Establishing a quorum during a meeting, voting process, or board election means that the chairperson has verified that there are sufficient participants for the results of their votes to be upheld. If the quorum cannot be met, a meeting may need to be adjourned or a vote postponed because an association or group may be unable to conduct any official activity.
Although quorums are standard within many meeting voting procedures, reaching a quorum can also be difficult. Therefore, it is important to reiterate attendance requirements on meeting invitations and voting notices and set clear expectations for member participation.
For example, prominently stipulating the HOA quorum requirements may encourage members to attend, understanding that choosing not to vote might result in delays, lack of action, or an issue or board election remaining in limbo.
Inconsistent meeting attendance or member participation in votes can hamper the efforts of boards, committees, and officials, which must adhere to quorum requirements to make democratic decisions and function effectively. The first step is often to determine the exact terms of the governing documents or bylaws as these might stipulate that:
The principle is to ensure that a quorum is high enough to support parity, with a large enough proportion of eligible voters to represent the membership, without being so high that it is routinely impossible to meet. Elected board members or the chairperson can potentially table a proposal to revise quorum limits if they haven't been revisited for some time, although this process usually requires a bylaw amendment, which in itself may be complex.
One of the many reasons organizations and committees struggle to achieve a quorum is that members perceive the meeting as unimportant or do not feel compelled to attend. Boards can begin by sending meeting and voting notices in advance, ideally using email and text-based prompts and hard-copy notices or invitations.
Board members can then incentivize members to attend or offer diverse ways to participate, such as providing the option to vote digitally, attend a meeting via video conferencing, or elect a proxy to submit their vote on their behalf. They can improve attendance by:
Understanding why members are not participating can go a long way to finding a resolution, accessing constructive feedback, and introducing online participation tools, which means everybody can attend from any location or device. It can also help to report on the quorum at the beginning of each meeting, thank members who have participated, and acknowledge when there are insufficient attendees to finalize a vote.
Once organizations and groups have taken steps to improve engagement, they can introduce structured ways to deal with absences, acknowledging that emergencies, scheduling conflicts, and personal obligations will inevitably mean some members cannot attend every meeting or vote. The right way forward may depend on the nature and size of the group or membership organization and how frequently it fails to reach a quorum, but there are several potential resolutions.
Proxy votes, as previously mentioned, are often permitted to enable members to participate or cast their vote even if they cannot physically attend or take part digitally. The more flexibility offered to members, the lower the instances of absence are likely to be. Committees and boards can also prioritize voting to fill elected or appointed seats as quickly as possible, where resignations and vacancies can make it harder to reach a quorum, with clear contingency plans to ensure leaders or officials know how to react.
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