Quorum

[Guest Laura]

2 Committees hold a joint meeting. Each Committee requires 7 for quorum if they were to hold separate meetings.

2 people sit on both Committees. Can they be counted twice for quorum?

(12 people total showed up.....Committee #1...5 members + A + B and Committee #2...5 different members + A +

 

 

[g40]

Maybe I missed it, but I don't think RONR addresses two different entities having a joint meeting. Do your Bylaws address the 2 committees meeting jointly as one? I don't think there is such a thing as a quorum for whatever this meeting is.

[Sean Hunt]

Usually, I've seen "joint meetings" handled just as meetings of both bodies simultaneously, often with relaxed rules to allow mutual participation (but a few things, like voting, must be handled more independently by the two committees). So if this is the case, then each quorum must be achieved on its own, with no regard to who is or isn't a member of the other committee.

[Timothy]

On the assumption that if you don't have a quorum you don't have a committee, it seems like it would require each committee to establish a quorum of their own members and then the joint committee is essentially a committee made up of committees. So yes, if A and B are on both committees, then they would be counted by both committees.

 

That being said, it could depend on how the joint committee is formed. If the motion to form the committee is "that a joint committee of committee #1 and committee #2 consider the proposal," then it would seem to follow the method prescribed above, but if the motion is "that a committee made up of the members of committee #1 and committee #2 consider the proposal," then it seems like the proper method would to base the quorum off the sum of the size of the two committees. A and B would then only count once, and one of the committees might not have enough people to conduct business by itself, even though the joint committee did.

[Edgar Guest]

That being said, it could depend on how the joint committee is formed. 

 

There's no indication that such a "joint committee" was ever formed.

 

As noted, there's no provision in RONR for "joint meetings". This may have been the simultaneous meeting of two committees but that's about it. The members of one committee can't vote on motions pending at the meeting of the other committee (with the exception of persons who are members of both).

[Transpower]

The scenario doesn't make sense to me.  A task has to be assigned to one committee or the other (or to some other committee), not to both.

[Timothy]

There's no indication that such a "joint committee" was ever formed.

 

As noted, there's no provision in RONR for "joint meetings". This may have been the simultaneous meeting of two committees but that's about it. The members of one committee can't vote on motions pending at the meeting of the other committee (with the exception of persons who are members of both).

 

I would agree, other than the fact they are asking about a quorum for the joint meeting. The only time a quorum matters is when business is going to be conducted. But let's assume the committees decided on their own to meet.

 

 

The scenario doesn't make sense to me.  A task has to be assigned to one committee or the other (or to some other committee), not to both.

 

I've seen cases where two standing committees have some degree of overlap in their responsibilities. Occasionally, one committee will need information about what the other committee is doing in order to make their own recommendation. In some cases all that is needed is for the chairman of one committee to meet with the other committee. In other cases, neither committee is sure of the direction they want to go, so they meet together and come to a mutually agreeable solution.

 

If the committees have decided to meet, I think we could go so far as to say that the quorum for the joint meeting could be "whoever shows up." I say this because the two committees will be making separate recommendations. If there isn't a quorum of one or both of the committees, the people from that committee who do show up will have to report back to the committee. The committee has the option of not approving the decision in the joint meeting, so there may have to be additional meetings.

[Edgar Guest]

The committee has the option of not approving the decision in the joint meeting, so there may have to be additional meetings.

 

Since there's no such thing as a "joint meeting", let's hope those additional meetings aren't "joint meetings" too.

[Timothy]

Since there's no such thing as a "joint meeting", let's hope those additional meetings aren't "joint meetings" too.

 

The absense of rules in RONR that explain how to deal with a joint meeting may be evidence that RONR is incomplete, but it is not evidence that joint meetings do not exist. I've sat through enough of them to be able to tell you that not only do they exist, but they are a very useful tool when two committees are considering closely related topics.

[David A Foulkes]

It may be best at this point to advise Guest_Laura that RONR does not hold the answer to her question, and likely with good reason.  I'd suspect the concept of "joint meetings" has not escaped the authorship team, and they have (wisely?) not addressed it on purpose.

 

Whether a third committee, combining the two, should be appointed, or the bylaws amended to address the issue of quorum (and other issues that are not yet considered) at "joint meetings" will be up to the society to decide.