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Quorum


Guest Pat K

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Our Delegate Assembly has 37 seats. 3 are currently vacant. 18 members were present for the meeting. Our rules state: "A simple majority of the individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly shall constitute a quorum." The president declared we did not have a quorum as 19 members needed to present. Is there a rule for this in RONR?

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Our Delegate Assembly has 37 seats. 3 are currently vacant. 18 members were present for the meeting. Our rules state: "A simple majority of the individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly shall constitute a quorum." The president declared we did not have a quorum as 19 members needed to present. Is there a rule for this in RONR?

You have a customized rule so it will be up to you all to work out the details. See RONR pp. 570-573 for some principles to help you all with that.

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I just became a member of a board of 7 at this time. How many of those 7 need to be present to make a quorum?

Sharon, you should start your own thread rather than tacking onto this one where the circumstances are different and trying to address two different scenarios in one thread can cause confusion.

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Our Delegate Assembly has 37 seats. 3 are currently vacant. 18 members were present for the meeting. Our rules state: "A simple majority of the individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly shall constitute a quorum." The president declared we did not have a quorum as 19 members needed to present. Is there a rule for this in RONR?

In general, for most ordinary societies who do not define their quorum in the bylaws, it is a majority of the entire membership. There are some on this forum who would offer you the phrase "count bodies, not seats" in determining the size of the membership.

If you take a look at pages 334-335 in RONR (10th Ed.) you'll hopefully find something there to help as well.

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Our Delegate Assembly has 37 seats. 3 are currently vacant. 18 members were present for the meeting. Our rules state: "A simple majority of the individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly shall constitute a quorum." The president declared we did not have a quorum as 19 members needed to present. Is there a rule for this in RONR?

I don't see how "majority of the individuals" can mean anything other than "majority of the persons", unless there is some context to this that would suggest a different meaning.

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Our Delegate Assembly has 37 seats. 3 are currently vacant.

18 members were present for the meeting.

Our rules state:

"A simple majority of the individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly shall constitute a quorum."

The president declared we did not have a quorum, as 19 members needed to present.

Is there a rule for this in RONR?

Yes, there is.

If you bylaws had been silent, then the default rule in Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR 10th ed.) would have been, "a majority of the membership (who are entitled to vote)."

Assuming there are 37 theoretical maximum seats, and assuming exactly 3 true vacancies, then

37 - 3 = 34.

A majority or 34 would be "more than half" of 34.

Half of 34 is 17.

"More than half" of 34 is the integer greater than 17, namely, 18.

Thus, 18 satisfies the quorum rule of RONR.

Now, with that said:

Q. Does your customized rule match RONR's rule?

Q. Does the arithmetic calculation of your rule work out to the same arithmetic result as RONR's calculation?

THAT is for YOU to decide.

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Our Delegate Assembly has 37 seats. 3 are currently vacant. 18 members were present for the meeting. Our rules state: "A simple majority of the individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly shall constitute a quorum." The president declared we did not have a quorum as 19 members needed to present.

So there are currently 34 individuals comprising the total membership of the Delegate Assembly. Ask you president why he thinks that a simple majority of 34 is more than 18.

What if a bus crash killed 16 members. Does he think the Assembly would be powerless to act with only 18 members left?

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