Guest diane Posted June 20, 2012 at 02:50 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 02:50 PM Our bylaws state that a quorum of the membership at the regular meetings will consist of the active members present and at least two officers. If a special meeting is called, could one could assume that the quorum would be the same? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David A Foulkes Posted June 20, 2012 at 02:58 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 02:58 PM Our bylaws state that a quorum of the membership at the regular meetings will consist of the active members present and at least two officers. If a special meeting is called, could one could assume that the quorum would be the same?Going by the definition of a regular meeting (p. 89) as provided by RONR (11th Ed.), no. I'd say the quorum for a special meeting, barring any bylaw reference, would be a majority of members, which is the RONR quorum default. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Edgar Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:16 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:16 PM Going by the definition of a regular meeting (p. 89) as provided by RONR (11th Ed.), no. I'd say the quorum for a special meeting, barring any bylaw reference, would be a majority of members, which is the RONR quorum default.I'm going to risk disagreeing with Mr. Foulkes only because my first instinct was to agree with the original poster and I'm not persuaded by the cited text.The particular quorum requirement seems to be an unfortunate one but if that's who the organization wants to be at meetings, I would think it would apply to all meetings.Let's assume, for the moment, an organization with a quorum requirement (for regular meetings) more severe than the RONR default. Let's say two-thirds of the membership. I'd have a hard time accepting that, at a special meeting (assuming, of course, they're provided for but no specific quorum requirement is indicated), a mere majority of the membership would be sufficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandboosterpslhs Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:20 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:20 PM Our organization (a parent band booster group within a school) has a membership who do not pay dues and, I would venture to say, is loosely determined. Would it be reasonable to say that for this special meeting the quorum would be those who attend? At a regular meeting, the average attendance is about 15 (with board members included). I am the person who posed the original question. I do not have the revised edition of Robert's Rules; I went to the bookstore today, and they did not have it. We have a meeting tomorrow night that was announced, but by word of mouth, I have heard that the date was changed. I intend to go to the meeting (it is for the election of officers), but I do not know who else plans to attend. My concern is, of course, who will be there to vote. I know one officer will attend, but due to disagreements among the board, the other three board members probably will not attend. I wanted to have a resource that we could use to determine if we could vote on the officer positions. Thanks for the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:25 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:25 PM While there might be an ambiguity in the original poster's bylaws, Article V, Section 4 of the sample bylaws in RONR (p. 586) perfectly incorporates the rule found on p. 576, ll 20-21, and in that case the quorum applies to all meetings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David A Foulkes Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:36 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:36 PM Our organization (a parent band booster group within a school) has a membership who do not pay dues and, I would venture to say, is loosely determined. Would it be reasonable to say that for this special meeting the quorum would be those who attend?This seems to fit well with p. 346 ll. 1-5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:53 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 03:53 PM Our bylaws state that a quorum of the membership at the regular meetings will consist of the active members present and at least two officers. If a special meeting is called, could one could assume that the quorum would be the same?On the presumption that things included in the bylaws are there for a reason, I would disagree that "regular" as used in this sentence was intended to mean all. If it was intended to mean all, the word "all" might have been used, or at least the word "regular" could have been omitted.Beyond the question of what it applies to, the entire thing is ridiculous, as it only requires two officers to be present to hold a regular meeting, and nobody else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Edgar Posted June 20, 2012 at 04:01 PM Report Share Posted June 20, 2012 at 04:01 PM If it was intended to mean all, the word "all" might have been used, or at least the word "regular" could have been omitted.Yes, it might have and, yes, it could have but it wasn't. And to presume a level of rational intent that is not supported by the behavior of the average human is, well, presumptuous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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