Quorum - can quorum be greater than minimum committee membership

[Harryswintonjr@hotmail.com]

Can the minimum committee member requirement be greater than the quorum set for that committee? Does the minimum member requirement set the quorum?

i.e. An organization states, “All committees must have a minimum of 5 members. They shall have a quorum if 3 members are present at the meeting.” By parliamentary procedure is the quorum set at 5 based on the minimum committee member requirement?

[Guest Edgar]

By parliamentary procedure is the quorum set at 5 based on the minimum committee member requirement?

The default quorum requirement is a majority (more than half) of the members but your organization can establish whatever quorum requirement it wants.

Be warned, though, that if you specify a fixed number (e.g. 3), then vacancies on the committee might mean that a quorum won't be possible (until the vacancies are filled). For this reason it's often better to specify a percentage (e.g. 10%) or a fraction (e.g. two-thirds) that can adjust to accommodate any vacancies.

Though I'm not sure this answers your question.

[J. J.]

Can the minimum committee member requirement be greater than the quorum set for that committee? Does the minimum member requirement set the quorum?

i.e. An organization states, “All committees must have a minimum of 5 members. They shall have a quorum if 3 members are present at the meeting.” By parliamentary procedure is the quorum set at 5 based on the minimum committee member requirement?

I'm not certain what you are asking. Under the rule you cited, a committee of 9 would have a quorum of 3.

[David A Foulkes]

Can the minimum committee member requirement be greater than the quorum set for that committee? Yes. Does the minimum member requirement set the quorum? No, unless your rules say it does.

i.e. An organization states, “All committees must have a minimum of 5 members. They shall have a quorum if 3 members are present at the meeting.” By parliamentary procedure is the quorum set at 5 based on the minimum committee member requirement? No, not according to what you have quoted.

[Gary Novosielski]

Can the minimum committee member requirement be greater than the quorum set for that committee? Does the minimum member requirement set the quorum?

i.e. An organization states, “All committees must have a minimum of 5 members. They shall have a quorum if 3 members are present at the meeting.” By parliamentary procedure is the quorum set at 5 based on the minimum committee member requirement?

No, the quorum is 3, because that's what the bylaws (presumably) say. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the minimum number of members a committee must have.

The minimum number tells you how many members to appoint to the committee. The quorum tells you how many of those members need to show up to a meeting.

[Tim Wynn]

A quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present in order that business can be validly transacted.

[Trina]

Quorum - can quorum be greater than minimum committee membership

And, to answer the question asked (perhaps unintentionally?) in the subject line, yes this can happen, if the organization's rules (unwisely) are written to allow such an exercise in futility. E.g. one part of the bylaws recommends at least 4 members on committees, but sets minimum committee size at 2. Somewhere else in the bylaws, quorum for all committees is set to 3...