Budget Books

Mr. Collender's book is good and well written. If you use this book in the classroom or teach the congressional or federal budget process, you should also look at the Congressional Operations Poster.

One side of the poster covers the federal budget process, with a flowchart that is very useful when teaching about the federal or congressional budget process. (But don't take my word that the poster is useful - I have seen it hanging in federal agency offices in Washington, DC.) The publisher, TheCapitol.Net, has more information about the poster, and many useful links, on their web site: congressposter.com

Best bet is to buy Mr. Collender's book and the Congressional Operations Poster.

When the media report that there are budget issues in Washington and that Congress and the President can't agree, Collender is the one to read to understand what is going on. He explains all the essential relevant economic, social, political, and legal factors that drive the Federal budget process and that result in the headlines that we see. Collender summarizes many complicated facts well, and uses clear language and illustrations to make his point. The annual versions are up to date and timely. This book comes out every year shortly after Collender presents his findings for the year in live briefings and seminars, where he uses state of the art presentation techniques. His entertaining and informative presentations transfer well to the paper medium. Unfortunately, you do have to buy it every year to keep up with developments in Washington. Things do change.

This book is great! Very easy to read and it just plain makes sense. My husband and I have been using the plan outlined in this book and are already reaping the benefits of living debt free. I highly recommend this book.

THIS BOOK IS VERY HELPFULL. IT PRESENTS A VERY DOWN TO EARTH, LOGICAL WAY TO VIEW AND TACKLE FINANCIAL DEBT. IT IS A COMFORTABLE READ THAT IS NEITHER BORING OR OVERWHELMING. BOUGHT ONE FOR EACH OF MY 20 SOMETHING CHILDREN.

Ken Matejka and Al Murphy take the principles of change that others have pioneered and present them in an exceptionally clear and applicable fashion. For a book on change, this one presents few new ideas. In fact, at times, the authors' statements come close to being hoary platitudes. Still, the book provides good advice - platitudes get that way because they express well-known truths - and its presentation is even better. Their book takes the form of a useful manual, with tips, questionnaires, checklists, definitions and diagrams. Name your favorite tool; it's here. However, don't let the book's utility deceive you into thinking that you'll be able to handle even the most revolutionary and disruptive transformations with a little reflection and a clipboard. In real life, change is more complicated than a few checklists. We recommend this book to beginners to whom the clichés will seem newly minted, and to experienced managers who can take advantage of the organizing tools while retaining their awareness that true change is always a messy business.

If you're looking for a clear, concise book on organizational change to serve as a guide, this would be an excellent choice.

The book's focus is on a six part blue print for approaching change. These six parts are:
- diagnosing the sources and reasons for change;
- developing and communicating a compelling business case for change;
- identifying the type of change and the implications for that type;
- assessing the match between the type of change and the organizational culture and realistically evaluating the time needed for change;
- identifying and prioritizing the potential roadblocks to implementation;
- determining what you can do to sponsor and facilitate change.

Includes an appendix with a concise "map" to help keep the key points of the book in mind and a "planner" to track each change initiative.The book is practical, highly applied, and very well organized and written. Highly recommended.

This book was a required textbook for a project management class I took online at Berkeley. I found the information, templates, and exercises very helpful in starting my path as a project manager.

I would recommend this book to those wanting to get the basics in project management, but remember that it is written as a textbook.

No other info I have ever obtained has so profoundly improved my ability to plan, manage, and deliver work in both my career and home life. It (rightfully) almost totally ignores software p.m. applications and instead informs and instructs on the key factors in successful project management- estimating,organizing/planning,tracking,resource allocation, and the human factors. Simple and universal concepts and approaches that work! If you just want to play with cool looking p.m. software this book is not for you. If you need to learn the principals and techniques of successful project management, you can't do better than this book!

Excellent, I like her perspective. Her other books are helpful, as well as her recommendations.

This book gives you some good pointers not all of them financial. I wish I had read this book when I was in my 20s

The book was delivered on time just as promised. The book was in the condition described (new). good text book.

Those of you who read Aaron Wildavsky's (1979) "Politics of the Budgetary Process" know the big debate over public budgeting between those who believe public budgeting process is politically incremental and, therefore, who focus mainly on the individual actors and their strategies, and those who propose a more comprehensive and global outlook that focus on dynamics in the larger environment, which subsequently affect and shape how individual actors behave and respond to episodes.

Rather than approaching public budgeting from the narrow perspective of incremental view of public budgeting, which sees budgeting as negotiations among a group of routine actors, bureaucrats, budget officials, chief executives, and legislators, who meet each year and bargain to resolution, in "The Politics of Public Budgeting" Rubin (2000) develops what she calls "real-time budgeting" perspective, which refers to the continual adjustment of decisions in each stream to decisions and information coming from other streams and from the environment. Streams include:

The Revenue Cluster: Revenue decisions include technical estimates of how much income will be available for the following year, assuming no change in the tax structures, and policy decisions about changes in the level or type of taxation. Will taxes be raised or lowered? Will tax breaks be granted, and if so, to whom, for what purpose. Which tax sources will be emphasized, which de-emphasized, with what effect on regions and economic classes, or on age groups?

The Budget Process Cluster: The process cluster concerns how to make budget decisions. Who should participate in the budget deliberations? How influential should interest groups be? How much power should the legislature have? How should the work be divided, and when should particular decisions be made?

The Expenditure Cluster: The expenditure cluster involves some technical estimates of likely expenditures such as for grants that are dependent on formulas and benefit programs whose costs depend on the level of unemployment. Policy relevant expenditure questions involve which programs will be funded at what level, who will benefit from public programs and who will not, and similar questions.

The Balance Cluster: The Balance cluster concerns the basic budgetary question of whether the budget has to be balanced each year with each year's revenues, or whether borrowing is allowed to balance the budget, and if so, how much, for how long, and for what purposes.

Budget Implementation Cluster: Budget implementation cluster concerns the basic budgetary questions of how close actual expenditures should be to the ones planned in the budget, how one can justify variation from the budget plan, and the budget can be remade after it is approved during the budget year.

According to Rubin (2000), "budget outcomes are not solely the result of budget actors negotiating with one another in a free-for-all; outcomes depend on the environment, and on the budget process as well as individual strategies". "Individual strategies have to be framed in a broader context than simply perceived self-interest" (p. 33). What happens in the clusters consequentially is affected by the global environment of public budgeting and the perceptions and strategies of individual budget actors are adjusted accordingly. The clusters model of Rubin (2000) reminisces the "policy environments framework" (developed by Nakamura and Smallwood [1980]) that views public policy process as a simultaneously interaction among individual actors, elements of importance and arenas of power in three policy environments (policy formation, policy implementation and policy evaluation environments) with each environment having influence on the other ones with the help of communication linkages that let each actor in one environment the opportunity to send message to the others in the other environments. In Rubin's real-time budgeting view, each cluster is imbued with different questions and each cluster attracts a different characteristic set of actors and generates its typical pattern of politics (p. 27) and what happens in each cluster is influenced by the episodes in the larger policy environment.

Based on the real-time view of public budgeting, Rubin (2000) organizes her book into nine major chapters, with each chapter explaining the clusters in detail and supporting arguments with didactic short case studies. In general, the book provides the reader with a dynamic and rich description of budgeting process in public sector.

Having reviewed public budgeting process, Rubin (2000) recommends that a balance of power should be established and maintained between the executive and the legislature, so one can catch the other at bad practice-a recommendation running contrary to the argument that to solve federal budget deficit problem either the executive or the legislature has to be empowered.

Overall, Rubin's book is a well-written, clear, and descriptive account of public budgeting process, and, so entertaining and engaging that create a sense in the reader that s/he should read more about the subject to better comprehend the complexity and dynamism of public budgeting. I recommend "The Politics of Public Budgeting" as a powerful text to those who are interested in the subject. Also recommended are "Politics of the Budgetary Process" by Aaron Wildavsky (1979), "Public Budgeting Systems" by Robert D. Lee and Ronald W. Johnson (1998), "Public Budgeting in America" by Thomas D. Lynch (1995), and "The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process" by Allen Schick (2000).

Here are all the tunes:
* Africa
* Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)
* Alone
* Angel
* Axel F
* Brick
* Centerfold
* Chariots Of Fire
* Cherish
* (They Long To Be) Close To You
* Didn't We Almost Have It All
* Don't Know Much
* Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
* Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)
* (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
* Faithfully
* From A Distance
* Glory Of Love
* Hard To Say I'm Sorry
* Hero
* How Am I Supposed To Live Without You
* I Found Someone
* Imagine
* It's Too Late
* Just The Way You Are
* Let It Be
* Looks Like We Made It
* Love The World Away
* Mandy
* Sailing
* Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This
* Walk Of Life
* Walking In Memphis
* You Are So Beautiful
* You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

Overall, the transcriptions are pretty good, and there really is quite a lot of stuff here - 317 pages. Many songs can be played on piano from straight off the sheet while several, like Chariots of fire, have Piano and 2-3 (or up to 7) other instrument parts arranged for a keyboard synth. This can be a bit annoying, and I wish that hal leonard stuck to piano based songs, however theres enough good stuff here to make up for it.

A step by step process of how a budget is really established. And hardly reduced. You'll be surprised at how this system works. And have all of your questions answered as to why certain policies in government can never change. A must read for anyone going into business management and politics.

The book explains the topic in a clear manner. It creates understanding of the budgeting system even for non-finance people.

This is my first attemp at marketing and this book has been a BIG help. It laid a foundation for me to create a marketing plan that is simple to do and most important, affordable. I will refer to Rose Marketing over and over again. ps. I love the anectdotes and stories Ms. Richards uses to illustrate her points!

I read this book on a plane trip from Ft Lauderdale to California. It was easy to read, and had some great ideas to do IMMEDIATELY. I couldn't wait to come back to the office and start writing a new marketing plan and putting that plan to action. Great job. I look forward to more books by Heidi Richards!

The upside of working for a non-profit is getting to act on your beliefs for the public good while still getting paid. The downside is that working for the public good necessitates tight budgets. Changing the world IS expensive, but can be done with thoughtful planning.

Sharply at odds with a 'fat cat' image of politics, the non profit MUST know how to make the most use of their organization's resources in order to remain relevant to their service area and organization mission statements. Reading this book reminded me of an organization I had worked with because they started out with noble intentions, but ultimately folded only because the other staff did not understand the necessity of budgeting or how non-profits differ from private-sector corporate charity initiatives.

I'm sure that Dabel has his own horror stories of an organization which forgot to balance idealism with fiscal prudence, but such reminiscing is not the focus of this book. Instead, Dabel provides simple, ready-to-do steps which most non-profits can and should easily undertake. The best organization committed to the best cause in the world will be ineffective when it does not have money for campaign supplies or even an organizing space.

Although he does mention the role which volunteers and interns can play in advancing an organization's goals while lowering the economic overhead, Dabel did not appear to fully appreciate their potential range of contributions in an organization. Having both been an intern and then worked at numerous non-profit organizations where paid staff topped out around 4 people, I ardently believe that unpaid work cannot be underestimated as being one of those practical solutions.

Overall however, this was a good book. I would feel comfortable recommending it to both the non-profit co-worker/colleague and people (such as my family) who need a jargon-free book on the economic/social work environments of non-profits.

The author does deliver on the promise to shave 15% off a nonprofit's budget. All of the 100+ tips (across a broad range of expense areas) for shaving costs are practical and require limited time or money to implement. Though any nonprofit organization will benefit from many of these tested ideas, organizations under $10 million in budget should especially be able to adopt many of the suggestions due to flatter heirarchies and quicker decisions by senior staff. I know of no other text that comes close to being so extensive or so practical.