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What counts as a meeting in New Jersey: effective majority, phone and video, and what is left out

Short answer

In New Jersey, a meeting is any gathering, in person or by communication equipment such as phone or video, that is attended by or open to all the members of a public body and held with the intent to discuss or act as a unit on the body's public business. A gathering attended by less than an effective majority of the members is not a meeting. The Act does not define an effective majority.(N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(b))

This guide explains the law in plain words; it is not legal advice. For a question about your board, ask your attorney.
By Clarivis · Checked against N.J.S.A. 10:4-7 and 10:4-8(a), (b) and (c), read on lis.njleg.state.nj.us on 2026-10-27 on Tue, Oct 27, 2026.

Where this fits in your meeting cycle: Clarivis is software that helps a board follow these steps: it counts the notice deadline for each special meeting, suggests a notice time for each regular meeting and drafts the minutes for your board to correct and approve; it does not post the notice, notify the newspapers or file it with the clerk for you.

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Questions on this page

What is a meeting under the Act?

Statute text

“\"Meeting\" means and includes any gathering whether corporeal or by means of communication equipment, which is attended by, or open to, all of the members of a public body, held with the intent, on the part of the members of the body present, to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business of that body.”

N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(b)

So a meeting does not need a vote, and it does not need a room. What makes a gathering a meeting is the intent of the members present to discuss or act together on the body's business. "Public business" is defined broadly:

Statute text

“\"Public business\" means and includes all matters which relate in any way, directly or indirectly, to the performance of the public body's functions or the conduct of its business.”

N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(c)

A meeting needs adequate notice, with the few exceptions in the meeting notice guide, and minutes (meeting minutes guide).

What is an effective majority?

The Act uses the phrase and does not define it. It says only what a gathering below that line is not:

Statute text

“Meeting does not mean or include any such gathering (1) attended by less than an effective majority of the members of a public body, or (2) attended by or open to all the members of three or more similar public bodies at a convention or similar gathering.”

N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(b), second sentence

The Act does not give a number. On a seven-member board a majority is four, but whether "effective majority" means a simple majority, or the number needed to act, is for your attorney. The safe course is to treat any gathering of a majority of the members as a meeting, and to keep gatherings of fewer members from turning into a meeting by adding members one at a time.

Do phone, video and email count?

Phone and video do. The definition covers a gathering "by means of communication equipment", so a conference call or video call that is open to all the members and attended by an effective majority, held to discuss the board's business, is a meeting. It needs the same notice and minutes as one held in a room. See the remote participation guide.

Email and messages are not named in the definition. Whether an exchange among an effective majority, held with the intent to discuss business as a unit, is a gathering "by means of communication equipment" is not settled (see below). The safe course for members between meetings:

  • Use email to settle a date, time or place, and nothing more.
  • Send information to the chair, secretary or clerk, who includes it in the meeting packet, rather than to the whole board.
  • Do not "reply all" with views on an item the board will decide. Save it for the meeting, where the public can hear it.
  • If someone starts a discussion by email, do not answer on the thread. Say it belongs at the next meeting.

What does the Act leave out of a meeting?

Two things in the definition itself: a gathering attended by less than an effective majority of the members, and a convention or similar gathering attended by or open to all the members of three or more similar public bodies. The Act's statement of purpose adds two more:

Statute text

“typical partisan caucus meetings and chance encounters of members of public bodies are neither covered by the provisions of this act, nor are they intended to be so covered.”

N.J.S.A. 10:4-7

A chance encounter stops being one when the members present start discussing or acting on the body's business as a unit. The Act does not say when that happens.

Which bodies are covered?

A public body is a commission, authority, board, council, committee or other group of two or more persons organized under New Jersey law that is collectively empowered as a voting body to perform a public governmental function affecting the rights or other legal relations of any person, or collectively authorized to spend public funds (N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(a)). Whether a particular subcommittee fits this description is a question for your attorney. The Act does not cover some bodies:

Statute text

“informal or purely advisory bodies with no effective authority are not covered”

N.J.S.A. 10:4-7

Which bodies are "purely advisory" is a fact about each body, and the Act does not list them. If you are not sure that yours is outside the Act, treat it as covered and ask your attorney.

Does a work session or workshop count?

Yes, when an effective majority of the members gathers with the intent to discuss or act as a unit on the body's business. The Act does not turn on what the gathering is called. A retreat, workshop or briefing is a meeting if it fits the definition, with the same notice and minutes. For planning and zoning boards, the Municipal Land Use Law says an executive session to discuss and study matters to come before the board is not a regular or special meeting within the meaning of that law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-9). Whether such a session is still a meeting under the Open Public Meetings Act is a question for your attorney.

Checklist

Items marked (safe course) are good practice, not the statute's words.

Between meetings

  • (Safe course) Email and phone among members only to schedule a meeting.
  • (Safe course) Information for the board goes to the chair, secretary or clerk for the packet, not to everyone.
  • (Safe course) No "reply all" with views on business the board will decide.
  • (Safe course) No chain of one-to-one conversations that reaches a majority of the members on an item.

Before a work session, retreat or workshop

  • Noticed like any other meeting, giving the time, date, location and, to the extent known, the agenda, and stating whether formal action may be taken (N.J.S.A. 10:4-8(d)).
  • Minutes will be kept (N.J.S.A. 10:4-14).

At the meeting

  • (Safe course) Every member recorded present, remote or absent.

What the law does not settle

Questions to take to your attorney; this guide does not answer them.

  • What an "effective majority" is, and whether it is a simple majority or the number needed to act.
  • Whether an exchange of emails or text messages is a gathering "by means of communication equipment".
  • Whether a chain of one-to-one conversations that together reach an effective majority is a meeting.
  • When a chance encounter or social gathering becomes a meeting because members start discussing the body's business.
  • Whether a planning or zoning board's executive study session under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-9 is a meeting under the Open Public Meetings Act.
  • Whether a particular subcommittee is a public body.
  • Whether a particular committee is an "informal or purely advisory" body outside the Act.

How Clarivis helps

Clarivis does not see email or messages between members and does not tell you whether a gathering was a meeting. At the meeting itself, it helps the record show who was there.

  • Attendance for every member. In Live Meeting, each member is recorded present, remote or absent, and remote is never folded into present.
  • No quorum finding for New Jersey. Clarivis raises no below-quorum item for New Jersey boards; a Committee Admin or the Clerk can still set the committee's number in Settings, then Committee, for the attendance count.
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