Adjourning Meeting / Postpone Meeting

[Guest John]

All,

I have two (2) questions for the fine members of this message board:

1. If a motion to adjourn is made by a member, and seconded, and the Chair brings it to a vote (say 3 for and 3 against) what happens to the motion?  Does it fail as it doesn't have majority (which I believe is required)? 

2. If the above scenario plays out and a motion to adjourn fails, can a Motion be made to Postpone the Meeting to a certain time if a majority agrees (for instance 1 week from date of meeting)?  

[Guest Zev]

22 minutes ago, Guest John said:

1. If a motion to adjourn is made by a member, and seconded, and the Chair brings it to a vote (say 3 for and 3 against) what happens to the motion?  Does it fail as it doesn't have majority (which I believe is required)? 

A motion that fails to receive a majority, if that is the current threshold for that particular motion (some motions require a different threshold), then that motion fails.

24 minutes ago, Guest John said:

2. If the above scenario plays out and a motion to adjourn fails, can a Motion be made to Postpone the Meeting to a certain time if a majority agrees (for instance 1 week from date of meeting)?  

We do not call something by the name "Postpone the Meeting." In this business we have a motion by the weird name of "Fix The Time To Which To Adjourn" (what a mouthful) that establishes a meeting in the future as a continuation of the current meeting. That meeting then picks up where this meeting left off.

If any motion to Adjourn fails then is seems fairly reasonable to assume that the current meeting wishes to continue the consideration of its business until such time as they then feel the necessity of adjourning.

[Richard Brown]

The motion to adjourn fails if it does not receive a majority vote. Keep in mind, however, that the chair may cast the deciding vote. If this is a small board, the chair may always vote.

 

The motion to adjourn fails if it does not receive a majority vote. Keep in mind, however, that the chair may cast the deciding vote. If this is a small board, the chair may always vote.

if a motion to adjourn failed to receive a majority vote, the assembly may still adopt a motion to set an adjourned meeting.

8 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

We do not call something by the name "Postpone the Meeting." In this business we have a motion by the weird name of "Fix The Time To Which To Adjourn" (what a mouthful) that establishes a meeting in the future as a continuation of the current meeting. That meeting then picks up where this meeting left off. 

A minor quibble.   An adjourned meeting is actually a new meeting in continuation of the current session, rather than a continuation of the same meeting. It is technically a separate meeting just as a session of a convention may be composed of several meetings.