Unit 11 Meetings
11.1 Taking part in a meeting
11.1 B--1
Chair (Mr Brown): Er...OK, it's ten o'clock, everybody, so I think we'll...er...make a start.
Now, the first item on the agenda is a discussion of the management's proposals on flexitime.
Now, you've all discussed the proposals within your departments, haven't you?
All: Yes. We have, yes.good.
Chair: Er...Miss Garcia, would you like to start, then?
Anna Maria: OK, well, most of my people are perfectly happy with the present non-flexible system.
They think a change would be dangerous.
Carla: I'm sorry, I'm not quite with you. Dangerous?
Anna Maria: Well, they feel more flexible hours would make it diffifcult to cover for each other.
We all have quite clearly defined responsibilities.
Some people would benefit more than others.
Enzo: It seems to me that your people can just agree together to go on working from nine to five, they don't have to work later.
Anna Maria: Yes, but the problem is that if one or two people opt for the new system,
the others will have to cover for them when they're not there.
Chair: Ah, Mr Bergman, what are your views on this?
Alex: Well...um...the thing is that...er...Look, I'm really sorry to interrupt.I'd just like to say that any department can vote to opt out.They can just vote on it and the majority wins. Thank you, Mrs Baldini.
Chair: Ah...Ms Legrand, yes.
Tina: Um...could I make a suggestion?
Wouldn't it be...um...be best to hear what each member has to say
about the proposals...er...from the point of view of his or her department?
Chair: Yes, all right. Er...Ms Legrand, wh...what are your views?
Tina: Well, the main problem is...is the decision about...about basic core times.
Enzo: I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said.
Tina: I'm talking about core times - that's...er...the basic hours that would not be flexible.
It's been suggested that these be ten to three,
but this seems much too restricted, don't you agree, Carla?
Carla: Absolutely. In fact I'd say that there should be flexible days.
Anna Maria: Sorry, i'm not quite with you.
Carla: Well, staff should be allowed to build up a credit of hours to entitle them to take whole days off,
not just fewer hours on other days.
Chair: Ah...Mr Rossini, what do you think about this?
Enzo: Yes, I'd go along with that.
as for cover, in my own case it's no problem,
there are three of us in the Export Department and we work as a team,
so it's easy for s to cover for each other as long as there are still two of us in the office.
Alex: Er...Mr Brown?
Chair: Yes, Mr Bergman?
Alex: Er...If I could just make a point here...er...in our case,
we do a lot of dealing on the phone with the States and...er...sending message to and for by fax in the afternoon.
Er...if we had anyone off then we wouldn't be able to manage.
That means or core times would have to be one to five.
Maybe each department should set own core times.
Chair: Mm...er...yeah, Mrs Baldini?
Carla: That's all very well, Alex,
but then no one in any other department would know who was in at what time,
I mean there'd be chaos.
There has to be a standard for all departments.
Chair: Er...yes, Mr Rossini?
Enzo: Yes, coming back to the flexible days idea, this just wouldn't work.
People phoning the company or visiting would get terrible confused.
Tina: No, no, that...that's not true, Enzo.
I mean, when people take holiday or...or when people are sick,
cover arrangements are made.
Well, with flexible days, exactly the same kind of arrangements would be made.
Chair: Well, any other points?
All: No...Don't think so... Covered it all...Have you got all this down, Mr Johnson? yes.
Chair: Then I think we'll move on to the next item ...
And that is the end 11.1 B--1.
11.2 One-to-one meetings
11.2 A
Paul: Ah, good morning, Ms Ross, do come in.
Pam: Hello, Mr Fisher. Nice to see you.
Paul: Nice to see you - face-to-face instead of on the phone, what? How are you?
Pam: Fine, thanks, very well.
Paul: Oh, do sit down. Would you like some coffee?
Pam: Oh, yes, please - black.
Paul: Mmm. Here you are.
Pam: Thanks. Well, how's it all going?
Paul: Oh, not too bad, we're just about to open a branch in New Zealand.
Pam: Oh, will you be going there on your travels?
Paul: Oh...I'm hoping to - if I can justify it to the marketing director!
How's your little boy, has he started school yet?
Pam: Oh, yes, he's in the second year now.
Paul: What, already? Doesn't time fly! Is he enjoying it?
Pam: Very much, it's much more fun than being at home!
Paul: Well, I suppose we'd better make a start.
Shall we get down to business?
Pam: Right. First of all can I confirm the time and date of the presentation?
It's Saturday 24 October in the morning. What time exactly?
Paul: Well, on the invitations we've sent out we've said that the presentation itself will start at 11 and go on till 12.30.
Pam: So you'll need the room from about 10 till 2.
Would you like us to serve coffee beforehand?
Paul: Yes, yes - and drinks and snacks at the end.
Pam: Better to have buffet lunch?
Paul: No. People who are invited won't be expecting a free lunch,
they might think that's overdoing it.
They'll want to get back to their families, as it's Saturday.
Pam: All right, the normal pre-lunch snack buffet will be what you need -
that's basically the same as what you had last February.
Paul: Oh, that'll be fine.
Pam: OK, well, we'll charge for the room,
coffee and snack buffet at the standard rate less 15%, as we agreed.
And we'll charge for the drinks served on a pro-rata basis.
Paul: Fine,
Pam: What type of...um...equipment,furniture would you like?
Paul:Well,let's have...um...four...no,no...five tables for our display.Er...we'll bring our own stands.
Pam: Right.
Paul: Now, there's an over head projector and sound system already in the room, I believe?
Can you get someone to check that,
you know before we come, so that it's working?
Oh, of course, the technician will be with you when you're setting everything up. Oh, well.
Pam: Oh, the seats in that room have flap-over desk tops, will that be all right?
Paul: Yes, yes, that's fine, sure.
Pam: You say you've sent out the invitations,
any idea how many people there'll be?
Um... I think you know there's...the capacity for the room is about 50, but 40 is ideal.
Paul: Yes, ah...the problem is that we won't know exactly how many there'll be until shortly before.
Pam: Can you let me know definitely by the Thursday?
Paul: Mm...no. But I'll have a rough idea and we'll budget for the number I give you then.
We've sent out a hundred invitations...
Pam: A hundred?!
Paul: Yes, well, in theory that means that there could be two hundred people.
Pam: Yes, but the room won't... But of course...haha...I don't expect more than about thirty to come.
Pam: But what if they do?
This is the only room we have that day - there's a wedding reception in the banqueting rooms, so we...Paul: Well, in that case, I suppose we could...
11.3 Different kinds of meetings
11.3 A
Kate: David, thanks for coming.
Kate: OK, I've sketched out a rough agenda, here.
David: Er...fine, yes, yes, that looks as if it covers everything.
And I agree that we...we've simply got to sort out a procedure for preventing this kind of thing happening again.
We...we do need some guidelines.
Kate: I think the basic problem is one of communication.
None of the things that went wrong are really any single person's fault.
David: Right, now let's talk about J.L.'s report on the trip to Germany.
As you know, J.L.'s self-employed, he isn't a member of our staff.
But he was travelling on our behalf and we were supposed to make all the arrangements.
Kate: The first problem is about finance.
He didn't ask us to give him an advance.
david: I know, yeah.
Kate: And then he complained later that he'd had to pay his expenses out of his own pocket.
David: Well, if he was supposed to pay for himself and um...and then claim expenses later,
the...the arrangement should have been explained to him.
Kate: We agreed that anyone who travels on hour behalf,
for whom we're making the arrangements, should receive and advance.
David: I wonder, should they have a...a company credit card, as our own salespeople do?
Kate: Oh, I don't thik that's necessary.
Traveller's cheques and some local currency in cash can easily be arranged.
They can pick'em up from a local bank - because, remember,
some of these people live out in the country.
David: Yes, well now, how much should they get as an advance?
Kate: We need to estimate how much they'll need and add,
say,I don't know, 100 for emergencies.
David: Well, I'd say 200 would be more realistic.
Kate: OK, whatever we estimate plus 200 in traveller's cheques.
And we'll be responsible for booking and paying for the air tickets. Yes?
David: Yes. Now right the next problem: no one met him at the airport - he had to make his own way to the hotel.
Kate: Well, he wasn't expecting to be met.
It's easy enough to get from the airport to the centre of Frankfurt.
David: And...and the local rep was just as much in the dark - she hadn't been told his hotel address.
Kate: When he did finally meet up with the local rep, everything went smoothly I gather.
David: Well, that's find, yeah, but he had to phone me and get me to phone them in Germany.
He wasn't...he wasn't given a contact number in Frankfurt,
only the address and the time of the presentation.
I mean...he needed photocopies made.
Luckily he speaks the language.
Kate: Well, he could have done all this without all this panic.
Why didn't he just find somewhere to make the copies and then turn up at the arranged time?I don't understand.
David: He needed...he needed 300 copies and quite rightly he knew that would be expensive.
He claimed that he couldn't find the room where the presentation was being held.
He had the address, but it wasn't easy to find.
He says he...well, he says he needed directions.
Kate: Maybe, but look, if he'd met up with the local rep,
she could have done the copies at her office and then taken him to the venue.
I just don't think we need to draw up town plans.
David: Anyway, how can we...how can we prevent this kind of thing happening again?
That's the point.
Kate: Well, what we should do is to make sure everyone involved has a copy of the itinerary.
David: Yes, I agree.
Kate: And the names and addresses and phone numbers of the various contacts en route must be copied to everyone involved too.
David: Um, yes, yes, there's one point I'd like to make here.
It's...it's about initials and first names.
Now, I don't think it's clear to some people in the firm that although they know who D.J.P. and D.L.P. are there.
isn't ...this isn't at all obvious to an outsider or a new employee.
Kate: That's true.
David: Similarly, there are several Davids working for us - everyone needs to know
whether 'David' means David Peterson or David Potts or David Adams,
you know that's... I mean that needs to be made clear.
Kate: Yes, I agree with that. OK, full names should be used. Right.
David: Right, now then shall we move on to...heavens, F.E.'s problems in Japan?
Kate: Well, he did get an advance, but instead of getting traveller's cheques,
the accounts department sent him a cheque two days before he was due to travel -
he had to go off and buy the currency then.
David: Right, so we must make sure that the advance arrives some time before the date of travel.
Um... um...ten days seem OK?
Kate: Mmm, yeah, that seems fine.
David: So, he was...he...in Japan he was met all right at the airport
but the hotel he was taken to was somehow unsatisfactory:
the room - what does it say here? - the room was too samll, overheated.
Kate: Well, that's just bad luck.
There's nothing we can do about that.
Personally, I think he was just being fussy.
But, I dont know, maybe we can issue some guidelines about accommodation,
something along these lines:'we won't pay for the very best hotel in town,
but the one we do book should be good and central'.
David:I think that's fair.
Kate:Because it wouldn't normally be the Hilton or the holiday Inn, would it?
David: Well, well, it could be in some places - it depends.
I mean, if you're in a very hot or dangerous place you need to be in a very comfortable,air-conditioned, international-style hotel.
Kate: All right. How lmany stars?
David: Oh, well, that's hard to say. I mean, the standards vary so much from country to country.
I don't think we can define the standard in a realistic way.
Kate: OK. Now, you'd agree about the need for the accommodation to be central?
David: Yes, I would um...and preferably near the railway station.
And it should be good enough for them to feel comfortable and secure.
Swimming pool and sauna not essential!
Kate: Haha. We haven't talked about the other problem that J.L. had.
Apparently his flight back had the wrong date on it, the 24th.
Kate: He didn't notice this till the 25th, the day he was due to fly.
Luckily, the flight wasn't full and they accepted the ticket with no extra charge.
David: Well, I mean, he should have checked the ticket, so that's...that's really his own fault.
Kate: But this needs ot be made clear.
I don't know, maybe a covering note when we send the tickets saying
'Please check that the times and dates of these flights are correct.' I don't know.
David: Yes, simple. Very, very good idea.
And someone in your department must double-check this.
Do we need to make it clear that flights would normally be economy class by the cheapest route?
F.E. seems to have the...idea...F.E. seems to have the idea that he...he should have flown club class.
Kate: Well, actually, normally we would book club class on a long-haul flight.
I think we should make his clear in the guidelines too.
David: Oh, well, I didn't...I didn't even know that!
Kate: Right, anything else?
David: Er...no, I don't think to,
but let's meet again when we've circulated a report on this meeting and...and we've got some feedback.
Kate: OK. Can you just switch off the tape recorder?
David: Sure, I press this one, do I? Like this?
Kate: Yes. That's right.
And that is the end 11.3 A.
11.4 We need to have a meeting...
11.4 A
Woman: Sometimes the participants aren't sure what the purpose of the meeting is.
Man: People always start to argue and then they get angry with each other.
Woman: What often happens is that the chairperson dominates the group.
Man: Yes, and the chairperson rushes through the agenda so that the meeting can finish on time.
Woman: Lots of meetings I go to have no written agenda.
Man: Well, for a start, there are too many items on the agenda.
We can't possible cover everything.
Woman: Well often some members are late and then the meeting doesn't start until every one has arrived.
So we just have to sit there waiting until they come.
Man: Look, the meeting finishes late because too much time is allowed for discussion.
Woman: Yes, but not all the items on the agenda are dealt with.
Man: Well, you see, the chairperson encourages everyone to speak when they want to
and proposals aren't made 'through the chair'.
Woman: The chairperson doesn't control the discussion and everyone talks at once.
because the chairperson asks the more senior people to speak first,the more junior ones are afraid to give then ideas.
Woman: No one is asked to take notes and keep the minutes of the meeting.
And that is the end 11.4 A.