Grad Minds Exec Meeting 13

Online through Zoom

Thursday, March 4th, 2021

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

Regrets:
Tania Barrera Member-At-Large/Event Coordinator
Ian Fernandes Web Designer
Audrey Kao Co-Lead Volunteer Coordinator

Actionable for the Meeting

• Everyone – Please help advertise and share the conference
• Mao will write the Event Write Up on March 12 for the Money Management Workshop
• Sam will email Charmaine and Kristen to help promote the conference
• Sam will contact Hart House and Jennifer Pinker asking them to help share our
conference
• Sam will email Chad to see if we can promote our conference on the UTGSU website
• Sam is currently in the process of finding an ASL interpreter and will update us when she
secures one
• Conference Summary Writers
o Lexi – Opening Remarks from Charmaine, 10 minutes
o Karthik – Breakout Group with Susanna, 40 minutes
o Jeffrey – Breakout Group with Chad, 40 minutes
o Vineeth – Keynote Presentation with David, 50 minutes
o Shraddha – Closing Remarks from Ed, 10 minutes
• Departmental Emails
 o Curtis will create a schedule of when to send out emails to departments in the
Google Document
o Esther will update the department emails in the Google Document
o Esther, Curtis, and Jeffrey will split the department emails and send them in all
o Please write down the date when the email is sent out
• Mao will reach out to Student Family Housing and share with OISE
• Sandy has reached out to other U of T groups via social media to ask them to promote
the conference
• Vineeth will work on a conference video template and share it with us
• Jeffrey will link the Grad Minds website and conference together
• Please let Esther know if there’s anything that needs to be fixed on the website

Meeting will be called to order at 5:30 PM.

1. Meeting Comes to order at 5:33 pm

a. Adoption of Agenda
b. Ratification of Minutes from February 18th Meeting

2. Conference Video
a. Recorded our welcome and thank you message

3. Upcoming Events and Workshops to Promote

a. March 8th – 12th – MindFest 2021
b. March 12th – Money Management Workshop
i. Mao is signed up to do the Event Write Up
c. March 15th – Share Circle: Looking Back on One Year of COVID-19

4. Ongoing Initiatives / Collaborations

a. Mental Advocacy Campaign (Esther & Shraddha)
i. Volunteers are signed up to make infographics
b. Potential Social Media Collaboration with HealthyU Crew (Jeffrey)
i. HealthyU Crew can also help make infographics
c. Community Collaborations / Working Group Updates (Karthik)
i. Slow progress from some groups
ii. Some important takeaways
o Students are more comfortable sharing feedback in surveys
o Zoom fatigue
iii. Question: Can these groups help share our conference? Maybe not
through the Mental Health Groups but through UTGSU. Sam will email
Charmaine and Kristen to ask
iv. Student and Youth Mental Health Research Initiative (Lexi)
 o Meet once a month and is well organized
o https://smhr.utoronto.ca/

5. Grad Minds Annual Conference

a. Advertisement
i. Will email departments and get on group Listserv
ii. Curtis will create a schedule of when to send out emails to the
department in the working Google document
iii. 6 people are currently registered
iv. Request for subtitles in Spanish – will not be able to fulfill this
unfortunately due to our budget
b. Budget Review
i. ASL Interpreter + Live Captioners
o Many ASL individuals have backed out because comedy is hard to
interpret
o Sam is currently in the process of finding someone and will update
us when she secures an ASL interpreter
ii. Applied for a $500 grant to help offset costs
iii. Speaker Fees / Honoraria
o Speakers – As of now, no one has been paid and we are in budget
o Honoraria
a. Will need to give Vineeth an invoice
b. Fill out a form that they have received the gift card
c. Sam has a template form that Vineeth can use
iv. Raffle Prizes
o You must be present to win
o You must be a UTGSU members to receive the raffle prize
v. Vineeth’s Conversation with the UTGSU Finance Administrator
o See notes in our Slack Conversation
o Please use Vineeth’s credit card if possible – easiest to track
o Except for the Hart House and SIF Grant this invoice has to be
from Sam
vi. Website Domain purchased by Vineeth
vii. Yoga will be canceled for the summer to help make sure we stay in
budget
c. Assign Summary Writers
i. Need 5 people signed up
o Opening Remarks from Charmaine, 10 minutes --- Lexi
o Breakout Group with Susanna, 40 minutes --- Karthik
o Breakout Group with Chad, 40 minutes --- Jeffrey
o Keynote Presentation with David, 50 minutes, Potential summary
will be the response of the audience to the comedians --- Vineeth
o Closing Remarks from Ed, 10 minutes --- Shraddha
d. Review Promotion Plan
 i. Social Media Schedule (Sandy)
o Sandy has started the schedule on Tuesday
o Sam suggested Sandy try Hootsuite for scheduling of social media
post https://www.hootsuite.com/
ii. Departmental Outreach (Curtis)
o Curtis has created a template email in the Google Drive, in the
folder Conference 2021
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZP6Hj1jkipHRIzpR6YFS7g
8wRZqjkcHu?usp=sharing
o Needs to be a simple email
o Esther will upload her department email list to this list
a. Esther, Curtis, and Jeffrey will split the emails and send
them in all
b. Label the date that you send out the email
o Our registration numbers are currently low, so we need to send
them out by Monday
iii. Student Groups
o Student Union Leads
a. Can we ask UTGSU to send it to Student groups?
o Sam will contact Hart House and Jennifer Pinker
o Mao will reach out to Student Family Housing and share on the
Facebook
o Sandy has reached out to other groups via social media to ask
them to promote the conference
iv. Conference Video (Vineeth and Curtis)
o Script written and in the Google Link
o Vineeth will finish a template of what is going to be in the video
and share it with us
v. Webpage (Esther and Jeffrey)
o Jeffrey will link the Grad Minds website and conference together
o If there’s anything that needs to be fixed please let Esther know
vi. UofT Administration
o What’s happening at UofT website
o Sam will email Chad to see if we can promote our conference on
the website

6. Any other business

a. Make sure you are signed up for the conference and help advertise the
conference

7. Adjournment at 6:32 pm

---
Mao Thao
Secretary