Votes needed for majority

[Guest Guest]

At a meeting of our society last month, 5 of 7 voting members were present.  Four would have been a quorum.  A vote was taken on a motion which required a majority vote for passage.  It received 3 votes for and 2 against.  Our president declared the motion passed.  Was this proper, or should it have required a majority of the whole membership (4 of 7)?  My concern is that if a contentious issue is brought up, we could simply wait until two or three people from the opposing side are absent and pass the motion with fewer votes.

 

We do not have any procedures or bylaws that answer this question.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[George Mervosh]

At a meeting of our society last month, 5 of 7 voting members were present.  Four would have been a quorum.  A vote was taken on a motion which required a majority vote for passage.  It received 3 votes for and 2 against.  Our president declared the motion passed.  Was this proper, or should it have required a majority of the whole membership (4 of 7)?  My concern is that if a contentious issue is brought up, we could simply wait until two or three people from the opposing side are absent and pass the motion with fewer votes.

 

We do not have any procedures or bylaws that answer this question.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

If, as you say, a majority vote is required to adopt the motion in question, the chair's announcement was correct.

 

"....when the term majority vote is used without qualification—as in the case of the basic requirement—it means more than half of the votes cast by persons entitled to vote, excluding blanks or abstentions, at a regular or properly called meeting."  RONR (11th ed.), p. 400

 

A majority of the entire membership requirement would usually be found in your rules.