What a quorum is, and why the answer differs by body

Two committees can have five members each, three present, and one is
quorate while the other is not. This page explains why, and it is not
inconsistency.

There is no default quorum

LEAT will not let a governing body be created without an approved
quorum rule. There is no "a majority" fallback, on purpose.

A majority of what? Of the seats that exist, or of the seats that are
filled, or of the people who turned up? Every governing instrument
answers that differently, and the differences change outcomes.

The three denominators

1. All seats. Every seat the instrument creates, filled or not. A board of nine with two vacancies still needs a majority of nine.
2. Filled seats. Only occupied seats, so vacancies do not block business.
3. Present and eligible. Only those there and entitled to vote. The loosest, and some committees use it for procedural motions.

The things each profile also decides

• Whether somebody joining by video counts as present.
• Whether a proxy counts toward the quorum, or only toward the vote.
• Whether a recused member still counts in the denominator.
• What happens on a tie: it fails, or the chair has a casting vote.
• Whether abstentions count in the base the threshold is measured against.

Two rules that never change

Abstaining is not the same as being recused. An abstainer was
entitled to vote and chose not to. A recused member was not entitled.
They land in different places, and merging them is how a motion passes
that should have failed.

A motion nobody voted on either way never passes. If there are no
yes votes and no no votes, the arithmetic has no answer and LEAT does
not invent one.

Before you start: the preview

Ask LEAT for a quorum preview and it shows the workings, not a verdict:
how many seats, how many present, how many required, and what each
exclusion cost. "Not quorate: nine seats, two recused and excluded, five
present, six required" tells you to phone the two people who are
missing.