Topics raised mid-meeting go to the parking lot of items for later, and the chair then decides whether and when each one comes back.
Borderline: whether this move is justified depends on the situation, and only the person in it can judge.
An example
Four months before an activist investor's nominees were due to stand at a mid-cap industrial company's annual meeting, the board chair had one goal for the March meeting: agree the response to the activist's call for a strategic review. Forty minutes in, a non-executive director proposed reopening last year's decision to exit the valve business. The chair thanked her, wrote the item on the parking lot in the minutes, and moved to the strategic review. At the next meeting he gave the parked items ten minutes at the end and said the valve question would come back once the activist matter was settled. It did not come back that year. When the director asked, he told her directly that he judged it lower priority than the board's other work, and that she could put it to the full board as a motion if she wished.
Why it works
Parking an item pays, ceremonially, the cost a chair would normally bear for ignoring a concern: the objection is heard, written down, and promised a later hearing, so sticking to the agenda becomes easy. The move also lowers the issue's standing, since a topic on the later list reads as a side conversation. Pressing it anyway makes the raiser look uncooperative and undisciplined about process, breaking an arrangement the room has just accepted. Parking succeeds when the chair's authority over the agenda is accepted, the raiser is one voice, the meeting is short of time, and someone the chair influences keeps the list.
The thinking behind it
Erving Goffman Goffman's On Cooling the Mark Out: Some Aspects of Adaptation to Failure (1952) describes how groups help someone who has lost accept the loss without making trouble, often by offering a substitute status that saves face. A parking lot is that substitute: the raiser's item is recognized, written down, and promised a hearing, so being moved on feels like being heard. Telling the person what was later decided keeps the consolation honest.
William Samuelson Samuelson and Zeckhauser's Status Quo Bias in Decision Making (1988) found that an option framed as the status quo is chosen disproportionately often, a result a 2021 replication largely supported. Once an item is parked, staying parked becomes its status quo. Bringing it back takes deliberate effort from the chair or the raiser, so by default it stays where it is, which is why a parked item needs a return date to have a chance.
When it fits
Chairs with accepted authority over the agenda, running a meeting short of time with one priority that must be finished. It suits items raised by a single voice that are legitimate but not urgent, where a full debate now would cost the meeting its main business.
How to use it well
Park visibly. Thank the person, write the item down where everyone can see it, and say when the list will be reviewed.
- Keep the list yourself, or with the secretary.
- Review parked items at a set point, briefly, and decide for each whether it returns, merges with another item, or drops.
- Tell the person who raised it what you decided and why.
- Bring back the low-stakes items you can, so the list keeps its credibility.
If an item gathers support from several members, schedule it, since a parked item with backing is no longer a single voice.
What it costs and where it backfires
A list that never empties teaches the room that parked means dropped, and members start insisting on the floor or taking concerns elsewhere. Which items you park matters most. Once you use the list to keep a matter the board is entitled to examine, such as a control or conflict question, off the agenda, or tell a member an item will return when you have decided it will not, the parking lot has become concealment, and it will look that way to an auditor or an investor.
When it is used on you
Accept the parking, then ask before the meeting moves on when the item will return, and get a date into the minutes. Keep your own list of what has come back. Get the item onto the next agenda ahead of time, through the secretary, and bring an ally who shares the concern.