Tabled Items not motions

[Guest Secretary]

If a subject is discussed at a meeting, but is never motioned, and the board tables it for further discussion, does it go in the minutes?

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

Discussion never goes in the minutes.

[Guest Zev]

How can something be tabled and yet it never was a motion? Strange.

[Joshua Katz]

Unless you are using small board rules, you shouldn't be having discussion without motions.  (And my guess is your organization now knows why - because it produces a long, directionless conversation resolving nothing, which you can decide will have to be dealt with at the next meeting.)  Nonetheless, you did - but the discussion doesn't go in the minutes.  It is probably closer to true to say that an agenda item was postponed until a definite time, but I'm not sure since I don't know exactly what happened.

[Josh Martin]

14 hours ago, Guest Secretary said:

If a subject is discussed at a meeting, but is never motioned, and the board tables it for further discussion, does it go in the minutes?

For future reference, the motion to Lay on the Table is not in order when no motion is pending (and is probably not the proper motion to use even if a motion is pending - see FAQ #12 and FAQ #13 for more information). I am not sure what exactly the intent was in “tabling” this discussion, so I am not sure what the proper motion would have been. In any event, I agree with my colleagues that none of this belongs in the minutes.

Edited May 1, 2018 at 01:46 PM by Josh Martin