Meeting venue takes the minutes AOB agenda

Meetings

Intermediate [*]

Lead in

 

· Do you often have to take part in meetings?

· Are meetings sometimes too long? How much time do you spend in meetings? How could this be reduced?

· What kind of meetings are the most / least worthwhile? What makes a meeting effective?

· Do you sometimes have to chair the meeting? What qualities does a chairperson need to have?

· How important is reaching a consensus in the meetings which you attend?

· Do you often have meetings in English?

· What cultural differences in the way meetings are held and agreements reached have you noticed when meeting with people from other countries?

 

 

 

 

Unit 1 Organizing a meeting

1 Match word combinations with “meeting” with their meanings.

Now choose the correct verb to complete these sentences.

1) She _______________________ the meeting because she was late for work.

2) I decided to _______________________ the meeting because there was nothing to talk about.

3) We can _______________________ the meeting until next week if necessary.

4) I asked Jean to _______________________ a meeting next week, but there were no rooms available.

5) They _______________________ the meeting, but they didn’t hear anything interesting, so it was a waste of time.

6) This meeting is very important. So don’t _______________________ it!

Complete the text with the following expressions (use words more than once).

minutes items/points your apologies sends out the minutes

meeting venue takes the minutes AOB agenda

An _______________________ is a list of _______________________ - different things – to talk about at a meeting. It begins with the _______________________ - the place where the meeting will be.

Before the meeting, someone sends out the _______________________. If you cannot attend the _______________________, you send _______________________ - a message to say that you cannot be there. At the beginning, someone reads out these messages.

The _______________________ of a meeting are written notes of what is said and decided in the meeting. During the meeting, someone ____________________ _______________________ - writes down what is said and decided. After the meeting, someone _______________________ _________________________ - sends copies to everyone.

The last item on the agenda is usually _______________________ (any other business) – other things that people want to talk about.