Customer Reviews

Robert's Rules of Order in Brief: The Simple Outline of the Rules Most Often Needed at a Meeting, According to the Standard Authoritative Parliamentary Manual, Revised Edition

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has to be the most user-friendly book I've seen, starting with the inside of the front cover. It says, "If you only have 30 minutes" then read certain chapters.

Somehow these experts figured out what the rest of us would need to know and how we would be looking for it. Maybe they had a panel of non-experts to critique.

There are chapters detailing what the words are that you use to make something happen and how to use those words. Best of all, everywhere you look there are copious examples.

In the back are succinct tables of those same words and there is also a chapter on how to find the completely complete information on the topic in the big "Robert's" book

Most of the book is concerned with what you need to know as a member of the group. There are separate chapters for an officer of the group, which contain the things that most of us don't need to know.

This is not a book you'd save for a winter evening curled up in front of the fireplace. It's to tell you all sorts of things you'd really rather not have to know, but that you really need to know. I've already decided that mine is mine alone. Nobody is going to borrow it because it would never come back to me.

... but let's be realistic about it; most people won't. For the 95% of us who just want our PTA, Condo Association, or other group to run an efficient meeting, this is the book to read. It tells you the most important parts about Robert's Rules -- the stuff that comes up regularly at meetings. I'm on several non-profit boards, and this is the most useful book on running meetings I have found.

Even though I have both the "in Brief" and the unabridged editions, it is only the "in Brief" edition that I take with me to my meetings. I recommend that you buy and read the "in Brief" edition first.

This book was good as a way to get started in becoming familiar with Robert's Rules. However, a better introductory guide is Robert's Rules in Plain English. If you are new to Robert's Rules, my suggestion is get the Plain English book and read it cover to cover. It's short and will tell you 95% of what you'll probably need to know. If you need any further details, then you should move on to the full version of Robert's Rules. In my opinion, this book (...In Brief) is a little more dry and with lower quality examples than "Plain English."

The paper binding and the brevity of the book content produce a light weight, easy to carry reference tool. At times, the volume is too brief, and I need to refer to the full volume I keep at home.

I was really impressed by the simple and concise manner in which Roberts' Rules of Order was explained. Perfect tool for the person newly responsible for running a meeting.

One needs the Rules to make it through large meetings. This book presents them in readable form.

I bought five copies of this book to give to the elder board at our church. It is helping us to conduct our meetings in a more organized fashion. I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to brush up on their parliamentary procedure.

A nice, concise, well-written summary which should be useful for all members of organizations which hold meetings.

I've felt for years that dinner conversations among my wife, my son, and me have lacked any kind of formality. It seems that synopses of the day's events, proposals for upcoming family activities, and decision making about such matters as "in what order should we wash the dishes...silverware first, or glassware first?" were being made in a way that could, at best, be described as wildly haphazard.

And so it was that my wife proposed (and my son seconded) that we impose a bit of rigor into the proceedings of the evening meal. This seemed, at first, to be the ideal solution to the chaotic approach to eating to which we had become sadly accustomed. But a new problem immediately arose: Who will decide on a set of guidelines by which we can all abide? We wanted rules, but we had no set of "metarules" to guide us in how to develop, vote on, and approve the dinner rules.

Needless to say, whenever our family is stuck in this kind of self-referential loop of "what rules do we use to guide us in creating a set of rules?", we consulted Amazon. I soon stumbled upon both Roberts Rules of Order, and this "Brief" version of the original. I laughed immediately at the idea of using an unabridged version of Robert's Rules to govern our family dinner conversations. To impose that level of formality on something as informal as dinner seemed a bit crazy, if you ask me. But the "brief" version of Robert's Rules is just what the family needs.

Family conversations in the evening have improved (as best we can measure) threefold. My seven-year-old son has learned to listen attentively to proposals, and to consider all discussed points before voting on issues such as what time to go to bed on school nights, and whether to eat a piece of fruit or a piece of candy for a bedtime snack. My wife has learned that the minutes she prepares for the evening meal need not be (indeed, should not be) filled with details about what was said. Instead, she focuses on "what happened" at each meal. This has cut nearly in half the amount of time it takes her to write up the minutes, giving her a little extra time to focus on preparing the martini she hands me when I get home from the office. That little extra time has made the martini both a little dryer, and a little dirtier (she now has time to add a little olive juice...try it!).

In short, if you are looking to better organize your family's dinner meetings, and your martinis are becoming rather lackluster, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised in Brief might be just the solution.