MEETINGS

1
MEETINGS
2
Commonly used words/expressions

• call
• arrange
• schedule
• hold
• cancel
• postpone (put off)
• reschedule
• attend
• moderate
• chair
• close

• a meeting

3
People involved

• the chairperson
• chairman, chairwoman, chair (n., v.)
• Jim will chair (v.) the meeting next week.
• the participants
• the secretary (?)

4
Chairing a meeting The chairperson is in
charge of

• Opening the meeting introducing the objectives,
  agenda, participants, procedure, timing and
  output
• Facilitating and moderatinginterrupting
  encouraging the speakers
• Controlling (time agenda)
• Summarising (what has been said or agreed)
• Concluding (defining action points and closing)

5
Participants(Attendees)

• Participants take part in the discussion
• ?
• giving and seeking opinions, agreeing,
  disagreeing, interrupting, commenting,
  suggesting,
• giving mini-presentations

6
The secretary (?) is responsible for ...

• ...recording the...
• names of the participants
• topics discussed
• arguments in favour and against (pros cons)
• decisions made
• voting details
• action points (who, what, when)
• date, place, time of the next meeting
• ... and for distributing the minutes within a
  reasonable time

7
Administrative considerations(Meeting paperwork)

• Writing a memo
• Writing the agenda
• Taking the minutes (writing up the minutes)

8
LANGUAGE FOCUS

• expressions typically used in meetings (R)
• downtoning making suggestions

9
LANGUAGE FOCUS cont.

• Make your point firmly, but politely
• Downtoning
• Making suggestions/proposals

10
Is this appropriate in meetings?

• Finish the report by tomorrow!
• You cannot take a day off!
• You must come to work earlier than you normally
  do.
• Or can we make it sound more polite?

11
How to downtone our statements?

• we / lets (rather than you)
• perhaps / maybe
• a bit / just / a little / slightly
• would / could / may / might
• Im afraid...
• Use of negatives or opposites to soften the
  meaning

12
Downtoning (cont.)

• Avoid You must reduce the price.
• (sounds confrontational)
• And use the following we, lets, perhaps/maybe,
  
• a little/slightly/a bit/, may/might, could,
  would, it wont be bad if, Im afraid
• Why dont we consider reducing the price?
• Lets see what happens if the price is reduced.
• Perhaps we should consider reducing the price.
• Maybe you could reduce the price.

13
Downtoning (cont.)

• The price is a little too high for us.
• The price is slightly too high for us.
• The price is a bit too high for us.
• The price is just too high for us.
• The price may be too high for us.
• The price might be too high for us.

14
Downtoning (contd.)

• I wonder if you could reduce the price.
• Would you be prepared to reduce the price?
• It wont be bad if the price is lower.
• Im afraid the price is too high for us.

15
Making suggestions/proposals

• I advise you to read the report first.
• I suggest reading the report first.
• I suggest that we should read the report first.
• I suggest that we read the report first.
• Why dont we read the report first?
• Shall we read the report first?

16
Assignment

• Class assignment
• Downtone the three statements used on slide 10.
  Use two different downtoning devices for each
  (tot. 6 statements).