Attending the Morning Meeting

GLOSSARY

conference room – a big room used for having meetings at work, usually with a big table and many chairs

• For Monday’s meeting, we need to have a large conference room with at least 23 chairs.

conference table – a big table in a conference room with chairs placed around it for meetings

• When the meeting ended, the conference table was covered with empty water bottles, coffee cups, papers, and pens.

manager – a person whose job is to be responsible for a department or a team; a group leader at work

• If you do your work well, the company might ask you to begin working as a department manager in a few years.

handout – a piece of paper that gives information about something that will be discussed during a presentation or meeting

• This handout has the main points of my presentation and my contact information: my name, phone number, and email address.

agenda – a plan for what will be discussed during a meeting, and in what order

• This agenda shows that there will be three breaks during today’s meeting.

announcement – something that is said or written to let people know about
something important

• This morning Krista made an announcement that she and her husband are expecting their first baby!

to go over (something) – to talk about something in depth; to talk about a specific topic or plan

• Let’s go over the details again, just to make sure that everyone understands the new plan.

bullet point – a line of text in a list where each line begins with a small symbol (for example, •, !, !)

• If you have a long list of items, it’s easier to read them as bullet points than as a long sentence with lots of commas separating the ideas.

to take turns – to do something in order, one person at a time, or one person after another

rundown – a short spoken or written explanation of the most important points or ideas about something

• Carla, can you please give us a two-minute rundown of what you learned at the conference last week?

to pay attention to (something) – to listen carefully and try to understand something

• Please don’t play the piano right now. I need to pay attention to the news report to find out more about the fire.

feedback – positive or negative comments given in reaction to something that one has presented or done, designed to help one make it better next time

• After she finished her presentation, Clark gave her some helpful feedback about speaking more slowly in the future.

summary – a short written or oral description of the main points or main ideas of something longer

• Please write a one-page summary of what was discussed during the meeting.

pep talk – a short and encouraging speech; a short speech that is meant to help people do something faster, better, or with more enthusiasm

• Before every basketball game, the coach always gives his players a pep talk to help them win the game.

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I arrive at the conference room right before the meeting starts, and sit down in a chair around the large conference table. Our manager passes out a handout of the meeting agenda with some announcements and goes over some bullet points regarding old and new business.
Then, he asks each person to give a status report on his or her projects. Each of us takes turns giving a quick rundown, while everyone else listens. Of course not everyone is paying attention, since they’re thinking about their own reports and what they plan to say. Sometimes our manager will make some comments or give us some feedback, but usually there’s very little discussion.
The meeting always ends the same way. Our manager gives a short summary of how our department is doing and a little pep talk to get us motivated.
Now it’s back to our desks to do some work!