Grad Minds Exec Meeting 6

Online through Zoom

Wednesday, October 28th, 2020

Attendees:
Jeffrey Lynham Co-Chair
Esther Silk Co-Chair
Curtis D’Hollander Co-Event Team Lead
Mao Thao Secretary
Vineeth Raveendran Treasurer/Sponsorship Manager
Lexi Ewing Mental Health Policy Advisor
Shraddha Khiwadkar Co-Lead Volunteer Coordinator
Audrey Kao Co-Lead Volunteer Coordinator
Roseanne Nguyen Communications Manager
Karthik Ganesan Community Liaison
Samantha Chang Co-Event Team Lead

Regrets:
Tania Barrera Member-At-Large/Event Coordinator
Ian Fernandes Web Designer
Sandy Chu Marketing and Social Medial Manager

Actionables for the Meeting

• Jeffrey will send Karthik and Lexi a list of our past speakers for the Graduate Mental
Wellness Committee
• Karthik will send us the Meeting Minutes from the Graduate Mental Wellness
Committee
• Karthik will share his notes from the SGS Mental Wellness Advisory Board and Council of
Graduate Schools Convening Meeting
• Vineeth will write up and send out the summary from the Mental Health Toolbox
Workshop and it will be posted online
• Esther will send out an email on Thursday to three departments asking them to promote
our workshops
• Curtis will set up a list for us to rank potential keynote speakers for the conference
• Audrey will set up a meeting with the Share Circle and Peer Support Initiative Group by
sending out a survey/doodle for dates that will work for the group
• Audrey will ask the Peer Support Initiative Group for a screenshot of their completed
trainings
• Jeffrey will message Sandy about how to better balance Sandy’s role vs. volunteer roles
so Sandy doesn’t end up with a large bulk of work.
Meeting will be called to order at 5:34 PM.

1. Meeting Comes to order

a. Adoption of Agenda
b. Ratification of Minutes from October 14th Meeting

2. Project/Event Updates
a. Community Collaborations/Working Groups (Karthik & Lexi)
i. Updates from Graduate Mental Wellness Committee
o Talked about what’s the purpose and how to utilize the group
o 3 Organizations attended – Department of Molecular Genetics,
Biochemistry and Cells, and Systems Biology.
o Shared their difficulty running their own events, looking for
guidance
o Broad questions about how to function, find speakers…
ii. Lexi – What is Grad Minds purpose? Are we here to put out workshops?
Or are we here to support other organizations financially?
o Jeffrey – we can collaborate on workshops with these other
organizations
o Curtis – We currently have all our workshops filled so we won’t be
able to collaborate with other organizations
o Funding, each organization will have to take the initiative to find
funding
o Wanted to know the names of past speakers/ideas we’ve had
a. Jeffrey will provide list of speakers
iii. Karthik will send us the Meeting Minutes from the Graduate Mental
Wellness Committee
b. Karthik Updates from Other Meetings
i. SGS mental wellness advisory board
o Will send out a list of what the advisory is working on
ii. Council of graduate schools convening – the meeting with other
universities
o Other universities are facing similar struggles
o Can send us his notes from the meeting
o Organizers will send out email and Karthik will update us
o Deans don’t have enough “power” and wants students to take the
initiative
iii. Engineering Mental Health
o New executives on board, great for new perspectives
c. COVID-19 Resource Page Update / Infographics with Advocacy Volunteers (Lexi)
 i. Lexi Update – Volunteer on the Infographics has gone dark – will wait on
the volunteer
d. Workshops
i. Thoughts & Feedback from Mental Health Toolbox Workshop (Jeff,
Curtis)
o Three responses only. One said that the second part of the
workshop felt rushed because the meditation and breakout rooms
took up a lot of time.
o New addition – Rate the workshop – Got 7 and 10 out of 10
o Ask Vineeth about Summary to Post Online
ii. Promotions for Suicide Prevention Workshop
o 39 people signed up
o Curtis did reach out to a few other departments
o Esther will send out email on Thursday to three other
departments
iii. The following Workshop has been moved a day ahead, emailed the
participants who’s already signed up
iv. Received a request for closed captions – are we able to offer this? On
Zoom we would have to pay for it
v. New ideas for workshop facilitators for remaining workshops
o We are full and don’t need more workshops
vi. Conference
o Current Format
• 5:45 pm Opening Remarks
• 5:50 pm Keynote 1
• 6:20 – 6:30 Q&A
• 10 min Break
• 6:40 – 7:20 Breakout Option A and B
• 10 min Break
• 7:30 – 8 pm Keynote 2
• 8:00-8:10 Q&A
• 8:10 – 8:15 pm Closing and Raffle
o Have we considered just one strong keynote and shorter day?
o Could we have two different speakers over two days?
o Format can still change depending on funding and keynote speaker
o Curtis will set up a list for us to rank keynotes and pose questions
e. Volunteer Projects
i. Share Circles + Peer Support Initiative (Audrey)
o Share Circle next week will be on imposter syndrome – Nov. 5
o Ask Audrey to set up a meeting and to get an update from
everyone to see which trainings people missed.
o Ask everyone to send a confirmation that they’ve completed their
trainings, a screenshot or certificate would be good.
 o Send out a doodle for dates that work for the group to meet
o Hoping to launch a platform next semester
ii. Advocacy Team (Shraddha)
o 10 people with three different programs
o Esther will help out with the program but may not be able to
attend all meetings due to lab
o Insurance Benefits – Making the benefits more transparent
a. Task force from last year recommended that we make
insurance benefits more transparent
b. Esther is knowledge about insurance and will share some
resources in our Slack
c. Ideas on Infographics
i. How to make Claims
ii. Downloading your insurance card
o Story Portal
a. What are the next actions now that it’s set up? Karthik has
made it public so people can post on it.
b. Need help with Advertising Story Portal on social media
and hashtags
o Infographics Resources
a. Volunteer currently not responding
iii. Discussion on how to promote volunteer events/initiatives
o Sandy’s role vs. volunteer roles
a. How do we balance Sandy’s role and volunteers?
b. Should volunteers have access to the social media pages to
post themselves, or should we have volunteers design
posters and then email Sandy so that she can make the
post?
c. Audrey – Have Sandy copy and paste the volunteer’s work
so she doesn’t have to do the bulk of the work
d. Excel Worksheet that Sandy can use
o Jeffrey will message Sandy about this to see how she’s faring with
this

3. Any other business

a. Canada Student Grant for Full Time Students
i. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-
aid/grants-loans/full-time.html

4. Adjournment at 6:50 pm
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Mao Thao
Secretary