What counts as a meeting in Pennsylvania: quorum, deliberation and conferences
Short answer
In Pennsylvania, a meeting is a prearranged gathering of a board that a quorum of its members attends or takes part in, held to deliberate board business or take official action. Deliberation is a discussion held to make a decision. A conference need not be open to the public, but the board may not deliberate at it. The Act does not define a quorum; the number comes from outside it.(65 Pa.C.S. §§ 703, 704, 707(b))
Where this fits in your meeting cycle: Clarivis is software that helps a board follow these steps: it counts the deadline for each meeting's agenda and each special meeting's notice and drafts the minutes for your board to correct and approve; it does not post the agenda, send the notice to a newspaper or track the newspaper's own deadline for you.
See how Clarivis helpsQuestions on this page
What is a meeting under the Sunshine Act?
Statute text
“Any prearranged gathering of an agency which is attended or participated in by a quorum of the members of an agency held for the purpose of deliberating agency business or taking official action.”
Three things have to be true: the gathering was arranged ahead, a quorum of the members attended or took part, and the purpose was to deliberate the board's business or to take official action. A meeting does not need a vote. Official action and deliberation by a quorum belong in a meeting open to the public:
Statute text
“Official action and deliberations by a quorum of the members of an agency shall take place at a meeting open to the public unless closed under section 707 (relating to exceptions to open meetings), 708 (relating to executive sessions) or 712 (relating to General Assembly meetings covered).”
For closing part of a meeting, see the executive session guide.
What is deliberation, and what is official action?
Statute text
“The discussion of agency business held for the purpose of making a decision.”
Official action is more than a vote:
Statute text
“(1) Recommendations made by an agency pursuant to statute, ordinance or executive order. (2) The establishment of policy by an agency. (3) The decisions on agency business made by an agency. (4) The vote taken by any agency on any motion, proposal, resolution, rule, regulation, ordinance, report or order.”
Agency business has its own definition, which leaves out administrative action:
Statute text
“The framing, preparation, making or enactment of laws, policy or regulations, the creation of liability by contract or otherwise or the adjudication of rights, duties and responsibilities, but not including administrative action.”
Does a work session count?
The Act has no category for a work session, workshop or briefing. If the gathering is prearranged, a quorum takes part and the members deliberate the board's business, it fits the definition of a meeting, whatever it is called. It then needs an agenda (§ 709(c.1)), minutes (§ 706) and, if it is not on the regular schedule, public notice (§§ 703, 709). See the meeting notice and agenda guide.
The one working-session exception in the Act is narrow:
Statute text
“Boards of auditors may conduct working sessions not open to the public for the purpose of examining, analyzing, discussing and deliberating the various accounts and records with respect to which such boards are responsible, so long as official action of a board with respect to such records and accounts is taken at a meeting open to the public and subject to the provisions of this chapter.”
It names boards of auditors only. Safe course: do not treat other boards' work sessions as exempt.
What is a quorum?
The Sunshine Act uses the word without defining it. The number comes from outside the Act: the borough code sets it for a borough council (§ 1001(b)). Other municipal codes set their own. If you are not sure which number applies to your board, ask your municipal solicitor.
Can members discuss board business by email or phone?
The Act does not mention email, text or phone. What it does say is that official action and deliberation by a quorum belong in an open meeting (§ 704), and a meeting is a "prearranged gathering". Whether an exchange among a quorum by email or phone is such a gathering is not answered in the sections read for this guide (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.
- Do not run a chain of one-to-one conversations that together reach a quorum on an item.
- If someone starts a discussion by email, do not answer on the thread. Say it belongs at the next meeting.
What is a conference, and can the board deliberate at one?
A conference is a training or information session. The Act defines it:
Statute text
“Any training program or seminar, or any session arranged by State or Federal agencies for local agencies, organized and conducted for the sole purpose of providing information to agency members on matters directly related to their official responsibilities.”
Members may attend one together, and it need not be open to the public, but there is a limit:
Statute text
“An agency is authorized to participate in a conference which need not be open to the public. Deliberation of agency business may not occur at a conference.”
A quorum at a training session should not use the break to talk over the board's business.
Does an advisory committee have its own meetings?
The Act covers the board and its committees:
Statute text
“The body, and all committees thereof authorized by the body to take official action or render advice on matters of agency business”
A committee the board authorized to take official action or give advice is itself an agency under that definition. On that reading, a quorum of the committee meeting to deliberate is a meeting of the committee, with its own agenda and minutes.
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 quorum on an item.
- (Safe course) If a discussion starts by email, do not answer on the thread; say it belongs at the next meeting.
Work sessions and conferences
- A prearranged work session, retreat or workshop where a quorum will deliberate is held in public like any other meeting, with an agenda and, if it is not on the regular schedule, public notice. (§ 703, § 704, § 709(c.1), §§ 703, 709)
- At a conference, the board does not deliberate its own business. (§ 707(b))
At the meeting
- (Safe course) Every member recorded present, remote or absent.
- (Safe course) Count the members present against your board's quorum, from its municipal code or enabling law, before business that needs a vote.
What the law does not settle
Questions to take to your municipal solicitor; this guide does not answer them.
- Whether an exchange of emails, texts or calls among a quorum is a "prearranged gathering" that "is attended or participated in" by a quorum.
- Whether "attended or participated in" lets members take part by phone or video and count toward a quorum where the municipal code is silent.
- Whether a chain of one-to-one conversations that together reach a quorum is a meeting.
- Whether a work session of a board other than a board of auditors can ever be closed.
- Which quorum number applies when the municipal code, an ordinance and the board's own rules disagree.
- Which advisory committees fall outside the Act because the board did not authorize them to take official action or give advice.
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 Pennsylvania. Clarivis raises no below-quorum item for Pennsylvania boards and never works the number out from the law; a Committee Admin or the Clerk can still set the committee's number in Settings, then Committee, for the attendance count.
Related guides
- Pennsylvania meeting agendas and notices: what to post, where, and whenThe agenda, the 24-hour website posting, special-meeting notice, adding a matter
- The yearly meeting schedule in Pennsylvania: notice of the first meeting and the restNotice of the first meeting and the schedule of the rest
- Pennsylvania meeting minutes: what they must recordWhat minutes record, roll-call votes, citizens who appeared, no set deadline
- Executive session in Pennsylvania: when a board can meet in private, and what followsThe reasons allowed, the announcement, action in open session
This guide for other states
Sources
- 65 Pa.C.S. § 703, Definitions: www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/65/00.007..HTM
- 65 Pa.C.S. § 704, Open meetings: www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/65/00.007..HTM
- 65 Pa.C.S. § 707, Exceptions to open meetings: www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/65/00.007..HTM