A motion to postpone to a certain time is a subsidiary motion under Robert’s Rules of Order that delays action on a pending main motion until a specific later meeting, date, hour, or event. It needs a second, is debatable, can be amended, and passes by majority vote in most cases. The point is to come back to the question at a defined time, not to kill it.
When This Motion Is the Right Tool
Because it is a subsidiary motion, you can only propose it while a main motion is actually on the floor. You cannot use it to defer something that has not been introduced yet, and it cannot stand on its own.
It fits situations where the group genuinely wants to decide the question later: a committee report is still coming, members need time to pull financial numbers together, or key people are absent and the vote should wait until they can take part. The intent is always to revisit the matter.
If the real goal is to kill a motion without a direct up-or-down vote, this is the wrong tool. That job belongs to the motion to postpone indefinitely, which is a different motion with different rules. And if something urgent needs immediate attention and the current question has to be shoved aside right now, see the section on laying on the table below.
How Far Ahead You Can Postpone
Robert’s Rules puts firm limits on how far into the future a question can be pushed.1Robert’s Rules of Order. Official Interpretations When regular sessions are no more than a quarterly time interval apart, a question can be postponed to the next regular business session but not beyond it. A group that meets weekly, for example, cannot postpone a matter two weeks out at a single meeting.
When more than a quarterly time interval will pass between sessions, as with an organization that meets once a year, the question cannot be postponed beyond the end of the current session at all.
Event-based postponement follows the same limits. If someone moves to postpone “until after the building inspector files a report,” the filing must be reasonably certain to happen before the deadline that would otherwise apply. If it might not, the safer move is to postpone to the next meeting and, if the event still has not occurred, postpone again then. Referring the matter to a committee with instructions to monitor and report back is another way around the problem.
How to Word and Make the Motion
Nail down the specific time, date, or event before you rise. Vague language will not fly. “I move to postpone the pending question until the next regular meeting” works. “I move to postpone the pending question until Tuesday, March 10, at 7:00 PM” is better when meeting times are set. “I move to postpone this until later” does not qualify, because the motion requires definiteness.
The proposed time has to fit the organization’s actual schedule. Postponing to 9:00 PM when the meeting adjourns at 8:00 PM is pointless and can be ruled out of order. Check the bylaws, standing rules, and calendar first.
The mechanics at the meeting are straightforward. The motion cannot interrupt a speaker. Wait until no one holds the floor, rise, address the presiding officer, and state the motion clearly once recognized. Another member then seconds, which does not require recognition or standing. If no second comes, the chair treats the motion as if it was never made and discussion of the main motion continues.
Debate, Amendment, and Voting
The motion is debatable, but debate must stay on the reasons for or against postponing. Arguing the merits of the underlying main motion is out of order. “We should postpone because three board members whose departments are affected are absent” is fine. “And besides, the proposal is a bad idea” is not.
Amendments are permitted only to change the proposed time, date, or event, or to add or remove a special-order designation (explained below). The new time has to stay within the permissible postponement window. Amendments need a second, are debatable, and pass by majority.
A straightforward motion to postpone passes by majority vote, usually by voice or show of hands. If it passes, the main motion comes off the floor and goes onto the orders of the day for the designated time, and the assembly moves on. If it fails, debate on the main motion resumes as if nothing happened. A failed attempt does not block a later motion to postpone to a different time, provided the new proposal is substantively different enough to count as a new question.
General Order or Special Order
By default, a postponed question becomes a general order at the designated time. It comes up once any pending business is finished, but it does not interrupt whatever the assembly is doing at that moment. General orders yield to special orders and to any question already under discussion.
If the assembly wants the postponed item to actually interrupt other business at the stated time, it can be made a special order instead. That designation effectively suspends rules that would otherwise get in the way of taking up the matter precisely when scheduled. Because of that strength, making something a special order takes a two-thirds vote rather than a simple majority. If you want this treatment, say so in the motion itself: “and make it a special order.”
What Survives the Postponement
Postponement applies to the entire pending question, not just the bare main motion. Any amendments that were pending when the motion to postpone was adopted travel with the main motion and remain pending when the question returns at the designated time. The assembly picks up exactly where it left off, in the same procedural posture.
This trips people up. Postponing does not wipe the slate clean or give the group a fresh start at the next meeting. Whatever was pending before is still pending afterward. Starting over requires disposing of the pending amendments first or using a different procedural tool.
When the Designated Time Arrives
The chair is responsible for bringing the postponed question back up. For a general order, the chair introduces it once pending business at that time finishes. For a special order, the chair interrupts current business to take it up at the specified time, unless something higher-priority like a question of privilege is on the floor.
If a general order is never reached during the meeting, it carries over as unfinished business to the next session, provided one occurs within the quarterly time interval.1Robert’s Rules of Order. Official Interpretations
Postpone vs. Lay on the Table
These two get mixed up constantly, and the difference matters. Laying a motion on the table temporarily sets aside the current question so the assembly can deal with something more urgent right now. It is not debatable, not amendable, and the item stays on the table until someone moves to take it from the table. If no one does, it dies at the end of the next session.
Postponing to a certain time is for a different situation: the group wants to resume consideration at a specific later point, and the item comes back up automatically at that time without anyone needing to move anything. Debate on whether the delay makes sense is allowed. Groups sometimes say “table it” as shorthand for “deal with this later,” but under Robert’s Rules that is the wrong motion for that purpose. If the goal is simply to push an item to a future meeting or hour, a motion to postpone to a certain time is the correct one.