What Is a Quorum (Governance) ?

A quorum is the minimum number of members of an assembly or group that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid. In a business context, companies will often stipulate the quorum of shareholders that are required to be present in order to make a binding decision.

The quorum can be as simple as a 51% majority. In other cases, some groups and firms come to more specific arrangements. There are even  guidelines that exist that companies can draw upon in order to determine the appropriate formula for their quorum.

To clarify, there is no definitive number, percentage or formula that universally constitutes a quorum. However, best practices suggest that a quorum is, at minimum, established as a simple majority of members within an organization. 

Whatever the case may be, the quorum number or percentage needs to be representative of members in a decision-making role. It can be stipulated in governance or contractual documents to make it binding.