Lesson 1 - Starting a Meeting

Lesson 1 - Starting a Meeting
 [bad word] presents "Business Meetings," a special 10-episode course to teach you business vocabulary in English. I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California, and I'll be the host for this series.

In this course, you'll learn vocabulary for formal and informal business meetings. Each lesson has three parts: first, we will read a story or a dialogue slowly; second, we will give an explanation of what happened in the meeting and the vocabulary used; and third, we'll repeat the dialogue or story at a normal speed for native speakers. Each lesson will have both a formal and an informal meeting, so you can hear the differences between, for example, a more formal meeting with your boss or the head of the company, and a more informal meeting with your co-workers or fellow employees. The lesson will begin with the formal meeting first, followed by the informal meeting dialogue or story.

Are you ready? Let's begin with lesson one: "Starting a Meeting."

Alex: On behalf of Vision Corporation, I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is a meeting of some of the key players in our company: our top managers. Our purpose this morning is to hear a presentation about a new initiative for outreach and marketing, and to discuss this plan with all of you.

This is a presentation that all of us have looked forward to. This initiative marks a new milestone in the evolution of our company. First, it serves as an assessment of where our company is now in terms of communicating its message to its customers domestically and abroad. Furthermore, this plan has the potential to drive our company forward by transforming our corporate outreach and marketing strategies.

We are delighted that all of the major contributors to this initiative are here today. They will use their unique perspectives to talk about the current state of affairs in terms of outreach and marketing, give details about the new proposed initiative, and outline the path for implementation.

Our script begins with Alex of the Vision Corporation "calling the meeting to order." To "call a meeting to order" (order) means to officially begin the meeting. Alex says that it is a meeting of the "key (key) players," or the people who have the most important positions or roles. He says that the "purpose" of the meeting, or the reason that everyone is meeting, is to hear a presentation about a new "initiative" (initiative), which is a new idea for a project or program, especially at work. This particular initiative is for "outreach" (outreach), which means communicating with people who aren't involved with the company, and "marketing" (marketing), which means telling people about the company's products and trying to increase sales.

He says that everyone has "looked forward to" the presentation. When we say that everyone looks forward to a meeting or presentation, we mean that they have been excited about the presentation for a long time and are eager and happy to hear it today. They want to hear about it. Then Alex says that the initiative "marks" (marks) a new "milestone" (milestone). To "mark" means to note when something happens. "We are going to mark our anniversary by having a party." To "mark" is to note, to indicate to others. "milestone" is an important achievement on the way to meeting a bigger goal. It's one small step in a larger project. "milestone" for you might be getting a driver's license, graduating from college, or passing the TOEFL exam. Or, a "milestone" could be different sections of a big project.

Alex says that the presentation serves as an "assessment" (assessment) or measurement of where the company is now "in terms of" communicating its message. The phrase "in terms (ter