Motion to deny?

[Guest Brooke]

At a meeting, during open forum, a request was made to the board. The board did not want to move forward with the request and no motions were made. Then a discussion of Robert’s was had. Do they need a motion? Are motions always positive? Tabling would also give the wrong impression as they were never going to approve the request. Ultimately, they made a dumb motion for it to fail and moved on but what would have been the proper procedure to say a request was made in open forum and… nothing happened or unanimously denied.

[Gary Novosielski]

The general rule is that it is frivolous to make a motion that would, if passed, have the same effect as doing nothing.  For example, a motion not to participate in an event, if passed, would mean the society would not participate.  But if it failed, or if no motion at all was made, they still would not participate.

So motions should generally be made in a positive form.  Move that the request be granted, even if you oppose it, and then vote No.

[Atul Kapur]

"Open Forum " suggests that the request came from a non-member of the body that was meeting and would decide. If, after the request was made, no member was willing to make a motion to grant the request, the meeting moves on.

There is no need to have a motion to respond to the request, unless the body's rules require that there be one (some municipal councils require that).