Grad Minds Exec Meeting 12

Online through Zoom

Thursday, February 18th, 2021

Attendees:
Jeffrey Lynham Co-Chair
Esther Silk Co-Chair
Curtis D’Hollander Co-Event Team Lead
Vineeth Raveendran Treasurer/Sponsorship Manager
Roseanne Nguyen Communications Manager
Samantha Chang Co-Event Team Lead
Audrey Kao Co-Lead Volunteer Coordinator
Sandy Chu Marketing and Social Medial Manager
Karthik Ganesan Community Liaison
Shraddha Khiwadkar Co-Lead Volunteer Coordinator

Regrets:
Lexi Ewing Mental Health Policy Advisor
Mao Thao Secretary
Tania Barrera Member-At-Large/Event Coordinator
Ian Fernandes Web Designer

Actionable for the Meeting

• Curtis will make the script for the short introductory video for conference. Please
communicate any ideas you have about this video
• Vineeth will edit this video
• Please signup for writing the event summary in the Event 2021 excel document in
Grad Minds google drive
• Please review assigned tasks of each executive member in the Event 2021 excel
document in Grad Minds google drive.
• After approval of promotional material by funding agencies, Sandy can use Sam’s
calendar in the Events 2021 sheet to alternatively promote different talks.
• We are tight on budget, so we might have to ask Charmaine /Departments/SGS for top
up.
• Will cancel few months of monthly Yoga and Zoom subscription following the
conference.

Meeting called to order at 5:34 PM.

1. Meeting Comes to order

 a. Adoption of Agenda
b. Ratification of Minutes from February 4th Meeting

2. Upcoming Workshops to Promote

a. February 22nd – Stress Management Workshop was not notified in the UTGSU
digest. The issue with the listserv has been fixed. All future workshops will be
promoted through the UTGSU digest.
b. Meditation for Mental Health Workshop (March 3rd) and MindFest 2021 (March
8th - 12th) – Jeffrey has posted some promotional materials in Grad Minds FB
page

3. Event Feedback
a. Share Circles: The 2020 Racial Reckoning (Audrey)
i. Had few people for Shared circle, 1 out of 6 registered participants
showed up. It would be beneficial to make bonds with other student
groups or organizations to make it more inclusive (something to think
about for the future)
b. Grad Minds Game Night (Shraddha)
i. Had 5 participants for the last Game night.
ii. Has planned a Trivia night for the future, will talk to other volunteers
about it next week.

4. Community Collaborations / Working Group Updates (Karthik)

a. Mental Health Group – not meeting often.
b. Centre for Innovation of Mental Health meeting has different groups and
universities. But nobody from Health and Wellness attended the meeting. It will
be difficult for Grad Minds as a Student group to make connections with them.
Karthik is waiting for the minutes to be released and then he will reach out to
interesting groups and resources using contact details in the minutes.
c. Engineering meeting – event on Healthy eating. Karthik has a meeting tomorrow
with them. Will collect more details so that the event can be advertised (co-
hosted) by Grad Minds

5. Grad Minds Annual Conference

a. Google Sheets
i. Conference Itinerary
Conference runs from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Time constraint could be a major
obstacle. Because of this, we will make a short video on how to login,
navigate the platform etc. It is difficult to include all of these in the 2-hour
time window set aside for the speakers. The registration confirmation
email will contain this video with all the instructions and expectations.
Curtis will make a script for this video. This video can also include all of us
waving for 3-5s and saying Hello in different languages including ASL
(suggestion from Sandy). Vineeth will edit and put the video together. This
 video can also double as an advertisement strategy. Can also include the
land acknowledgement in this video, but probably Charmaine can do it live.
After opening remarks from Charmaine, the participants will go to one of
the two breakout sessions. Chad is preparing a completely new talk and is
in the second room.

Bio break will help keep everything on time and give enough time for the
participants to return to the main room after the breakout sessions. There
is no Q/A session for the keynote session. Sam will be the Tech person and
Curtis will be introducing everybody.

Can see the full itinerary in the Grad Minds google drive, Events 2021 sheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pyazNbpIx0r__a77x1WQlVXETv
R4v3WCxtHMqKx9KKw/edit#gid=198828388

ii. Workflow / Assigned Tasks

Duties assigned to all Grad Minds Executive members (and the detailed
itinerary) can be found in the Events 2021 excel sheet in Grad Minds
google drive
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pyazNbpIx0r__a77x1WQlVXET
vR4v3WCxtHMqKx9KKw/edit#gid=109291631

Everybody should signup for writing the event summary. Curtis has setup
the registration form using Microsoft forms (to comply with UofT policy).
Will try to balance the number of participants for both the breakout
sessions. The confirmation email following registration will contain all the
details. Jeffrey/Esther will setup a conference webpage. Feedback form
has all information required for the report to be send back to funding
agencies.

iii. Social Media Posts

Curtis has already made conference posters in Canva. Sandy can help
with the design if need be. Sandy can take care of the social media
posting and can use Sam’s calendar in the Events 2021 sheet to
alternatively publicise different talks. We are still waiting for the approval
of promotional material from funding agencies.

(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pyazNbpIx0r__a77x1WQlVXE
TvR4v3WCxtHMqKx9KKw/edit#gid=617582223)

b. Budget Review / Allocation of Funds

i. ASL Interpreter + Live Captioners
 Live captioning and ASL interpreters are expensive but crucial for getting
SIF money.

ii. Speaker Fees / Honoraria

Will pay a small honorarium to Charmaine and Chad. Sam will take the
expenses for now since the funding is on her behalf and then we will re-
imburse it later. We are tight on budget; we can ask Charmaine
/Departments/SGS for top up. Should we decrease the money for David?
Can ask for sponsorships. Since we are short of funds, we can cancel few
months of monthly Yoga and Zoom subscription and try and reduce the
ASL expense.

iii. Raffle Prizes

Since we are tight on budget, we have to re-think how much to spend on
raffles.

6. Adjournment at 6:40 pm

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Vineeth A Raveendran
Treasurer