without any delivery expenses, cost $2300 for 800 copies. We invite, indeed we need, constructive criticisms and suggestions covering this report. What have you liked about it? What haven't you liked? How can next year's committee tailor the 1967 report to be a more effective instrument of communication between the committees, boards, and department heads of Lexington's town government and the citizens whom they serve? Louis A. Zehner, Chairman Wallace B. Baylies Nancy Hudson Elizabeth H. Clarke Jack L. Mitchell Albert Gray, Jr. Ex- Officio Frank H. Totman