Lesson 9 – Ending a Topic / Planning for the Future

Lesson 9 – Ending a Topic / Planning for the Future

Welcome to [bad word] s "Business Meetings" course: lesson nine. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

In the eighth lesson of "Business Meetings," we learned business vocabulary for taking questions at formal and informal business meetings. Now, in this ninth lesson, we're going to learn how to end a topic and plan for the future at business meetings.

Let's listen to Shawn speak at the formal meeting.

Shawn: Unfortunately, our time together is drawing to a close and we won't be able to take any more questions today. I have been very favorably impressed by today's discussion, but a great deal of work remains to be done.

I propose that we form two committees to focus on the major outstanding issues. Ms. Graff, I would like you to head the first committee, which is charged with developing a new marketing campaign that will help us reach our target market. Mr. Hanson, you will be the chairperson of the second committee, which will begin making the proposed product changes ASAP.

I would also like to establish a regular meeting schedule so that we can convene and have the committees report back to the larger group about their progress. If this time slot is convenient for everyone, I propose that we meet at this time every Tuesday for the next two months. At that point, we can reevaluate our situation and determine whether we would like to continue with the meetings.

Shawn begins this section by saying, "Unfortunately, our time together is drawing to a close and we won't be able to take any more questions today." "To draw to a close" means to be ending or finishing something. You might feel sad when your vacation draws to a close, for example. Our "Business Meeting" course is drawing to a close because we are already in the ninth lesson and there's only one more left. Shawn can't take any more questions because their time together drawing to a close, or ending.

Shawn says that he has been very favorably impressed by today's discussion. The expression "favorably impressed" (impressed) means having a positive opinion of something, or a feeling of admiration or respect for something. In other words, he liked the discussion and is pleased with it. We always hope that our bosses are favorably impressed with our work, meaning they like it. Shawn says that "a great deal of work remains to be done." "great deal" means much, a large part, or a large portion of something, so a great deal of work means a lot of work. You might own, for example, a great deal of land – you would have a lot of land. "To remain" (remain) means to be present, or to not be gone or finished yet. You might, for example, remain at the office until 8:00 if there's a lot of work to do – you will stay at the office until 8:00 p.m. When Shawn says that "a great deal of work remains to be done," he means there is still a lot of work to do and they haven't finished working on these problems.

Shawn proposes, or suggests a plan, to form two committees. The verb "to form," here, means to create, or to make. It can also be used to mean to build something – to make it bigger. You might form, or create, a club or an association in your community. "committee" is a small group of people that works on a specific project, usually in an office or in an organization. Sometimes it is difficult to have large groups of people all trying to work on something, so businesses often have committees do the work instead. These are smaller groups of people. There are sales committees, marketing committees, technology committees, and so on. Shawn proposes forming two committees, or making two small groups "to focus on the major outstanding issues." If something is "outstanding," we mean that it is co