Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 500, Taking Minutes of a Meeting.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 500.
Can you believe it?
500 episodes of ESL podcast.
Actually, if you include our English cafes, there have been more than 700 episodes.
Thanks to all of you for listening.
I'm Jeff McQuillan, your host, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Taking Minutes of a Meeting.
It's a business-related episode that will use vocabulary connected to taking notes official notes at a business meeting.
This will not be a dialogue, just me telling a short story.
Let's get started.
So imagine my surprise when I found out that I had been elected the committee's secretary.
As part of my duties, I have to take minutes at each meeting.
Taking minutes means I have to pay attention and try my best to transcribe what each person says, or at least do my best to summarize.
At yesterday's meeting The chair called the meeting to order and I conducted a roll call.
Then the chair went over the agenda and we discussed old business.
We needed to vote on a couple of proposals from the past meeting, and it was my job to ask for a show of hands of those in favor of and those opposed to each one.
After that was done, we went on to new business.
We talked about the first item of business for 20 minutes when someone suggested that we table the topic until the following meeting, and the participants agreed.
After another long discussion about the second agenda item, we ran out of time.
The chair adjourned the meeting.
That first meeting taught me a very good lesson.
Never miss a meeting when new officers are being chosen.
I begin our story by saying that I was absent at last month's meeting.
Absent is the opposite of present.
It means you're not there.
If you're present, you are there.
For example, I was present at my wedding.
I was actually there at my own wedding.
Amazing, I know.
Absent would be the opposite, that you were not there.
I was often absent from school.
I say I was absent at last month's meeting, meaning I wasn't there.
So imagine my surprise when I found out that I had been elected the committee's secretary.
To be elected means to be chosen, usually through a vote. for a particular job or position.
In the United States, we elect our president.
We vote for him or her.
In this case, I got elected when I wasn't at the meeting, meaning I didn't know they were going to vote for me for the committee position of secretary.
A secretary is normally a person at a meeting who writes down notes about what happened and then types up those notes, puts them in a Word document or prints them out and gives them to people, usually at the next meeting.
Those notes are called minutes.
Minutes also refers to time, 60 seconds is one minute.
But here, when we use minutes plural in talking about a meeting, we're talking about notes from the last meeting that say what we did, what we decided and so forth.
I say as part of my duties, I have to take minutes at each meeting.
We use the verb to take when we talk about writing down notes about the meeting, to take minutes.
I then say that taking minutes means I have to pay attention and try my best to transcribe what each person says, or at least do my best to summarize.
To transcribe means to write down everything that is said or to record everything that is said.
Normally, transcribe means to write it.
You could record it first and then write it down.
When we do these episodes of ESL Podcast, after we finish, we go back and we transcribe them.
We write down everything that is said, and then we put that in our learning guide.
That is what is happening here.
I'm supposed to transcribe what people say at the meeting.
Now, of course, it would be impossible to write down everything that everyone says.
So normally what we do in writing up minutes is to summarize.
To summarize means to just say what was important.
Give the basic information without necessarily writing down everything that everyone said.
So that's what I have to do as the committee secretary.
At yesterday's meeting, the chair called the meeting to order... and I conducted a roll call.
The chair is the person who leads the meeting.
You can also call them the chairperson or the chairwoman or the chairman.
Sometimes they're just called the chair.
This is the person who runs the meeting, who leads the meeting.
Chair has a few other meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
So the chair called the meeting to order.
To call a meeting to order means to formally start a meeting.
To ask everyone to be quiet so that they can begin the meeting.
That's to call the meeting to order.
It's what the chair does, or the person who is running the meeting.
Who is the boss of the meeting?
You could say
So the chair called the meeting to order.
The chair began the meeting.
And I, as secretary, conducted a roll call.
A roll R-O-L-L call is a way to determine who is present at the meeting by calling out or naming each person.
Jeff McQuillan Rob Smith Barack Obama And so forth.
And if the person is there, you write down that they are there.
Usually in a classroom, for example, if you take role or conduct a role call.
Notice once again, we use the verb to take.
To take role, you would say present.
So Jeff McQuillan would say present.
Barack Obama would say present. and so forth, meaning you are there.
Sometimes, if it's a small meeting, you just look around and see who is there and you write down everyone who is at the meeting.
Then the chair went over the agenda.
To go over here means to review, to talk about, to give the main information.
The agenda is the list of things that you are going to talk about in the meeting and the order in which you will talk about them.
First, we're going to talk about the budget finances.
Then we're going to talk about making technology changes in our office.
Then we're going to talk about getting rid of Jeff McQuillan because he doesn't do his work.
Those would be items on an agenda, things that you would talk about.
So the agenda is a list of the things you are going to talk about at that meeting.
The agenda is usually divided between old business and new business.
Old business are things that you've talked about before, but you need to continue talking about, or perhaps make a decision about.
New business are new topics, things that have not been discussed before in your meeting.
Usually you start with old business.
We needed to vote on a couple of proposals, a couple of ideas from the past meeting.
Let's talk about what that means.
We needed to vote to take a vote on a couple of proposals from the past meeting.
It was my job to ask for a show of hands.
A show of hands is away, that you can vote with a small group of people.
Usually, each person who wants to say yes raises their hand.
This, of course, is not a secret vote, because you can see indeed you must see who is raising their hand in order to count the votes.
So a show of hands is a way of taking a vote.
Usually they ask people who are in favor, meaning who want to vote yes, to raise their hands first.
Then they say those that are opposed should raise their hand.
So all those in favor, raise your hand.
All those opposed, raise your hand.
And then you count and you see which one is more.
If you are going to just say your vote out loud, we use the words I, A-Y-E, and nay, N-A-Y.
All those in favor, say aye.
That means, if you are wanting to vote yes, instead of raising your hand, you would just say the word aye.
All those in favor, aye.
Those opposed, aye.
Those that want to vote no then say the word nay.
That then, is if you are going to take what we would call a voice vote, voting by people just speaking.
In my meeting, however, we are voting by raising our hands.
After the vote was done, we went on to new business.
We talked about the first item, the first thing, for 20 minutes, when someone suggested that we table the topic until the following meeting and the participants, the people at the meeting, agreed.
To table as a verb means to delay or postpone, to stop talking about something now but agreed to talk about it again at a future meeting.
After another long discussion about the second agenda item, we ran out of time, meaning we didn't have any more time left to talk more.
The chair adjourned the meeting.
To adjourn means to officially end the meeting, to let people know that the meeting is over and they can now leave.
Finally, I say p-h-e-w.
That sound means that something is over or that you are relieved.
You are happy that some difficult thing has ended.
That first meeting taught me a very good lesson.
Never miss a meeting when new officers are being chosen.
An officer is someone who has an official position in an organization.
Usually, organizations have a president, a vice president, a treasurer, someone who takes care of the money, and a secretary, someone who does the paperwork, including taking minutes at a meeting.
I'm saying here that I don't ever want to miss a meeting when the group is going to elect new officers, so I can avoid being elected.
If you're interested in business meetings, we have a special course called English for Business Meetings, which you can find on our website at eslpodcom.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
I was absent at last month's meeting, so imagine my surprise when I found out that I had been elected the committee's secretary.
At yesterday's meeting, the chair called the meeting to order and I conducted a roll call.
Then, the chair went over the agenda and we discussed old business.
We needed to vote on a couple of proposals from the past meeting, and it was my job to ask for a show of hands of those in favor of and those opposed to each one.
After that was done, we went on to new business.
We talked about the first item of business for 20 minutes when someone suggested that we table the topic until the following meeting, and the participants agreed.
After another long discussion about the second agenda item, we ran out of time.
The chair adjourned the meeting.
Phew!
That first meeting taught me a very good lesson.
Never miss a meeting when new officers are being chosen.
We're lucky that our script writer was not absent today.
She is Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
