Organizations Books

99.5% of illustrators are now self employed. At one time there were full-time employed illustrators on staff in most advertising agencies, but now that has drastically changed, and an illustrator has to learn how to start his/her own business just like any other entrepreneur. This book is great in giving you realistic advice and guidelines. I strongly disagree with the person that wrote that an illustrator needs a rep for their business. Your statement was correct, you are not an illustrator. I am a career advisor that also helps students with placement at an art college. (As well as being in the art field as a graphic designer and illustrator for 20 years.) The business of illustration is supply and demand. You must promote and market yourself, just like any other business. You also have to be good, fast and learn how to develop good communication skills. Yes, an artist can learn those skills if they choose to. Art as a profession demands the same respect as any other field. It is not a hobby when you are making a living at it. A rep is always an option, but never a must. My advice to any student who wishes to pursue illustration as a career is, you have to be serious, dedicated and willing to put your heart and soul into it. The art field as a profession is probably one of the most demanding fields. It is extremely deadline oriented and does not have 9-5 hours. As a self-employed business, you will have peaks, sometimes working 7 days a week, 12 plus hours a day. You have to learn how to deal with different personalities, understanding you may not have ownership of your work. Not every artist is cut out or willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make art their career. It is very rewarding though, if you don't let your ego get in your way.

I hate to disagree with the other reviewer but, frankly, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Mr. Heller has written a wonderful book explaining the ins and outs of the illustration industry and it's crucial that ALL illustrators read it. The illustration industry is going through a terrible time at the moment with large corporations preying on the lonely illustrator, so it doesn't surprise me that the businessman below feels that illustrators shouldn't know their business!! Illustration IS a business, not a hobby and should be treated as such. Business and art can co-exist and illustrators can be some of the most creative business people I know.

Mr. Heller is a well respected Art Director/Author and you would do well to head his advice.

I have personally used the information in this book to buy two small businesses. Mancuso's advice was invaluable to me. If you have what it takes to run a business and want to do so, but don't know where to start, this book is for you.

I am reading it at present.....you can only read a few pages at a time...then you must stop to think and let the ideas formulate. There is so much content, so much useful information and frankly, in an area where frustration and fear of failure become frequent visitors, this book gives you the sense that it can be done, it is possible, and here's how the others did it..........I like this book because it tells you about Main Street not Wall Street, and how to use OPM to buy your business to operate...when so much is about fast-buck merchants flipping and spinning.

I think this book is really helpful and one of the very best I have read.......pity Amazon has deleted it from its catalogue

Wilkes' introduction to the Roman army may be near to three decades old now but it is still te standard text on the Roman army. Clearly written and well supported by the ancient evidence, it is an excellent book for both graduate and undergraduate student and a good beginning point for further research if one makes sure to review more current scholarship.

I have had an interest in the Armies of Imperial Rome for four years now, and have read a lot of different books about them. I bought this one more for the sake of a young family member who shares that interest, and it will suit that purpose well.

Though it is pretty dated, this text is still very accurate in its information. It focuses primarily on the Roman Army under Traianus (Trajan, 98-117) and Hadrianus (Hadrian, 117-138), but makes mention of soldiers and tactics from the 1st-4th Centuries AD. It is a pretty short book, and doesn't waste a lot of time on jargon. It does not really make an attempt to entertain the reader, but at the same time is not dull to read (I read it in less than an hour).

The author summarizes the equipment and recruitment of the legionaries and the auxiliaries, and also takes a useful look at Roman artillery. Included are a useful chart showing the command organization of a legion, and maps showing the main recruitment areas for the 2nd Century Empire. There are a number of black and white photos as well as some interesting and well-done line illustrations of the troops, and the front and back covers both show reenactors of the Ermine Street Guard.

Overall, I would reccomend this book for either a young reader (maybe about 8-14) or an older person who is just now getting their feet wet in the study of the Roman Army. For you veterans of Roman military history, however, this book probably doesn't have anything new for you.

Today, the difficulty for business leadership, especially in high technology fields is to lead a team towards a "vision". Kelly Johnson from the famed Skunkworks was a visionary with a way of getting his team to see the vision and develop a path towards solutions through his unique way of attacking the problems. Time and time again, he was able to bring to market his breakthrough products faster than everybody else. The process of "Solution Envisioning through Capability Cases" employs a disciplined method for taking a "vision" and getting a team to map through a solution space using capability cases.

Although primarily introduced as an IT domain, this method can be applied to the "hard" manufacturing as well. The difficulty for today's leaders is that the competitive landscape is changing so rapidly. The combination of Moore's Law & Metcalf's Law is yielding a competitive business enviornment that requires very agile development and careful investment of research and development funds. The timelines are so compressed, that a new paradigm for bringing new capabilities to market has to change. Those companies that can survive the near term will do very well and those that are stuck in their process domains will suffer the same fate as the dinasours. Similarly, as the budget for the DoD goes down and more emphasis is placed on NetCentric capabilities, those programs that can execute quickly and show wide benefit, through Capabilities Based Acquisition process will survive. Those that are narrowly focused will have more difficulties. Solution Envisioning will not solve all, but gives a quick method to sort out what is important to the project by being responsive to the 3 voices (business, customer and technologist). It's like starting with an enterprise architecture, it's a good tool to visualize what the enterprise is about. In this case, solution envisioning helps the team visualize the solution through 3 phases using capability cases as the vehicle.

This book is an excellent read but be prepared to take some time to get through it. It is designed to take the trip in "chunks". I found it very useful and informative and have combined it with other techniques that are outlined in the book such as enterprise architectures, UML Use Case models, influence diagrams, lean thinking, QFD, system engineering, business modeling and others. It has a nice "how to" feature for conducting phased events as well as some great examples of capability cases and envisioning events.

Frank C. Alvidrez, CEA

That the majority of larger system development projects fail to meet expectations is well known. Further, the futility of redoubling efforts to elicit customer requirements is now being recognized. What to do?

The more advanced system thinkers and a few simply lucky practitioners are discovering the value of capabiltiy cases as enablers of solution envisioning.

This book describes 36 aspects of system envisioning, including insights into the mysterious decision flow called system architecting. It provides a repertoire of 15 example Capability Cases. Further, it shows the reader how capability cases can be defined, thusly bootstrapping his/her repertoire. Moreover, it shows how new capability cases can be shared and vetted thus leveraging the 'wisdom of crowds.'

Invest in this book. Because it costs less than one wasted personhour of project effort your ROI can be very high.

I bought this book for myself when I owned a house that was built in 1930. I have since sold the house but the book was so helpful I now plan to give it as a gift.

Upon completing an historic preservation workshop at Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest in Virginia this fall, a staff member recommended this book to me. It been a tremendous resource to me in my restoration of the Peter Elliott House.

This is the secong not-for-profit organization that I have directed. I have used this guide and the subsequent Carver guides to help with organizing and direction setting. Volunteer board members always respond well to the material. It is easy to understand yet the Carver model is very comprehensive. I would recommend this to any organization that is engaged in charitable work.

This first in a 12-part series of general guides on Policy Governance is a great introduction to author John Carver's new approach to nonprofit board development. Basically, this approach clearly separates the roles of board and staff as they go about their separate but related jobs of organizational governance and management. Policy Governance clarifies these roles through policy development and permits the board---governing as a body---to control the management and direction of the organization in a global policy approach. This guide is a good start in grasping the concepts of the approach.

The Amy in this book is near and dear to my heart. And that is not because she shares the same name as me. Or that i find her story to be inspiring and uplifting. Rather i cherish this book because Amy was my teacher in college.

No, I am not deaf, nor hard of hearing. Rather I am an Occupational Therapist.

Amy was my sign teacher at Mt. Mary College and she brought to us a wealth of knowledge that has known little equal.

People talk about imersion schooling, that is what it was like with Amy. There was no talking just signing learning and growing. First with baby steps and then with leaps and bounds. She was not teaching us about how to communicate with her world... but rather how our world needs to open our eyes and communicate with hers.

This story is a great reflection of Amy's life. What her life was and the things that her parents fought and advocated for helped to form the truly magnicifient person that she is. As a result she has a special inner light that shines for all to see.

I now work in a school system, much thanks to Amy. Without her inspiration i don't know if would have choosen this path. It is not easy to fight for my kids to get them the services they need. Its never as easy as it could be... kids need services but money always drives that bottom line.

Perhaps this is a good book for any parent to read that has a child with special needs. Weather that special need means IEP or 504 it should matter not. We all have to advocate for the little ones... they are our hearts and our souls. If we be not the Gladiators to defeat the Lions... then I know not who will be the voice of those who have none.....

A Case about Amy by R.C. Smith. 1996. Temple University Press. 322 pages.

Smith takes a reader on a time odyssey (1976-1982) to witness a struggle of the Deaf parents of a Deaf daughter, Amy Rowley, and a hearing son endured through the maze of an education and court systems in their quest towards an equal opportunity for Amy enrolled in a public school.

His book, which took Smith about 12 years of researching and interviewing, illustrates how the systems of power could be shifted into their favor by manipulating the interpretation of loosely worded in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. And later in Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94-142), which was renamed Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Instead of accepting the lower court's order to provide Amy Rowley a sign language interpreter, the school board appealed and argued over the definition of "equal opportunity" versus "full potential" or "appropriate education" that went all the way to Supreme Court.

Along that time odyssey Smith introduced the family's lawyer, Michael Chatoff, who turned deaf in his 20s and how he overcame unjust discrimination against him as he was striving to become the lawyer he was and argued the case for Rowleys at Supreme Court. Smith is successful in presenting an objective insight of the politics, controversial issues, and everyone revolving around and inside the community of Deaf citizens.

A reader may be stunned to learn that the judges of Supreme Court did not scrutinize the Act that was passed in Congress, and they decided that since her achievement tests scores proved that even without a sign language interpreter Amy was getting an appropriate education. As a result, the definition of "appropriate education" or "full potential" won over "equal opportunity." This decision was also cost effective for a public school to avert providing a sign language interpreter for Amy.

Hence, from that time odyssey, a reader questions the true intention of society at large in educating bright deaf children like Amy. Does the school board ever encourage deaf children to accomplish beyond the standard academic achievement expected of average hearing children?

This work is short, but each chapter is quite informative. The book itself is a small collection of scholars (mostly Lutheran) such as Robert W. Jenson, David S. Yeago, Carl E. Braaten, Gunther Gassmann, Frank Senn, etc. Each chapter covers a specific topic ranging from The Authority of the Church, The Church as Community, the Catholic Luther, to The Reform of the Mass and Lutheran Pietism and Catholic Piety.

The essential thrust of the work is to demonstrate that the Reformation was not meant to be a move away from the Catholic Church, nor a complete separation from the Catholic Church, but rather an attempt for the Catholic Church, at the time, to experience and evangelical awakening.

Some of the better chapters include David Yeago's titled "The Catholic Luther." Yeago describes that Luther was certainly not intending to completely separate him and those who followed him from the Catholic Church. Rather, at a specific time in Luther's life (1518) Luther experienced a shift in thinking which ultimately led him to a desire to reform certain things within the Catholic Church. Yeago is very detailed in this chapter, using Luther's actual works to demonstrate this shift in thinking.

Another excellent chapter in the work is Frank C. Senn's titled "The Reform of the Mass." Senn demonstrates how the Mass had changed within the Reformation and those years following the Reformation. Moreover, Senn discusses how certain men (i.e. Zwingli, Luther, Calvin, etc.) affected the Mass, and what changes were implemented by each man that led to what certain denominations do with the Mass today. Moreover, Senn discusses changes with the Mass which occurred prior to the Reformation.

Overall, this small book is well worth every cent paid. It is quite detailed and well written for such a brief work, and is quite ecumenical in pleading for an evangelical catholicity. I recommend this work.

What form of Protestantism is to take the center stage in America? This book by a group of, all but one, Luthernas represents two distinct trends in American Protestantism. One group sees the Reformation as an end in itself, complete and finished. Free forms of worship, no institutionization of the Spirit, etc. This group sees there to be no need whatsoever to be reunited to Rome. That would be a step backward.

The other group understands the movement differently. These beleivers understand themselves to be Catholics in exile, to varying degrees, who think that the Reformation may be doing more harm thatn good, even if it was, in Pelikan's words, "a tragic necessity".

The authors are very fluent in teh terms of the questions at hand and represtent the main thinkers on the subject.

Please consider the following statement by a late 19th century Lutheran: "One is not a Lutheran who every day does not ask himself why he is not a Roman Catholic."

The "Cell-Driven Church" is full of practical insights into the "nuts and bolts" of the cell model. It is easy to read and moves along quickly. I found great illustrations and testimonies of people on the front-lines of cell leadership. Also, the "Cajun" jokes are really funny and effectively placed!! I highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in the cell church concept.

For three years, I was a vestryperson of Christ Episcopal Church in Overland Park, Kansas. (1997-2000) The last two years of this service was spent as the senior member of the vestry, known in the Episcopal Church as Senior Warden. The Senior Warden's responsibility is to lead the twelve person vestry as well as work closely with the clergy on all church matters , both secular and spiritual.

For the past decade, our church has witnessed phenominal growth, due primarily to the increased spiritual vitality of the church and strong leadership of our senior pastor,Ron McCrary. In the past few years, we have prayed about and researched ways to serve our growing church community. We had become basically a program based church. Although small groups were a part of our church family, programs, which catered to the masses and which the staff implemented were thought to be the foundation for meeting the congregation's needs. I believed strong progams was the answer to meeting the spiritual needs of a growing church. I had my doubts about the effectiveness of small groups and was not a proponent of cell based ministry.

Several months ago, Ron McCrary gave me a copy of the Cell Based Church and asked me to read it and tell him what I thought. Reluctantly I began the book, not initially expecting anything that would change my mind about cell ministry.

After the first chapter, I discovered that I was underlining, highlighting and making notes in the margins. The reason was that so much of what I was reading seemed to have relevance to our church and had specific relevance to many of the people that I knew personally in our parish.

By the time I finished the book, I had become a cell based ministry convert. Not only did many of Billy Hornsby's ideas seem to have great potential and benefit for our church, the "proof of the pudding" evidence, from other churches doing cell base ministry, convinced me that we had to change our church's ministerial philosophy from program based to cell based.

Our clergy and vestry agreed recently to convert our ministry philosophy and stategy to a cell based approach. We are now in the embryonic stages of that conversion.

We have known for some time that God is truly blessing our church. We also know that He has now sent us Billy Hornsby with his exciting ideas and proven stategies in order that we may really take our responsibility in doing God's work to the next level.

The Cell Driven Church is a "Must Read" for any church leader.

Roy Jackson

This book provides an excellent overview of the field of cellular automata. It brings together a broad range of concepts and ideas which have been percolating over the past 70 years. In many ways the field of cellular automata and its offshoots remind me of the principles and ideas expounded on in Thomas Kuhn's book `The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'. For this field is truly revolutionary in its ability to easily show the power of emergent properties from simple rules.

The flow of the book is easy to understand and the documentation and references are excellent. The prose is well written and the author's ability to clarify basic ideas is exceptional.

I highly recommend this book. The first chapter `Preliminaries' clearly shows the author has brought a rich scope to the presentation of the material.

Although I have been nebulously aware of the term "Cellular Automata" for about 25 years, it was not until I read the book Cellular Automata that I really understood what it entails. As a result, I have become enamored with the field and its mathematical elegance. It is unfortunate for this fascinating field of study, that it is called Cellular Automata -- a marketing disaster if you ask me.

Though Cellular Automata probably has a strict definition, you can think of it as how simple rules governing a cell (or a neuron or an ant or whatever) through time can give rise to complex ordered systems. People often think that there's some intelligent design behind the complexity we see in nature, but as this book demonstrates, all it takes is a few simple rules about what happens in a local neighborhood to give rise to systems that order themselves into amazing complexity.

The book is a comprehensive survey of the history and current state of Cellular Automata. I wish I had the time to follow through on the amazing panoply of interesting paths, papers, web sites and ideas presented to the reader, but this could easily require a lifetime of study (and computer time).

In spite of having no background in Cellular Automata, I found this book to be extremely accessible and clearly written with many illustrative examples. I read the book cover-to-cover and understood it all, which for a textbook is really saying something. For the layman, it helps to have a strong mathematical background as well as a keen interest in number theory, but none of this is necessary. One of the nice things about this book is that if for some reason you don't understand a topic such as say, the Sierpinski Triangle, the rest of the book is not predicated upon it, even if it is called back on occasion.

The only possible issue I had with the text is that complex theoretical concepts were on rare occasion difficult to follow. Such concepts were introduced in order to give readers a complete primer on the current state of CA research, but the reader has to trust that the results are as stated in the book, and that an army of Grad Students carried out all the dirty work. Step-by-step implementation is (and should be) beyond the scope of the text, although for math weenies like myself, it may have clarified certain concepts.

Highly recommended.