ENGLISH FOR MEETINGS week 6 Are all

ENGLISH FOR MEETINGS week 6

Are all the meetings you attend recorded in a set of minutes?

What are advantages of taking minutes? Disadvantages?

Do you and you colleagues take turns to take minutes, or does the same person always do the job? What is ideal?

In general, how detailed are the minutes? How detailed should they be?

Who are the minutes distributed to?

Meeting to discuss redesign/move 1 st March 2 pm Mike to: Sue to: Andy to: Steffi to: Nick to: John to: 1. Contact two interior designers for quotations for office redesign 2. Look for interior design software (important!) Talk to marketing in Dundee about hiring a facility manager 1. Talk to old building company (did work for us already 2. Get quotes from two other builders Look for new computers plan how to keep office running smoothly during building work talk to lawyers Next meeting: 8 March 2: 30 pm

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. wrap Let’s ____ things up here. I ___ want to go ____ what we’ve decided this just over afternoon. fix Let’s ___ a time for our next meeting. That ____ our business today. concludes Thanks for your active ______ this afternoon. participation We really got _______ a lot of business today. through

Taking minutes

Minutes start with the date of the meeting and a short description of what the meeting was about.

There should be a list of who was at the meeting and who was not able to attend.

Example Meeting to discuss Ramadan public relations activities Wednesday, 7 July 2014 Present: Karen, Prashant, Sameh Apologies: Shimhad

It is usually best to keep minutes short and simple: John to talk to bank.

If a vote is taken it should be recorded: The committee decided by 6 votes to 1 that we should hire a new salesperson.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Is Ken happy with the outcome of the meeting? What are Petra and Alex going to do? Why? Who does Edward have to meet? Why? What does Ken think of Edward? What does Ken have to do next? What are the action points from the meeting?

AOB The last item on formal agendas is usually AOB (any other business). This describes a part of the meeting which is reserved fro the discussion of items which are not identified on the agenda.

In a meeting with an agenda, the chairperson often asks at the beginning whether participants want to discuss anything under AOB: Does anyone have anything else they’d like to bring up?

If a subject comes up during a discussion, but is not directly related the chairperson may ask to leave the topic for the end of the meeting. Could we deal with that after we get through? Let’s leave that topic for the end. We can deal with that point under AOB.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. OK. Is there any other C Let’s talk about E I have an item D Is there anything that anyone would like to bring B Could we talk A a. b. c. d. e. over that point under AOB? up under AOB? business that we need to discuss? for AOB. that when we get to AOB.

Useful Phrases

Ending a meeting Let’s finish here. I think that’s everything. I think that brings us to an end.

Confirming decisions and actions So, to sum up what we’ve decided… Right. I’m going to… We’ve decided to… Tracy, you’ll…

Saying goodbye l look forward to seeing you (all) again soon. I hope you have a safe journey. Have a safe trip home.

here up let’s wrap things

for the time once again thank you and visit today to come us taking

a safe home that I journey you have hope

going another meeting in 15 minutes I’d better so get I have

again seeing forward I to soon look you

Quick meeting You have been asked to look after two foreign visitors here on business. How would you arrange the day in order to make the best possible impression on them. Plan a full day for them.