Long before Texas gave the world its better-known gift to democracy, George W. Bush, it gave the Vineyard Deborah Medders.

It was 1988 when Ms. Medders came to the Island from the Lone Star state, and saw for the first time that unique New England exercise in participatory democracy which is town meeting. She was enthralled.

“I remember so clearly my first town meeting, winter 1988. I was just so taken with this government of the people by the people,” said Ms. Medders this week, after presiding over yet another town meeting.

It was the first of two regular meetings Tisbury holds each year: the town divides its meeting into two parts, a non-appropriating one, and the financial one, which happens next week.

It went smoothly, as usual. And also as usual, even after nine years in the moderator’s job, she was struck by what she calls “the intelligence of the floor.”

With that phrase, she provided the neatest summation of the four town moderators the Gazette spoke to this week about what it takes to run a good meeting. But everyone else, in one way or another, articulated the same view: the secret of success lies more with the townspeople than with the moderator.

Even allowing for some modesty, there is an essential truth there. The success of democracy relies on an informed polity.

But there is more to it as well. So the moderators shared some of their views on how to make a town meeting work well.

Jeff Norton’s summation went pretty much like the Edgartown meetings he presides over each year: to the point, a touch of wit, and over quickly.

“You let it feed on itself and go as smooth as possible. If people get to fighting, try to stave it off. Balance the speakers, pros and cons. Add a little humor to keep it light.”

And that, with only minor elaboration, was it. Among the various moderators, Mr. Norton was by far the most concise in reply.

His brevity perhaps reflects a few advantages he has as a moderator, the first being long experience. He could not even count how many years he had been doing the job, but said he began sometime in the 1970s.

That brings a certain intuitive understanding of where things are going.

“I used to know what everyone was going to say before they said it,” Mr. Norton said. “Now, because there’s a lot more people here, I don’t always know, but you get a sense.”

A second advantage, of course is that Edgartown is a rich town.

Thirdly, he said, his job was made easier by the way other town officials did their jobs.

“I think the voters depend on the department heads, and feel that they do a good job. So whatever is on the warrant that the departments have requested, they usually get it — even the 2 1/2 overrides.”

“Let people talk as much as they want as long as they don’t get too far off the beaten path. Other than that it’s just logic.”

As for his longevity in the job, he makes two points.

“Historically, throughout the state, moderators don’t usually get challenged, unless you’re really a bad guy, too one-sided.”

Second, speaking for himself: “You’ve got to be at town meeting anyway. You may as well be doing something.”

He said he had taken a “quick look” at this year’s warrant, and anticipated little problem.

“Doesn’t look like there’s many articles. Nothing much that’s controversial, I guess.”

Other veteran Vineyard moderators include Everett Poole of Chilmark and Walter Delaney of Aquinnah.

Mr. Delaney is coming up on 33 years. Like Mr. Norton, he knows everyone and where they’re coming from.

He keeps a running list of everyone who wants to speak (by first names) and works his way methodically around the room, giving people the call, row by row. Everyone who wants to usually gets to speak, although he says, “I can pretty much tell when people are getting restless and want to move on.”

He doesn’t spend too much time worrying about what might be on the warrant, just takes things as they come.

Ms. Medders’s approach is a little more methodical. While her colleagues took a little notice of what was on the meeting warrant before the meeting, she spent about a month beforehand, going over all the issues.

“I find the time that I spend with the town boards and commissions and committees, hearing their background on the articles, along with the finance advisory committee is a big help,” she said.

“I start attending meetings, giving particular attention to those articles that are anticipated to be emotional. It gives me a sense of the sponsor’s intent, and the pro and con arguments.”

You could see her preparation working for her at Tuesday’s special town meeting, when on just a few occasions she intervened between interlocutors to clarify questions or answers.

In general she, like Mr. Norton, is a proponent of the “let them talk it out” school.

Unless, that is, someone begins to personalize an argument (“I use my stern voice,” she said), or others in the crowd are clearly tired of the argument and ready to vote and move on.

Ms. Medders, with her unique perspective based on Tisbury’s split-meeting system, believes non-appropriating articles can be every bit as emotional as those dealing with spending. But the general consensus among the moderators was that town meetings do get harder when economic times get harder.

And given that fact, Oak Bluffs moderator Dave Richardson is anticipating a “difficult” meeting this year.

He said he based this in part on things said to him by people he had “run into on the street.” The Oak Bluffs warrant also promises controversy.

The town faces some hard decisions this year. The proposed budget is up some 20 per cent and there are overrides and debt exclusions which he said would mean a tax increase of about $150 for an average household, or else some deep cuts in services.

How does a moderator handle that? Well, he said, two aids are the advice from the financial advisory committee for indications of priorities and the presence of town counsel for indications on legalities.

A key thing, though, is not to force the pace of acceptance. Give people time to talk it through.

Although town meetings get held up to criticism if they run long, he said, “My feeling is that it is the people’s meeting.”

This will be his 10th meeting with Oak Bluffs. Before that, he was moderator in Marshfield. He got into it, he said, because his predecessor came to be seen as partisan and inconsistent.

His most difficult meeting? It was the first one he ever presided over, in 1977, when a movement called Taxpayers Revolt saw the usual meeting numbers swell from 200 or 250 to about 1,600. The meeting went five nights.

Pat Gregory, moderator in West Tisbury, has never experienced anything like that. In his 15-odd years, only one meeting has gone into a second night.

“West Tisbury people seem to want to get the work done,” he said.

He assists by tactfully silencing people who have talked beyond making their point, or wanting to speak too many times.

“As a moderator, you don’t have to recognize everyone with their hand up,” he said.

“Afterwards, you are likely to hear from someone who says, ‘I had one more thing I wanted to say,” and then someone else who says, ‘Thank God we didn’t have to hear any more of that.

“So, it’s a dance.”

Mr. Gregory was inspired to run for the job of moderator by his experience as a teacher at the West Tisbury school.

“We had community meetings once a week, with my combined sixth, seventh and eighth grade classroom, where the kids would put up points and then vote on them. That’s what made me think to run.”

He said running a town meeting was not unlike running a classroom.

“You want to move things along, so the germane arguments are heard, but you don’t take forever to get done. I try to ensure no individual dominates, and reasonable voices on both sides are heard.”

He has seen the economy cycle through a couple of downturns in his time, and concedes it can make for harder meetings. But good things can come out of a bit of forced fiscal rectitude, he said, citing the example of a downturn about 12 years ago, when the meeting balked at the cost of the health insurance, which led eventually to the town finding a new, cheaper package.

But whether the times are hard or easy, town meetings go on proving the same things, he said.

“Democracy works,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. It’s pretty inspiring.”