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What counts as a meeting in Texas: quorum, email and work sessions

Short answer

In Texas, a meeting is a deliberation by a quorum of a governmental body about public business, or a gathering the body calls at which a quorum gives or takes information from a third person about it. Deliberation includes a written exchange. A quorum is a majority unless other law or the charter says otherwise. A member who knowingly joins a series of talks that reaches a quorum commits an offense.(Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(4)(A); Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(2); Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(6); Tex. Gov't Code § 551.143(a))

This guide explains the law in plain words; it is not legal advice. For a question about your board, ask your city attorney.
By Clarivis · Checked against Tex. Gov't Code §§ 551.001(2) to (4) and (6) and 551.143 on Tue, Oct 27, 2026.

Where this fits in your meeting cycle: Clarivis is software that helps a city board follow these steps: it counts each meeting's notice deadline in business days (one hour for an emergency meeting), records the posting, with its link on the municipal website for the city council, flags a closed meeting item until a Statutory basis is selected, and drafts the minutes for your board to correct and approve; it does not post the notice for you, and it does not check what the notice says, the remote-attendance rules or members' training.

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Questions on this page

Every regular, special or called meeting of a governmental body must be open to the public unless the Act allows otherwise.

What is a meeting under the Act?

The Act gives two kinds. The first is a deliberation by a quorum:

Statute text

“(4) "Meeting" means: (A) a deliberation between a quorum of a governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and another person, during which public business or public policy over which the governmental body has supervision or control is discussed or considered or during which the governmental body takes formal action; or”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(4)(A)

The second is a gathering the body calls, at which a quorum takes in or gives out information about its business:

Statute text

“(B) except as otherwise provided by this subdivision, a gathering: (i) that is conducted by the governmental body or for which the governmental body is responsible; (ii) at which a quorum of members of the governmental body is present; (iii) that has been called by the governmental body; and (iv) at which the members receive information from, give information to, ask questions of, or receive questions from any third person, including an employee of the governmental body, about the public business or public policy over which the governmental body has supervision or control.”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(4)(B)

So a meeting does not need a vote. Discussion of the board's business by a quorum is enough. The Act also says a meeting "includes a session of a governmental body" (§ 551.001(4), closing sentences).

Does a work session or workshop count?

Yes, when the body calls it and a quorum is there to hear from or question staff or anyone else about the board's business. The second kind of meeting names "any third person, including an employee of the governmental body", and it does not matter what the gathering is called. A work session or briefing is noticed like any other meeting. See the notice guide.

What is a quorum?

The Act defines it:

Statute text

“"Quorum" means a majority of a governmental body, unless defined differently by applicable law or rule or the charter of the governmental body.”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(6)

On a seven-member board with no other rule, that is four. A city charter, or another law that applies to the board, may set a different number. If you are not sure which number applies to your board, ask your city attorney.

Can members discuss board business by email, text or phone?

A deliberation is "a verbal or written exchange" about an issue within the board's jurisdiction:

Statute text

“(2) "Deliberation" means a verbal or written exchange between a quorum of a governmental body, or between a quorum of a governmental body and another person, concerning an issue within the jurisdiction of the governmental body.”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(2)

So an exchange of emails or messages among a quorum can be a meeting, even though nobody is in the same room. The Act goes further and reaches talks that add up to a quorum:

Statute text

“(a) A member of a governmental body commits an offense if the member: (1) knowingly engages in at least one communication among a series of communications that each occur outside of a meeting authorized by this chapter and that concern an issue within the jurisdiction of the governmental body in which the members engaging in the individual communications constitute fewer than a quorum of members but the members engaging in the series of communications constitute a quorum of members; and (2) knew at the time the member engaged in the communication that the series of communications: (A) involved or would involve a quorum; and (B) would constitute a deliberation once a quorum of members engaged in the series of communications.”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.143(a)

The offense is a misdemeanor (§ 551.143(a)). 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 pass a question from member to member until a quorum has weighed in.

What does the Act leave out of a meeting?

Statute text

“The term does not include the gathering of a quorum of a governmental body at a social function unrelated to the public business that is conducted by the body, the attendance by a quorum of a governmental body at a regional, state, or national convention or workshop, ceremonial event, or press conference, or the attendance by a quorum of a governmental body at a candidate forum, appearance, or debate to inform the electorate, if formal action is not taken and any discussion of public business is incidental to the social function, convention, workshop, ceremonial event, press conference, forum, appearance, or debate.”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(4), closing sentences

Two points matter most to a volunteer board. Members at a social event unrelated to the board's business, or at a ceremony, are not holding a meeting, but only if no formal action is taken and any talk of the board's business is incidental. And the exclusion does not let members plan to talk board business together and call it social.

Does a committee have its own meetings?

The Act covers the bodies it lists, which include a municipal governing body and a deliberative body with rulemaking or quasi-judicial power that is part of a city or county:

Statute text

“(C) a municipal governing body in the state; (D) a deliberative body that has rulemaking or quasi-judicial power and that is classified as a department, agency, or political subdivision of a county or municipality;”

Tex. Gov't Code § 551.001(3)(C), (D)

When a quorum of a covered body deliberates about its business, or meets in a gathering of the kind described above, that is a meeting of the body, whatever the gathering is called. A city committee that is purely advisory, with no rulemaking or quasi-judicial power, is, on the plain words of the Act, not one of the listed bodies. The Act elsewhere refers to a meeting "held by an advisory board" (§ 551.125(b)), and a city charter or ordinance may require a committee to meet in the open anyway, so the label "advisory" does not settle the question. That is a reading for your city attorney to confirm, and it does not excuse any quorum of the city council from the rules above.

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.
  • No series of one-to-one conversations that reaches a quorum on an issue. (§ 551.143(a))

Before a work session or workshop

  • Noticed like any other meeting, with the subject described. (§ 551.041)

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 charter or other law, before business that needs a vote. (§ 551.001(6))

What the law does not settle

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

  • Whether a purely advisory city committee is outside the Act, as the plain words of the definition of a governmental body suggest.
  • Whether a chain of conversations among members reaches a quorum in a particular case, and what a member "knew" at the time.
  • Whether a vote taken with fewer than a quorum present is valid for your board.
  • Whether a vacant seat counts toward the board when the majority is counted.
  • Which quorum number applies when the charter and another law disagree.
  • When talk at a social event or a convention becomes more than incidental discussion of public business.
  • Attorney General opinions and court decisions on these questions were not reviewed for this guide.

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.
  • A below-quorum item. Once the committee's quorum number is set in Settings, then Committee, Clarivis raises an item when a motion or vote is recorded and, even if every member not yet recorded were present, fewer members than that number would be present or remote. It does not decide whether business taken below quorum stands, and with no motion recorded it raises nothing.
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