Easy, accessible, and to the point. Robert's Rules of Order Fast Track gives you everything you need to know to conduct shorter, fairer, and more orderly meetings.
In this new and improved update based on the most recent Robert's Rules of Order, you'll find:
- The fundamentals of parliamentary procedure, with tips on knowing which rules to use for your meetings.
- Simple suggestions for making, seconding, and debating motions.
- A primer on voting, from knowing when it's required, to breaking ties, to handling absentee and proxy votes.
- Straightforward strategies for setting and sticking to an agenda and efficiently recording your meeting's minutes.
- Tips for handling disruptive members and tyrannical chairs.
- All-new guidance on conducting the modern virtual meeting.
Jim Slaughter is an attorney, Certified Professional Parliamentarian, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, and past President of the American College of Parliamentary Lawyers. He has served as parliamentarian to thousands of meetings, ranging from small homeowner and condominium association boards to the largest conventions and annual meetings in the world.
Crisp, clear, and always on-point, Slaughter’s “fast track” guide to parliamentary procedure exemplifies, in its inviting lucidity and respect for everyone’s time, just what productive meetings should be like. Slaughter (author of Notes and Comments on Robert's Rules) boils Robert’s Rules of Order down to a set of essential procedures and concepts, adaptable to the needs of a diverse array of organizations, in the interest of getting meetings on track, establishing fair and orderly processes for arriving at group decisions, and instituting formal practices to protect organizations and their members. Writing with upbeat directness, Slaughter explicates how quorums, motions, the taking of minutes, and the ordering of business all work—and can work for your particular org. He also demonstrates why they work, illuminating throughout the first-principles logic behind the rules of order, noting without condescension that the quorum, for example, “protects the organization by preventing a very small number of members from taking action on behalf of the entire organization.” In short, this compact guide offers order without fuss, always with an eye toward how meetings are run today, and what steps individual organizations can take to ensure productivity and fairness. (Rules that seem strict “are necessary to be fair,” Slaughter explains, because “you can’t easily have a conversation with a thousand people.”)
Especially helpful are up-to-date chapters covering meetings in the age of Zoom, including the challenges of voting “virtually,” why it’s best to set shorter speaking limits than at an in-person meeting, and this resounding truth: “one person having a Wi-Fi issue cannot be the basis for repeating everything.” Slaughter also sometimes addresses realities beyond the formal rules of order, like the fact that attendees at virtual (or hybrid) meetings are likely to be less engaged, possibly more churlish, and generally harder to rouse into a feeling of community. His tips for handling all this are clear-eyed, practical, and worth implementing, much like the Rules of Order themselves.
Takeaway: This admirably clear, concise guide to Robert’s Rules of Order will get meetings on track.
Great for fans of: Arthur T. Lewis and Henry M. Robert’s Robert’s Rules Simplified, Leslie Bendaly’s On Track.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
Ann Macfarlane, a parliamentarian in Seattle who works with local governments and is author of Mastering Council Meetings: A Guidebook for Elected Officials and Local Governments, published a wonderful review of Robert’s Rules of Order Fast Track. The article can be found at the following link.
