What constitutes "participation"

[Guest VLR]

My board consists of 7 board members.  If only four members are present, we have a quorum and can proceed with our meeting.  The meeting is solely regarding one subject matter and one of the board members cannot participate because of a conflict of interest.  He will abstain from voting; however, is his presence to make a quorum considered participation?  

[Hieu H. Huynh]

6 minutes ago, Guest VLR said:

... one of the board members cannot participate because of a conflict of interest.

Where does it say this (see FAQ #9)?

[Richard Brown]

46 minutes ago, Guest VLR said:

My board consists of 7 board members.  If only four members are present, we have a quorum and can proceed with our meeting.  The meeting is solely regarding one subject matter and one of the board members cannot participate because of a conflict of interest.  He will abstain from voting; however, is his presence to make a quorum considered participation?  

As you can see in the link furnished by Hieu Huynh, the rules in RONR provide that  a member cannot be compelled to abstain.  However, a member who does choose to abstain from voting on a particular motion is still present, unless he has left the room, and is still counted as present for  quorum purposes.  However, if this is a public body subject to open meetings laws and other state laws, there might be a state law (or local law) provision which could  provide otherwise. 

If your organization has a rule of its own regarding abstaining, it would supersede the rule in RONR.

I suspect those are some  of the reasons Mr. Huynh asked you what rule requires the member to abstain.  There is no such rule in RONR. So, to repeat (or paraphrase) Mr. Huynh's question, "What rule requires this member to abstain?"