Meeting Agendas
Useful Expressions
- Have you all received a copy of the agenda?
- You should all have a copy of the agenda before you.
- There are three items on the agenda.
- Let's start with the first item.
- The first item on our agenda today is ...
- If you don't mind, I'd like to skip ... and move on to ...
- I suggest, we discuss ... last.
- If no one has anything else to add, let's move on to ...
- We're running short of time.
- We'll have to leave that until another time.
Dialogue Practice
Read the dialogue aloud with your teacher.
Mr. Smith is opening a meeting. | |
 Mark Smith | Good morning, everyone! Let’s get started. You should all have a copy of the agenda before you. As you can see, we have four items on the agenda today. But before we begin, let's review the minutes from the last meeting which was held on October 15th. Saya, could you please summarize the main points of the last meeting? |
 Saya | Of course, Mr. Smith. We began the meeting by approving the changes in our sales reporting system discussed on August 30th. After that, we moved on to a brainstorming session concerning after-sales customer support improvements. You'll find a copy of the main ideas developed and discussed in this session in the photocopies in front of you. |
 Mark Smith | Thank you, Saya. So, if there are no questions about that, let's move on to today's agenda. The first item on our agenda is the Leon project. Alex, could you tell us how the project is coming along? |
 Alex | Yes, sir. I am happy to say that we managed to reach our targets for the last month. We decided to set our targets higher for this month and we're positive we will be able to meet them as well. Here is the full report of our progress. |
Alex hands in the report. | |
 Mark Smith | Thank you, Alex. That's very good news. Any questions about this project? Okay, then let's move on to the next item. If you don't mind, I'd like to skip item 2 and move on to item 3: “Sales improvement in rural market areas”, as we are running short of time. Sam has kindly agreed to give us a report on this matter. Let’s listen to him. |
Check your understanding:
1.
What had been discussed during their last meeting?
2.
How is the Leon project progressing?
3.
Why did Mr. Smith decide to skip item 2?
Role Play
Role-play the following situation with your teacher.
Situation
You are the chairman at a meeting. Open the meeting, introduce the agenda and briefly go over the report of the previous meeting. You may use the following expressions:
- Let's start with...
- Have you all received a copy of the agenda?
- There are three items on the agenda.
- If you don’t mind, I would like to discuss... first.
- I'm afraid we'll have to leave that to another time.
Discussion
1.
If you were going to conduct a meeting, how would you prepare?
2.
Have you ever made an agenda for a meeting? If so, how was it? Did you find it difficult?
3.
Why is it important to have an agenda for a meeting?
4.
What kind of items should be discussed first in a meeting?
