PTO quorum: how many members do you need to vote?

Your PTO's quorum is whatever its bylaws say. It may be a fixed number of members, and a general meeting can't vote on spending or elect officers without it. If the bylaws don't set one, Robert's Rules puts it at a majority of all the members, which few PTOs can reach, so set a number.

Find your number

Look in the bylaws under "meetings" or "quorum." There are often two numbers.

• General membership meetings. A fixed count, such as ten or fifteen members, sometimes with a requirement that a certain number of officers be among them.
• Executive board meetings. A majority of the board members is a common rule.

Write both on the top of every agenda.

If the bylaws say nothing

Under Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, an organization whose bylaws don't set a quorum needs a majority of its entire membership. For a PTO that keeps a membership list with every parent on it, that could mean hundreds of people. Robert's Rules treats a group with no reliable membership list differently, which is one more reason to write a number into the bylaws.

Fix it by amending the bylaws to a number your meetings can reach. Pick one you'd reach at an ordinary meeting in February, not at the back-to-school night.

Who counts

Only members count. Your bylaws define who is a member: every parent and guardian, or only those who have paid dues or signed up. Use a sign-in sheet at every general meeting so the secretary can count.

People who joined by video count only if your bylaws, or the state law that applies to your PTO, allow remote attendance.

Without a quorum

The meeting can still happen. People can hear reports and talk through ideas. What the group can't do is take binding votes.

Under Robert's Rules, a meeting without a quorum can set a time to meet again, adjourn, take a recess, or try to get more members in the room. Our guide on meetings without a quorum covers what to do if a vote was taken anyway.

If you keep missing it

• Lower the number in the bylaws, by the amendment process the bylaws set out.
• Move routine spending into an annual budget the membership approves once, so the board can spend within it without a vote each month.
• Hold votes at the meetings people already attend.

Don't count people who aren't there, and don't hold the vote by a show of hands in a group chat. A vote taken outside a meeting counts only if your bylaws and state law allow it.

If you are a PTA

PTA units follow bylaws issued through their state PTA, which usually set the quorum. Check those before changing anything.

How Karma Compass helps

For the executive board, Karma Compass collects RSVPs from a link in each member's email and shows whether the meeting is on track for a quorum. That is on the Free plan, along with voting and four meetings a year.

See what the Free plan includes

Source

• Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th edition, on quorum and on what a meeting can do without one.