Academy/Membership & Annual Meetings
Member quorum
The headcount rule that decides whether your meeting can legally do anything.
Quorum is the minimum share of voting members who must be present, in person, by proxy, or by ballot, before your association can legally conduct business at a meeting. There is no universal number: it is set by your bylaws and, in many states, by a statute that supplies a default your bylaws can raise or lower. Confirm your association's actual figure before your next meeting.
Why quorum exists
Quorum is the test your meeting has to pass before anyone can vote on anything. If your bylaws set quorum at 20 percent and your association has 300 lots, at least 60 lots need to be represented, in person, by proxy, or by ballot depending on what your bylaws allow, before the meeting can transact business. Show up short of that number and the agenda does not matter: nothing can be voted on.
Once quorum is confirmed at the start of a meeting, nobody has to recount the room every few minutes. Under Robert's Rules of Order, the parliamentary authority most bylaws name by default, quorum is presumed to keep existing until someone actually raises the point that it is gone.
"Once a quorum at a meeting has been established, the continued presence of a quorum is presumed to exist only until the chair or any other member alerts the assembly that a quorum is no longer present."
Source: Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, official FAQ, Robert's Rules Association
How much quorum your association actually needs
There is no single national number and no state-wide figure that applies everywhere. A model common interest ownership law adopted in some states sets a general association-meeting quorum default of 20 percent of the votes; Florida's default is 30 percent unless the bylaws set it lower; California's default for a members' meeting is one third. Robert's Rules of Order's own fallback, used only when a group's bylaws say nothing about quorum at all, is a bare majority of the entire membership, a bar most volunteer-run associations would struggle to clear.
None of those numbers is your number. Your bylaws set your association's actual quorum, and in many states a statute supplies a default only where your bylaws are silent. Find your bylaws' quorum clause before your next meeting and check it against your state statute.
"Unless a lower number is provided in the bylaws, the percentage of voting interests required to constitute a quorum at a meeting of the members shall be 30 percent of the total voting interests."
Source: Florida Statutes section 720.306, Florida Legislature
What happens if you never reach quorum, or lose it
Without quorum, a meeting is not empty of options, but it is close. Under Robert's Rules, the only things that can legally happen are fixing a time to reconvene, adjourning, recessing, or taking steps to round up enough members to reach quorum. No votes, no motions, no other business is in order.
What happens next is not consistent across states. Some states lower the quorum specifically for a reconvened director election, paired with its own separate notice period, while other states only address how to announce the new date and leave the quorum number unchanged. Check your governing documents and your state statute before assuming either rule applies to you. See failed quorum and adjourned membership meetings for what happens next.
"The only action that can legally be taken in the absence of a quorum is to fix the time to which to adjourn, adjourn, recess, or take measures to obtain a quorum."
Source: Can a Quorumless Meeting Set Time for an Adjourned Meeting, Paul McClintock, CP-T
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your bylaws set quorum at 20 percent of 300 lots (60 lots). Only 45 lots are represented when the annual meeting is set to start. What can happen?
Quorum was confirmed at the start of the meeting. Two hours later, a third of the room has quietly left and nobody has said anything. Is quorum still considered present?
An HOA's director election meeting fails to reach quorum. What should the board do next?
Sources
- Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, official FAQ, Robert's Rules Association
- Robert's Rules for Defining a Quorum, Dummies.com, C. Alan Jennings, PRP
- Can a Quorumless Meeting Set Time for an Adjourned Meeting, Paul McClintock, CP-T
- Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, section 3 109 (Quorums), West Virginia Legislature
- California Civil Code section 5115, California Legislature
- Florida Statutes section 720.306, Florida Legislature
- California Corporations Code section 7512, California Legislature
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Membership & Annual Meetings
Next, learn what your board can and can't do when a meeting never reaches quorum in the first place.
Quorum percentages, and whether they drop for a reconvened meeting, vary by state statute and by your association's own bylaws.