Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 884, Types of Meetings.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 884.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue about different kinds of business meetings.
Let's get started.
All right, then.
This meeting is over.
We'll meet again next week for a status update.
Hey, do you have a few minutes to talk about tomorrow's teleconference?
Sorry, I've got to run.
I'm late for my department's weekly brainstorming session.
Can it wait?
Sure.
How about a lunch meeting?
Okay.
How about at 3 o'clock this afternoon?
Sorry, I have a standing meeting with the directors once a month at that time.
Can you come by after the pitch meeting at 4.30?
I wish I could, but our department head has called an emergency meeting for this afternoon to do some damage control after the shareholder meeting debacle last week.
Well, how about a dinner meeting?
Only if we can have dinner at 9.30.
I won't be finished here until then.
Do you ever get a breather?
A breather?
I think I'm due for one in 2030.
Susanna says to Juan, All right, then.
This meeting is over.
So she's ending a meeting that she is leading.
She is running, we might say.
Susanna says, we'll meet again next week for a status update.
An update, U-P-D-A-T-E, is news about something that has happened.
You've already had some situation going on, some event taking place, and now you want the latest news.
Usually it's information about how things have changed.
A status S-T-A-T-U-S update would be news about how a project is progressing, how it's moving toward its goal.
You're giving news about some sort of business project that you're working on.
Juan says, hey, Do you have a few minutes to talk about tomorrow's teleconference?
A teleconference is a meeting where you are talking to people on the telephone.
Usually several people are talking on the telephone at the same time.
That's a teleconference.
Susanna says, sorry, I've got to run.
When someone says they've got to run, they mean they have to leave right now.
Usually leave the building or leave the area where they are.
Susanna says I'm late for my department's weekly brainstorming session.
A session, S-E-S-S-I-O-N, is another word for a meeting.
It would probably be used in a business context when talking about a meeting, but also in a medical context, especially if you are going to a therapist, a psychotherapist or a counselor.
Those are often called counseling sessions, where you're meeting with the doctor and Susanna is going to her department's weekly brainstorming session.
To brainstorm, B-R-A-I-N-S-T-O-R-M, one word, means to try to generate, think of, come up with as many ideas as you can about a certain topic.
When you brainstorm, usually one person is writing down all of the ideas and you don't discuss the ideas when people are proposing them.
You simply give your idea and everyone gives their ideas, and then at the end you decide which are the good ideas and the bad ideas.
Susanna says, can it wait?
Can your questions wait, Juan?
I've got a meeting to go to.
Juan says, sure.
How about a lunch meeting?
A lunch meeting would, of course, be a meeting that you would have over the lunchtime.
You would go somewhere to eat and also talk about whatever business topic it is you need to talk about.
Susanna says, I can't.
I'm holding personnel meetings over lunch all this week.
Personnel, P-E-R-S-O-N-N-E-L, is another word for employees, the people who work for a company.
The personnel of a company are the employees of the company.
It's a little more formal business-like word, but it means the same as employees.
Susanna says, it's the only way I can fit them in.
That is, having these personnel meetings over lunch is the only way she can fit them in.
To fit something in is a phrasal verb meaning to find time to do something in your very busy schedule.
You have many things happening today.
Somebody wants to talk to you and you don't have time on your schedule, but you decide to fit them in.
You say, okay, I can meet you for five minutes in between this meeting and that meeting.
You're fitting them in.
Juan says, Juan really wants to have this meeting, right?
Juan says, Susanna says, I have a standing meeting with the directors once a month at that time.
A standing meeting is a meeting that occurs on a regular basis.
It's a scheduled meeting that you have every week or every month or maybe every year.
But it's a meeting that occurs at the same time and that is regularly scheduled.
Susanna then says can you come by?
That is, can you come to my office after the pitch meeting at 430?
A pitch.
P-I-T-C-H meeting is a meeting where someone is trying to get their ideas approved by someone else.
Someone is proposing a project and they are presenting their proposal, their information, to the people who will make a decision, usually to the bosses in this case.
The verb to pitch means, in this case, to try to convince someone to accept or adopt your ideas.
Usually pitches, in this case as a noun, are things that you do to try to get someone to either buy something or to give you money for some project that you want to work on.
Juan says, I wish I could, meaning I wish I could come by after the pitch meeting at 4.30pm.
But our department head, the leader of our department, has called an emergency meeting for this afternoon.
An emergency is some serious situation that takes place without any warning, without any planning.
It's something that happens suddenly, often unexpectedly.
So an emergency meeting would be a meeting that you weren't planning on having but you need to have because there is some sort of serious situation you have to take care of.
Juan says this emergency meeting is to do some damage control after the shareholder meeting debacle last week.
The expression damage D-A-M-A-G-E control means you are trying to minimize or reduce, lessen the negative consequences of something that has happened.
You're trying to make sure it doesn't get any worse.
So if a company, for example, makes a product, makes something and it doesn't work, and it sells it to people and people complain about the product, the company will try to do damage control.
They will say, okay, we...
Made a mistake here.
Let's do something so that the mistake doesn't get any bigger or that it doesn't cause us any more problems.
Maybe we'll give the money back to everyone who bought this product.
That would be a form of damage control.
Juan says his department needs to do damage control after the shareholder meeting debacle last week.
Your shareholders are the people who own shares or stock in your company.
Shares or stocks are partial ownership in a company.
To be a shareholder means to be someone who owns shares, owns stock in a company.
So a stockholder meeting would be a meeting of all the people who have stock in that company, who have a partial ownership of the company.
A debacle.
D-E-B-A-C-L-E is another word for a disaster, something that goes wrong very, very wrong.
Juan says, well, how about a dinner meeting?
How about having a meeting over dinner at night?
Susana says, only if we can have dinner at 9.30.
I won't be finished until then.
Juan says, do you ever get a breather?
Meaning, do you ever get a break from your work, Susana?
Because you're working too hard, Susana.
Seriously.
Juan says, do you ever get a breather?
Susanna says, a breather?
I think I'm due for one in 2030.
To be due, D-U-E, for something means that you are expecting and deserving to have something.
It's something that is, we may say, owed you, something that you are supposed to get.
I'm due for a vacation.
That would mean I am expecting a vacation soon.
I deserve this vacation.
I'm owed this vacation.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
All right, then.
This meeting is over.
We'll meet again next week for a status update.
Hey, do you have a few minutes to talk about tomorrow's teleconference?
Sorry, I've got to run.
I'm late for my department's weekly brainstorming session.
Can it wait?
Sure.
How about a lunch meeting?
I can't.
I'm holding personnel meetings over lunch all this week.
It's the only way I can fit them in.
Okay.
How about at 3 o'clock this afternoon?
Sorry, I have a standing meeting with the directors once a month at that time.
Can you come by after the pitch meeting at 4.30?
I wish I could, but our department head has called an emergency meeting for this afternoon to do some damage control after the shareholder meeting debacle last week.
Well, how about a dinner meeting?
Only if we can have dinner at 9.30.
I won't be finished here until then.
Do you ever get a breather?
A breather?
I think I'm due for one in 2030.
I think our scriptwriter is due for a vacation, thanks to all of her hard work.
I speak, of course, of our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
