Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 2: Defining a Quorum as a Majority
• Part 2 of 2: Establishing a quorum for statutory documents
• What do you need

Quorum is a concept that defines the minimum number of people required for a given meeting or meeting to have the right to make decisions.The presence of a quorum ensures that legal or financial issues are considered by a sufficient or representative number of members of an organization. Although the quorum may in many cases be a simple majority, the exact number is determined by the rules and laws of the organization, and usually indicated in its by-laws.

Steps

Part 1 of 2: Defining a Quorum as a Majority

1. 1 Find the number of members on the board or organization by referring to its official decision-making rules. This is necessary to determine the quorum on a case-by-case basis.
2. 2 There are times when only one specific person is required to make a decision. In such a situation, the presence of this member will be a sufficient and necessary condition for a quorum - this is the so-called quorum of one.
3. 3 Determine how many members match the majority in your organization. If the bylaws do not specify the exact value of the quorum, it is best to determine it by the simple majority of the members present at the meeting.
   • Let's say the board (council) consists of eight members: then the majority will be five. Thus, you need five members for a quorum.
4. 4 Go to the definition of the exact quorum in your organization, and write this definition in the bylaws. Add this definition to the agenda for the next meeting, which will also need to meet with a majority of members to approve this decision.
   • You may need to hold several meetings with a majority of members present to determine the approximate number of participants attending meetings.

Part 2 of 2: Establishing a quorum for statutory documents

1. 1 Decide what is the maximum number of participants expected in a meeting under normal conditions (not very bad weather, and so on). To do this, it is necessary to take into account the experience of previous meetings, determining, firstly, how many participants usually come, and secondly, the approximate number of members desirable for making financial and organizational decisions.
   • Suppose you find that only three people come to each meeting, even if the total number of board members is eight. In this case, it is useful to replace the majority quorum with a quorum of three in the rules.
   • If the number of board members is not constant and changes quite often, you can define the quorum as a percentage of the total number of members at the moment.
2. 2 Vote for a new quorum definition to be incorporated into the bylaws. Ask the secretary of the meeting to put this definition on the minutes.
3. 3 Send updated bylaws with a new quorum definition to all members of your organization and to those government agencies that require copies of your bylaws. Remind everyone that from now on, decisions made at meetings that do not meet a quorum (under the new rules) will be considered ineligible.
4. 4 Decide what happens if there is no quorum: whether you schedule an extraordinary meeting, or wait for the next one on schedule.
5. 5 Consider additional ways to achieve quorum. You can give members remote access via video or conference call, thereby increasing the number of participants and ensuring a quorum.
6. 6 Begin meetings with a report from the chairperson on whether the room has reached quorum. As a rule, if a quorum is observed at the beginning of a meeting, it is observed throughout its entire duration. If quorum is not reached at the beginning, the chairperson should reschedule the planned issues to the next meeting.

What do you need

• Statutory documents of the organization