Book excerpt: ‘The Meetings Handbook: Formal Rules and Informal Processes’ is a comprehensive manual to the rules and formal procedures of meetings, as well as a useful guide to understanding the informal processes that underlie their success. The handbook explains the formal issues of meeting processes, including the setting of agendas and the putting forward of formal motions, and canvasses informal aspects such as preparatory work and the reading of participants’ nonverbal messages. It also offers insight into how to chair meetings, as well as guidance on how to deal with those who seek to subvert the formal rules. A unique accompaniment to the more conventional legal books, which act as good formal guides, ‘The Meetings Handbook’ also provides supplementary examples of constitutions, agendas, minutes and an ethical code. In order to make the material readily useable, the book is divided into sections that may act as stand-alone guides to specific meetings issues and strategies, thus making it the perfect tool for the busy professional.