quorum

[Guest allen hoffman]

A board consists of 6 members.  An official meeting is called at a specific time and date.  Three members are present at scheduled time. The  chairman states for us to wait awhile for the others to show. The other three do not show up. The chairman states that we can start  and continue as long as we do not vote on any thing,  So at the chairman's leadership, the three discuss multiple items relating to the organization.  Was this done properly according to Roberts Rules of Order? 

 

 

 

 

 

[Transpower]

Quorum for a board meeting should be stated in your bylaws, RONR (11th ed.), p. 577, l. 4.  If none is specified, then the quorum is a majority of all the members, RONR (11th ed.), p. 346, ll. 12-13.  In your case, this would be four.  If only three showed up, you may fix the time to which to adjourn, adjourn, recess, or take measures to obtain a quorum, RONR (11th ed.), p. 347, ll.30-32.  

[Edgar Guest]

But nothing in RONR prevents discussion while waiting for more members to show up. You don't have to sit in silence with your hands folded.

 

That said, once it's determined that additional members won't be coming, it's best to adjourn the meeting. The discussion can, of course, continue afterwards.

 

And, of course, discussion doesn't belong in the minutes, whether a quorum was present or not. So the minutes of this meeting will be brief.

 

In this case, since it looks like the chair determined that there wouldn't be a quorum, the meeting should have been adjourned (or adjourned to a later time) at that point.

[Gary Novosielski]

The problem is that without a quorum you can't make a motion (with a scant few exceptions), and according to strict RONR, without a motion there isn't anything to discuss.  

 

You might as well just adjourn the meeting at that point and then sit around and discuss whatever you want.

[Richard Brown]

As Mr. Novosielski pointed out, if you are going to be hyper-technical, you probably shouldn't be discussing club business since you are technically in a meeting and an appropriate motion is not pending.  Assuming, of course, that the meeting has been called to order.   I'm not aware, though, of an RONR monster that hovers over meetings to shoot spitballs at someone who might do such a thing.  Unless, perhaps, Mr. Mervosh or Mr. Martin is around. 

 

As Mr. Guest and Mr. Novosielski suggested, you can adjourn the meeting and then sit around and discuss whatever you want to.  But, if the one member needed to make the quorum comes in late, you're, well, to be polite, out of luck.  The meeting has already adjourned.  Unless you're going to ignore the rules and pretend you didn't adjourn. 

 

You don't have to adjourn, however, to sit around without a quorum and discuss club business and remain technically proper per RONR.  You can also take a recess to wait for other members to arrive and discuss whatever you want to till your heart's content while in the recess.  If the super tardy member comes in during the recess, well, voila!!  You suddenly have a quorum, the recess can end, and you can start conducting business and voting on motions.

 

As a practical matter, I don't see where it makes a hill of beans' worth of difference how you do it as long as you aren't voting on substantive motions.  But, once you adjourn, you've adjourned.  You can't conduct business even if the tardy member shows up. 

 

Bottom line:  I would do it either the way you did or I would call a recess.  I would not adjourn until you are really ready to walk out the door and head home.   Or to the bar.

 

Edited to add:  You can also go to the bar during a recess. . . .

[Shmuel Gerber]

A board consists of 6 members.  An official meeting is called at a specific time and date.  Three members are present at scheduled time. The  chairman states for us to wait awhile for the others to show. The other three do not show up. The chairman states that we can start  and continue as long as we do not vote on any thing,  So at the chairman's leadership, the three discuss multiple items relating to the organization.  Was this done properly according to Roberts Rules of Order? 

 

No.