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April 06, 2020

New ABA book helps lawyers keep meetings short and effective

CHICAGO, April 6, 2020 — Just published by the American Bar Association, “The Modern Rules of Order, Fifth Edition” by Donald Tortorice aims to provide a more modern and simplified procedure that promotes efficiency, decorum and fairness in a form that can be easily mastered and referred to with ease. This procedure works for business meetings at major corporations as well as small nonprofits.

The essential purpose of parliamentary rules is to provide a framework of established procedures for the orderly and fair conduct of a business meeting.

All too frequently, however, traditional parliamentary rules can lead to confusion, disagreement and disruption when, in debate on a particularly troublesome issue, it is discovered that the chair of the meeting is not completely familiar with what can be complex and convoluted procedures. This is not surprising since traditional rules were tailored to formally structured parliamentary debate.

If you want meetings that are more efficient, shorter and have minimum disagreements, then you need this framework of established procedures. Simpler and more effective than Robert’s Rules of Order, this concise book focuses on promoting timely consideration of the substance of the meeting, rather than ritualistic procedure.

Tortorice is a retired partner at Duane Morris and most recently an adjunct law professor at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was a drafting member of the task force to revise Pennsylvania’s corporation and business laws and a member of the boards of directors of a number of private business corporations and nonprofit organizations.

Title:                      The Modern Rules of Order, Fifth Edition
Publisher:              ABA Publishing
Pages:                   72
Product Code:       1620785
ISBN:                     9781641055604
Size:                      5 x 7
Binding:                Paperback and eBook
Price:                     $29.95 List, $23.95 Members
Orders:                  800-285-2221 or shopaba.org

Editor’s note: Review copies are available by sending an email to John Palmer at [email protected]. If you publish a review of this book, please send tear sheets or a copy for our files to ABA Publishing, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654.

 

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