Grad Minds Exec Meeting 15

Online through Zoom

Thursday, April 1st, 2021

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

Regrets:
Tania Barrera Member-At-Large/Event Coordinator
Ian Fernandes Web Designer
Audrey Kao Co-Lead Volunteer Coordinator
Lexi Ewing Mental Health Policy Advisor

Actionable for the Meeting

• For those who haven’t, please contact Jeffrey and let him know if you will be continuing
on as an Executive
• Jeffrey attended a workshop similar to the Eating Disorder workshop and will look
inviting the facilitator for next year’s workshop
• Vineeth will work with Sam and Curtis to finalize the conference budget
• Karthik, Mao, Esther, Curtis and Vineeth would like to work together on a mental health
survey about food insecurity – Jeffrey will be in touch in late April
• Elemental Magazine is looking for more articles, Jeffrey will be sharing more information
on Slack. If you’re interested in contributing contact Jeffrey and Curtis.
• Esther will reach out to Gabriella about continuing Yoga classes in the summer

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

1. Meeting Comes to order at 5:34 pm
a. Adoption of Agenda
b. Ratification of Minutes from March 18th Meeting

2. Grad Minds Annual Conference + Eating Disorder Workshop Feedback

a. Conference
i. Comedy via Zoom is hard
b. Feedback forms
i. The feedback was positive – 7 feedback forms turned in
c. Post-conference reports
i. Student Initiative Fund
o Might not receive the funds because our proposal has changed
o Check was issued to Jeffrey
d. Eating Disorder Workshop
i. Look for a different facilitator
ii. The topic is important and needs to be brought up
iii. Jeffrey did attend a workshop on a similar topic and can look into the
workshop for next year

3. Finalize Budget (Vineeth)

a. What does the budget look like?
i. Will be canceling Yoga and Zoom subscription
ii. Vineeth will work with Sam and Curtis about the budget and conference
expenses
b. Thoughts on how to spend surplus
i. We might have $700 left over from the conference
ii. We cannot donate the money to an organization
iii. Food insecurity
o Give out grocery gift cards to students
o Affects mental health
iv. Could we send an email to all that have attended our events/feedback?
o Give them a gift card
v. Survey to create Annual Infographics
o Whoever fills out the survey can get a chance to win the gift card
o Is currently being done by UofT
https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/about/measuring-our-
performance/gradseru/
vi. Mental Health Survey with raffle prize
o Karthik, Mao, Esther, Curtis and Vineeth would like to work
together on a survey about food insecurity and distribute gift
cards – Jeffrey will be in touch
o Create a portfolio and pass it on
o Would be distributed by UTGSU
 o Needs to wait until after the conference budget is finalized
o 2 months from now, hopefully June
o Will set up a meeting at the end of April

4. Summer Plans (April – August)

a. Exec Applications
i. New Executive Process
o April 15th - May 7th – Application Period
o Advertisement will be for 3 weeks
o Jeffrey will put up a Google Document about the Applicants so
that we can contribute to it
o Week of May 10th – Meeting to Discuss Applicants
o Interview if needed
o Make a decision so we have new Executives by August
o Leaving Executives will onboard new Executives
ii. Priority goes to Grad Mind volunteers
b. Ongoing initiatives
i. April-May – Elemental Issue 8 (Jeffrey, Curtis)
o If you would like to contribute, please let Jeffrey and Curtis know
o What type of articles?
a. Word length is 600 – 1500 words
b. Topic: Social determinates to social health
c. Jeffrey can share more information on Slack
ii. Late April – End of Year Game Night (Shraddha)
o Low turnout in similar past events so we will cancel the event
iii. All Summer – Peer Support Initiative (Audrey)
iv. Yoga with Gabriella
o Gabriella would like to continue Zoom Yoga over the summer
o Esther will reach out to Gabriella
c. Anything else you would like to see happen over the summer?
i. Survey with Food Insecurity
d. Early-Mid August – First Meeting for 2021-2022 Academic Year

5. End of Year Review

a. How would you rate your overall experience as a Grad Minds Exec?
i. Good
b. Was the time commitment and workload too much?
i. 2 weeks was good and necessary
ii. Workload for Event Coordinators – 2 people was good
iii. Social Media Posts – Everyone who gave requests gave 2-3 days prior to
needing to be posted, beneficial for people to have captions ready for
social media posting
c. What can be improved for next year? (assuming everything will still be virtual)
 i. Want to streamline our events with other organizations so we don’t run
the same events and have conflicts with dates
ii. Conference earlier in the year – February
o Will also help generate new interest for the rest of the workshops
d. Any other comments

6. Thank you and have a great summer!

7. Adjournment at 7:01 pm

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Mao Thao
Secretary