Chapter 9h
Quorum Requirements


Quorum requirements are an important consideration that must be given due attention. How shall the Local Groups protect themselves from having motions passed by small numbers of citizen-members? Do they need to be? What minimum percentage of a Group’s membership must vote on any measure before the measure can carry? Say a given Group has 100 citizen-members, but a motion put before the group receives 10 votes in favor, and 8 votes against, with two votes to abstain. Should the measure carry even though only 20% of the Group’s citizen-members cast votes, and only 10% voted in favor?

We believe that a minimum quorum requirement must be established, and that it should be in the range of 75-80%. No measure should carry unless at least 75-80%, (or whatever specific percentage is established), of the Group’s citizen-members cast ballots on the issue. Alternately, (or in addition), a quorum provision could require that any measure must receive a number of votes in favor that is equal to a set minimum percentage of the total membership, in order for it to pass.

In other words, if a Group has 100 members, and the only quorum requirement is that a measure must have a number of total ballots cast, (for, against, or abstain) equal to at least 80% of the total citizen-membership, the measure could theoretically carry if it receives ten votes in favor, eight votes against, and 62 votes to abstain. The 10 votes in favor would still be equal to only 10% of the membership, even though 80% cast votes. But if, in addition to the 80% total votes cast requirement, a measure were also required to receive votes equal to at least 41% of the total membership in favor, in order to pass, then it would not pass unless it received 41 votes in favor, so the vote of 10 to 8 with 62 abstentions would fail to carry the measure.

In order to encourage attentive participation in voting, and also to equitably facilitate quorum requirements being satisfied, so that the Group’s business can proceed in an orderly fashion, we think that the organization should consider establishing that Governing Members are REQUIRED to cast ballots on all issues that come to a vote before the Group in order to maintain their quorum status. A rules provision could provide that if a Governing Member fails to vote on a set number of issues in a given period of time, (say 3, or 5 issues in one month), they would be dropped from the quorum rolls, meaning that they would no longer be counted for quorum purposes. They could still vote on issues of particular interest to them, but in establishing that the quorum percentage has been met, or not, on any vote on any measure, those who have been dropped from the quorum roles will not be included in the calculations.

In other words, say a Local Group has 100 citizen-members with voting rights, (all of whom are Governing Members, since Supporting Members would not have voting rights in Local Groups), and a quorum requirement has been established that a measure cannot pass unless at least 80% of the citizen-members on the Group’s quorum rolls cast ballots on it, and unless it receives votes in favor equal to at least 41% of the total membership’s quorum roll. Assuming that all 100 citizen-members were in good standing on the quorum rolls, the measure would need at least 80 votes cast, with 41 in favor, for it to pass. But if 10 citizen-members have been dropped from the quorum rolls due to having failed to vote on too many issues over the past month, then the measure would only need to receive 72 total votes cast, (80% of the 90 citizen-members in good standing on the quorum rolls), and would need only 37 votes to pass, (41% of 90, rounded up).

Members would likely realize that being dropped from the quorum rolls diminishes their own power, and augments the power of others, and this would hopefully motivate them to maintain their good standing on the Group’s quorum rolls by not missing votes. On the other hand, such policies would serve to protect the Group from being paralyzed, and unable to pass any measures at all, by the inattention to voting by some members.

Once again, it would be easy for the Group’s software to automatically track all this, in order to assure that votes on all motions meet quorum requirements. The software could also be programmed to automatically send ‘nag’ messages to remind citizen-members who have not yet voted when the time to vote on an issue is about to expire. Citizen-members who are about to be dropped from quorum rolls, if they miss another vote, could receive an additional automatically generated ‘nag’ message giving them that information, and encouraging them to maintain their quorum status.


Previous Page..........................................Table of Contents..........................................Next Page