quorum for called/special meetings

[Fergusgw]

Question.  During a called meeting, is a quorum required?  Our By Laws require for a regular meeting that 30 people be in attendance for a quorum, however it does not state for a quorum for a called meeting.  I find nothing in Rules of Order that talks about a quorum at a called meeting.  Help.

[George Mervosh]

A quorum is required for all meetings.  Do your bylaws authorize special (called) meetings?

[Gary Novosielski]

1 hour ago, Fergusgw said:

Question.  During a called meeting, is a quorum required?  Our By Laws require for a regular meeting that 30 people be in attendance for a quorum, however it does not state for a quorum for a called meeting.  I find nothing in Rules of Order that talks about a quorum at a called meeting.  Help.

You would not find such a rule in RONR because ordinarily the quorum is assumed to apply to all meetings of the particular body. 

For some reason your bylaws make a distinction, but I couldn't guess why.  Well, if I had to guess I'd say it was a mistake, but mistake or not the language is there until amended.  Like Mr. Mervosh, I'd ask you to check your bylaws to see whether special (called) meetings are allowed at all.  

If they are permitted, but no quorum requirement for them can be found in the bylaws, then I believe RONR's default quorum would apply: i.e., a majority of all members of the body.

[Fergusgw]

Our Bylaws require that 25 members be present for a regular meeting and it does address the quorum when it talks about a special/called meeting.  RONR addresses regular meeting but does not address called/special meetings.  Someone wants to do an amendment to the bylaws to say there would be no quorum for a called/special meeting. 

[Richard Brown]

5 minutes ago, Fergusgw said:

Our Bylaws require that 25 members be present for a regular meeting and it does address the quorum when it talks about a special/called meeting.  RONR addresses regular meeting but does not address called/special meetings.  Someone wants to do an amendment to the bylaws to say there would be no quorum for a called/special meeting. 

The quorum requirement in RONR applies to ALL meetings. I would think long and hard before removing a quorum requirement for special meetings.

Edited to add: in your first post you said your bylaws do not address the quorum requirement for special meetings. But in your post above you say it does address the Quorum for special meetings. So which is it? What exactly do your bylaws say about a quorum for special meetings?

Edited January 16, 2017 at 02:16 AM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Fergusgw]

In the first post, I said the bylaws called for a quorum of 30, which I found was amended to 25.  In the bylaws, no quorum is addressed for called or special meetings.  I am finding out that the default in Rules of Order falls back to the regular meeting quorum.  

 

[George Mervosh]

On 11/14/2016 at 9:06 AM, Gary Novosielski said:

If they are permitted, but no quorum requirement for them can be found in the bylaws, then I believe RONR's default quorum would apply: i.e., a majority of all members of the body.

 

12 minutes ago, Fergusgw said:

In the first post, I said the bylaws called for a quorum of 30, which I found was amended to 25.  In the bylaws, no quorum is addressed for called or special meetings.  I am finding out that the default in Rules of Order falls back to the regular meeting quorum.  

No one here said that.  I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Novosielski's comments quoted above because I can't find anything in RONR that would suggest anything different. This may be a bylaws interpretation question.

[Richard Brown]

1 hour ago, George Mervosh said:

 

No one here said that.  I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Novosielski's comments quoted above because I can't find anything in RONR that would suggest anything different. This may be a bylaws interpretation question.

I agree. It looks like a bylaws interpretation issue to me. I can't conceive of there bring NO quorum requirement for special meetings. For that to be the case the bylaws would have to say so explicitly. So, the question is whether the drafters of the bylaws intended for the Quorum requirement for regular meetings to also apply to special meetings. If not, then I believe the default quorum requirement in RONR of a majority of the membership would apply.