Tabling a Motion

At FLC in D5, we had a motion to table a report. This in and if itself is relatively unimportant, but the procedure is very important.

First off a good chair will never recognize a tabling motion until all issues have been thoroughly discussed.  If I was to allow a member to table a motion or report, prior to any discussion, we would have members confused and possibly irritated as to why we tabled the motion. Once a tabling motion has been accepted by the chair, there can be only discussion to the time limit of the tabling. This can be problematic, as we can not talk about the why or the reasoning behind the postponement of the motion.

If you are the Chair and encounter this issue. You must always ensure that the discussion to topic, motion or report have been complely disscussed by all the members. at that point, and that point only should a chair entertain a tabling motion. Only an inexpereanced Chair would allow a tabling motion prior to any disscusion.

If you are a member in this situation, try to amend the time limit to 10 minutes or after coffee break. This action should alert the chair that more discussion is needed.

We tabled this report for a reason "that the format wasn't right". Now, what is right, where do we go from here, why are we delaying the same report? This table motion was made to irritate and annoy the author of the report. It did no such thing, the report will be on the floor later in the same format as no one knows what is wanted. The dissucusion never took place, so now we will talk at our Kinvention, instead.