The system is available now.
Unit 09
Organisations and meetings
Teams, meetings, and chain of command
Participate in structured meetings, report decisions accurately, and describe inter-agency roles without confusion.
MeetingsUse of EnglishVocabulary
Frontex focus
eu-LISA, CEPOL, and clear role boundaries
01
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit
- Use reported speech with the correct backshift.
- Open, manage, and close a short meeting.
- Explain the roles of training and IT-system agencies.
02
Meeting note
A decision everyone can repeat
The chair begins by defining one objective: restore access to the training environment without exposing operational data. The eu-LISA liaison explains that the live system is unaffected. A CEPOL trainer confirms that the exercise can continue with a temporary offline scenario.
Before closing, the chair repeats the decision, action owner, and deadline. The minutes record what each specialist said and clearly separate confirmed facts from proposed actions.
Read further: Closing an action is also a decision
First, identify the writer’s main purpose. Then look for evidence, qualifications, and links between paragraphs.
A small operations team kept a shared action list after its weekly planning meeting. Each item had an owner and a target date, but several entries combined tasks that depended on different people. One entry said “arrange the briefing room and confirm the equipment”. When the equipment officer completed his checks, he marked the whole item finished. The room contact was still waiting for an external reply, so colleagues arriving at the next meeting believed the venue had been confirmed when it had not.
The chair used the example to review how the team summarised decisions. She did not assume that the equipment officer had ignored the room issue deliberately. Instead, she asked which evidence a colleague should expect before an item could be closed. The team agreed that separate deliverables should normally have separate entries. Where one action depended on another, that dependency should remain visible, even if the first owner had completed everything within their own control.
There was disagreement about how much detail to include. Some staff wanted a complete transcript of every meeting, while others preferred a list containing only deadlines. The chair asked each group to explain what an absent colleague would need in order to act. They settled on a short decision summary, named owners and a clear distinction between confirmed outcomes and pending replies. Background discussion would be retained only where it explained a condition or the reason for the chosen option.
At the following meeting, the chair checked open items before inviting new proposals. Owners were asked to report the latest evidence rather than repeat their previous intention. If a deadline had slipped, the list recorded the revised date and its impact on linked work. This did not remove the need for professional judgement or conversations between meetings. It gave those conversations a shared reference point and reduced the chance that one person’s completed contribution would be mistaken for the completion of everybody’s work.
03
Language focus
Reported speech and meeting control
When reporting a past statement, backshift the tense when the time perspective changes. Meeting chairs state purpose, control turns, summarise decisions, and assign actions.
The technician said the system was available.
To summarise, Ana will update the list by 17:00.
Watch this
Do not backshift a fact when it is still generally true and the present meaning matters.
Use the language
Complete the second sentence.
Keep the original meaning. Use each keyword unchanged. Type only the missing words in the blue gap.
- 1Read the original
- 2Fill the blue gap
- 3Check your answer
How to answer · worked example
Original
This is Jo’s laptop.
Use BELONGS
This laptop belongs to Jo.
Only belongs to goes in the gap. The other words are already there.
3 short exercises · not saved · separate from your drill score.
01 of 03Use SAID
Original sentence
“The room is available,” the technician said yesterday.
Same meaning
The technician
available.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
The reporting perspective shifts to the past.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap said the room was
The technician said the room was available.
Said (that) the room was backshifts is while retaining the reported message.
02 of 03Use WOULD
Original sentence
“I will check the equipment,” Pavel said.
Same meaning
Pavel said he
the equipment.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
Will commonly becomes would in past reporting.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap would check
Pavel said he would check the equipment.
Would check reports Pavel’s promised future action from a past viewpoint.
03 of 03Use HAD
Original sentence
“We have completed the review,” the team said.
Same meaning
Grammar reminder: Backshift in reported speech
When reporting a completed earlier exchange from a past viewpoint, a present perfect statement commonly becomes past perfect. Retain the original tense when the context calls for a still-current fact.
Example: The team said it had completed the review before the meeting.
The team said it
the review.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
Present perfect commonly backshifts to past perfect.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap had completed
The team said it had completed the review.
Had completed preserves the action’s completion before the reported statement.
The checker matches model answers. An unmatched answer may still be valid; compare the completed sentences and explanation.
04
Core lexicon
Professional and operational vocabulary
the formal line through which authority and reporting pass
The concern was escalated through the chain of command.lead and control a meeting
The duty manager chaired the review.a specific task agreed during a meeting
The minutes list three action points.the formal written record of a meeting
The approved minutes were circulated that afternoon.employees temporarily assigned from one organisation to another
The team includes seconded national officers.From EPSOHQ Frontex database
Acronym focus
Use for the EU agency managing large-scale IT systems in this field.
Use for the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training.
05
Listening workshop
Prepare. Listen. Respond.
Before you listen
Listen for which owner has finished and which action still depends on an external reply.
- dependency
- a condition or other action that must be satisfied first
- action owner
- the person responsible for taking the next step
- confirmed outcome
- a result supported by a reliable reply or record
Operational briefing
Listen once for the overall message. Replay for details, then explain the speaker’s reasoning. Pause, seek, or slow the recording whenever useful.
Unlimited replays · 01:29
Read transcript
At the meeting, we agreed that Pavel would check equipment availability and Sara would confirm the room. Pavel has completed his action, but Sara is still waiting for a reply. The meeting time has not changed. Please keep Sara’s action open and ask her for an update by sixteen hundred.
For the action list, please avoid marking an entire item complete simply because one person has finished their part. The room arrangement depends on an external reply, so that dependency should remain visible. Sara has already sent the request. Sending it again to several additional addresses could create duplicate bookings, which would make the position harder to resolve.
The chair has asked for a short update that distinguishes decisions from proposals. Yesterday, we discussed moving future meetings to the morning, but no decision was taken. The minutes should record that as a proposal for a later meeting. They should not suggest that tomorrow's start time has changed. If anyone remembers the discussion differently, ask them to identify the point that needs correction before the minutes are confirmed. The purpose is to create an accurate shared record, not to decide whose memory is best. At sixteen hundred, we will check whether the room has been confirmed and whether any other action depends on it. If the reply is still outstanding, the chair will decide whether an alternative booking is needed.
Original EPSOHQ text. Synthetic narration with macOS Daniel or Samantha voice.
Check your understanding
Drill 14 · Listening comprehension Drill 15 · Listening comprehension Drill 16 · Listening inference Drill 17 · Listening inference
Use what you heard
Chair a short review: invite an update, summarise it in reported speech, and close with two owned actions.
06
Production task
Chair a two-minute review
Open a meeting, invite one update, manage a disagreement, and close with two action points.
- State one meeting objective.
- Use reported speech in the summary.
- Assign an owner and deadline to each action.
About 120 seconds · 130–230 words
Open evaluated task
Try your own response first. Then compare how the example covers the task, connects ideas, and uses the target language.
Study an example response
Illustrative response, not an assessed script
Thank you for joining. Our objective today is to confirm what remains open before tomorrow’s briefing and assign the next actions. Pavel, could you give us a short equipment update first? Thank you. You said the radios were available, so I will record that part as complete. Sara, please tell us what is still needed for the room. I understand that you are waiting for an external reply. Before we discuss another venue, let us separate the confirmed facts from the options. I hear two different suggestions, and both concern making the briefing workable. Could each of you explain the effect on the people attending? We can then compare them against the same objective. To summarise, Pavel said he would send the verified equipment list by 15:00 today. Sara confirmed she would contact the venue and report its confirmed position by 16:00 today, even if the answer is still pending. We will keep the room action open until that update arrives.
Notice the choices
- The first sentences state an objective and invite a named update.
- You said the radios were available reports the update with past-tense perspective.
- The chair manages disagreement through shared criteria, then assigns Pavel and Sara separate deadlines.
Adapt these patterns to your own situation. For speaking, practise aloud and check clarity and pace; a written example cannot demonstrate pronunciation or spontaneous fluency.