Meeting Minutes – 29 AUG 2013

  • A brief history of the group
  • Education/Trainiers for Office Equity and Inclusion Education Officer posting has been released
  • Once the persons are hired, we should setup a meeting with them to see potential partnerships
  • Will arrange a meeting with Gurdeep Parhar
  • Lack of concrete strategy provides CTLT with an opportunity to “play ahead of the game” and start relationships with other/new staff and units
  • Look into Universal Instructional Design for face-to-face classes
  • Some work has already been done by the DBL team
  • Maybe collaborate with Equity office for resources
  • What about language inclusion? (e.g. Afsaneh’s culturepedia)
  • Ask others what else have we been doing regarding Equity and Inclusion
  • Shaya wants to plan a workshop for the next ETUG workshop (http://etug.ca/2013/07/29/fall-workshop-2013-call-for-proposal-open/)
  • Hanae will do a Doodle for next meeting

Questions for Gurdeep

  • What do you have on your plate?
  • Information exchange
  • Include mission, blog of the Intercultural Working Group in email

Work related to Equity and Inclusion

  • Offer Classroom Climate Workshops
  • Workshop Request (e.g. Peer Programs, TA Training, Go Global, JUMPStart)
  • Challenges regarding student-instructor relationships, peer mentorship
  • History of Aboriginal at UBC Timeline workshop
  • Accessibility in distance learning courses
  • TRC-related projects
  • Pecha Kucha at Intercultural U
  • Intercultural Understanding Working Group
  • “Who Are You” Session at ETUG Fall Workshop
  • Participated in the IdleNoMore Conference, Encounters in Canada Conference (relationship between immigrants and Aboriginal peoples)
  • Living Lab

CTLT Dialogues Article

  • Write an article after the TRC
  • Reflections from different projects
  • Maybe for now a short list of TRC related projects for the CTLT homepage
  • Target the October Newsletter
  • Digital signage in the Library
  • Shaya will send an email to Sukhi about digital signage

Monthly meeting announcement template

This is a monthly meeting announcement template that the meeting chair for the month can use to send out the announcement to everyone through the CTLT-All list. Please make changes as you see fit. Thanks!

***

It’s time for the Intercultural Working Group monthly meeting! The meeting is open to all the CTLT staff members who are interested. The meeting this month will be on [date, time, room]. We will discuss [topic/agenda of the meeting]. I will be the chair for the meeting this month. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Hope to see you at the meeting!

[Chair’s name]

August 29, 2013 Meeting Agenda

Below is my proposed agenda. Please feel free to leave a comment for additional agenda items.

  • Walk for Reconciliation and other CTLT TRC projects on CTLT Dialogues
  • Review full version of Equity Implementation report
  • Future of Intercultural Working Group

For a quick review of the report and UBC’s response to it, see: http://equity.ubc.ca/response-to-the-implementing-inclusion-report/

Aug 1 Meeting Minutes

Attendees: Amy, Hanae, Judy, Shaya, and Zack

1. Report on the Implementing Inclusion meeting on July 30 (Judy and Hanae attended.)

  • New structure for equity and inclusivity at UBC
  • Some of the key concerns addressed at the meeting pertaining to our work at CTLT: How can we support the teaching and learning of students, faculty, and staff?

2. Future actions

  • Next meeting (Hanae will initiate a Doodle poll for the last week of August): Review the final and full version of the equity implementation and discuss how we may be able to act proactively to insert our work into the new structure of equity and inclusivity.
  • Hanae will propose a meeting with kele, Alden, Gurdeep (Acting AVP), and someone from the Intercultural Working Group to discuss how we may be able to be part of the new equity and inclusivity initiative at UBC.
  • Other activity/action ideas:
    – Create an email template to announce our monthly meeting, which the facilitator of the meeting for the month uses to send out to CTLT-All email list (to encourage more CTLT staff to participate in our initiative).
    – Inform widely about our initiative through CTLT Dialogues (Possible themes: flexible learning, identity, colonial perspective/space)
    – Present at ETUG (Education Tech Interest Group), Intercultural U

 

Minutes from June 27 meeting

Intercultural Working Group
June 27th 2013, Resource Room
Present: Jarrad, Shaya, Hanae, Audrey, Mali
Regrets: Joseph, Judy, kele, Luisa, Zack

1. Email signature
– we have a tagline and will wait for approval from kele

2. Updates on TRC planning
Timeline group (Hanae & Mali; also on the team Sarah)
– making an interactive timeline in the lobby area
– have a band of the Legacy of Loss timeline (residential school history), a horizontal band of UBC history, and a horizontal band of an interactive timeline.
– working with Sarah Dupont.
Next steps: finding cardboard signs; getting timeline printed double-size; confirming budget; choosing UBC timeline dates

Student/Arts Based Engagement (Shaya; also on the team Roselynn)
– haven’t had a chance to meet yet but will be meeting next week
– wanting to get involved visually in creating something with a group of people

Communications team (Jarrad; also on the team, Sukhi, Audrey, Linda)
– Jarrad working on doing something TRC-related at the staff BBQ, Sept 19th. Invite for that event going out soon. Need resources for that.
– suggestion to connect with the organisers and involve them in brainstorming?
– Jarrad working on engaging & involving CTLT staff – working with Michelle, now will start working with Amy and Simon, to have staff time set aside in September for TRC connections.
– Sukhi’s team is working with FNHL to figure out Twitter account for the event
– important to have tweets for September but also before and after then…
– Audrey can create digital signage for screens all over campus
– Audrey can design poster
– Maybe Audrey could design the outdoor posters/pop-ups which can be placed at different events…

Content for TRC posters etc
– what’s the goal of the education?
– dialogue
– better understanding of Indian Residential School histories,
– the policies that guided the operations of the schools
– their effects upon individuals and communities,
– what’s the call to action?
Whose name is on this poster? irsi.aboriginal.ubc.ca
CTLT is making the poster;
– message: you find your own method or way of reconciliation… stop and think. Think about your own role.
– “create your own path to reconciliation”
– “negotiate/envision/visualise/enact your own path to reconciliation”
– “what is your path to reconciliation?”
– suggest a few paths, ways to see your relationship?
– make it a whiteboard or sticky-wall for people to respond?
– useful to have a few ideas to get people started
– have a few examples created, what different people did – as examples.
“whose territory did you grow up?”
“on whose territory did you go to school?”
“who has been living here for 10,000 years?”
Audience: UBC students, staff, faculty.
In order to make materials, Audrey needs:
– official title of event
– colour theme – indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca
– image(s) – look to artwork – ask Sarah Ling for Musqueam connections?
– logos of any orgs associated
– website link(s)
– twitter hashtags – #TRC_UBC?

3. Role of this committee in relation to TRC?
– TRC working group overlaps considerably with the Intercultural Working Group. Do we want to keep the Intercultural group meeting over the summer, or work separately over the summer on our team projects?
– this team can be about the TRC as a current initiative, as long as it’s clear that the group can take on other initiatives with time. Collaboration between teams is important.
– the priority right now is our small team meetings and we want to avoid duplicating efforts.
– aim to have one meeting in early August, to reconnect and envision the upcoming year, review what we’ve been doing for TRC and talk about how we’re going to integrate that throughout the coming year

4. Next meeting
– August 1st 2pm – 3:30 pm Intercultural Working Group.
– Audrey will book a room, Shaya will send out meeting invite
– intention to send invite/meeting time to all CTLT staff

May 23 Meeting minutes

1. Email signature tag line

  • Diane’s response: No unit standard on the line on the Musqueam land. Land claim with Musqueam peoples has not been finalized (Currently on lease). There are still open claims. Making a standardized email signature including a line on the land issue as a unit can have serious legal implications.
  • As a unit, we can’t create a standardized a line on Musqueam territory in the email signature (i.e., work email), while we can do it at an individual level (e.g., personal email). It’s ultimately an individual choice for each staff member.
  • The second part of the email signature on the TRC event (“September 18, 2013 is the Observance of Opening of West Coast National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Learn more at http://irsi.aboriginal.ubc.ca”): We will run by kele to get approval.

2. Debrief of the cross-team TRC workshop on May 22

Intercultural Working Group team members will lead the proposed project at the workshop.

Luisa’s team (with Emily) – Resource development (i.e., module development)

  • Pull together different resources that are available (e.g., MOA) rather than developing new content. Want to have faculty consultation.
  • Connect with Leah Walker (On-line course on implications of colonization to medicine) and Jennifer Kramer (curator of MOA)
  • Amy and Luisa will touch base on a regular basis, rather than Amy always being involved in the process.

Jarrad’s team – Staff engagement in the TRC event

  • September 18th is not only for students. Can UBC HR make it explicit that staff is entitled to participate in the event? Jarred consults kele with our suggestions/questions and bring them to Lisa Castle in HR:
  • Can HR facilitate lunch sessions for staff? When is HR’s regular staff BBQ? Is it during the event? Or, if it is after the event, it may serve as an opportunity for staff to reflect on the event.
  • Can AAPS (union for staff) do something?
  • At CTLT: Can CTLT make an announcement on the CTLT website to encourage other units to make it possible for their staff to participate in the event?
  • We may be able to make a video to announce what we are doing at CTLT to encourage people to think about how they could engage in the event and to invite them to our events.

Mali & Hanae’s team (with Sarah Ling, Roselynn, and Gillian)

  • Lobby exhibition at IKB – Get in touch with Sarah Dupont (who helped the Aboriginal Month exhibit in IKB). Mali will email Sarah Dupont to have a meeting with the team
  • Main Mall – Michelle’s suggestion: Keep the material simple and reusable. Resource may be available.
  • Set up a historical timeline in the Pharmacy Building
  • Electronic signage with questions or quotes to provoke people’s thinking. We create texts, such as: “Don’t we have treaties here?” “Residential School happened a long time ago. Why don’t we get over it?” “My family is new to Canada. Why does it matter to me?”
  • Develop some resources that illustrate how we may be able to answer these questions? (e.g., The “Really?” campaign postcards) We can create a response to illustrate situated personal narratives rather than abstract responses (e.g., A particular person responding to the question from his/her social position)
  • Run by Sukhi to see if the market team can design and distribute the signs across campus

Judy’s team – Workshop

  • Workshop similar to what Amy and Hanae did on Learning Lab or Mali’s idea (i.e., physical mapping activity – “Where were you 10 years ago? Where were you 20 years ago?”…)
  • Have a series of workshops during the summer and tie them together in September
  • May develop resources through the workshops (CoP model?)
  • Include workshops on basics? (Linda’s suggestion at the cross-team workshop)
  • Judy is looking for a co-facilitator – Mali and Hanae are happy to help

Zack’s team

  • How can we coordinate everything we do so that everything looks coherent rather than fragmented?
  • We need to coordinate based on theme or question, rather than based on events
  • Cross-team monthly workshops can be a place where we coordinate different projects.
  • Create a Wiki to keep the language consistent and to avoid redundant work/reinventing a wheel. Wiki title: “TRC CTLT initiatives”

 

3. Continue the activity from the last meeting on what CTLT can do to support the TRC event

  • At the next cross-team workshop, based on the whole staff meeting (in which we did the sticky note exercise on what our role could be in the TRC event), we will match CTLT staff’s skills, suggestions, connections/networks with our projects proposed at the cross-team workshop.

 

Agenda for May 23 Meeting

Here’s the agenda for out meeting on May 23, 2013:

  • Email Signature Tagline:
    Discuss what’s the standard wording we’ll use for our email taglines reminding people about the TRC event on Sept. 18th.
  • Debrief the TRC Cross-Team Workshop:
    Some of us will be participating in that internal CTLT workshop about the TRC at 2PM – 4PM, Wednesday, May 22, 2013.
  • Continue the activity from the last meeting on what CTLT can do to suppor the TRC event.

Meeting details are:

  • When: 2:00PM – 3:30PM, Thursday, May 23, 2013
  • Where: CTLT Resource Room

Thanks to Hanae for collaborating with to help figure out the agenda.

Email Signatures & Acknowledgements

One of the suggestions we made during the CTLT all-staff meeting was to include Musqueam Territory in our email signatures. It is a very small and simple act but holds symbolic value in acknowledging that we are on unceded Musqueam territory. It is part of the history and continuing story of this place we work, We are thankful to the Musqueam people for enabling us to do what we do.

A question came about on how does this affect UBC Branding Guidelines. The email branding guidelines can be found at http://brand.ubc.ca/working-with-our-brand/email/email-signatures/. If we are to follow the specifications, I suggest doing the following:


Internal Version

First Name Last Name, Credentials
Title 1, Title 2 | Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver | Musqueam Territory
Phone 604 822 1234 | Cell 778 123 4567

September 18, 2013 is the Observance of Opening of West Coast National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Learn more at http://irsi.aboriginal.ubc.ca.


External Version

First Name Last Name, Credentials
Title 1, Title 2 | Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver
123 – 4567 Street Name | Musqueam Territory, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1
Phone 604 822 1234 | Cell 778 123 4567 | Fax 604 123 4567
first.last@ubc.ca | @UBC_CTLT
ctlt.ubc.ca

September 18, 2013 is the Observance of Opening of West Coast National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Learn more at http://irsi.aboriginal.ubc.ca.


There is a third option for signatures with sub-identities but unfortunately, the CTLT wordmark does not work well with the “Place of Mind” logo.

Any thoughts from the team?

Meeting Minutes – April 11, 2013

Facilitator: Amy Perrault
Notetaker: Zack Lee

1. Review & Reflections of the Pecha Kucha Presentation

Thoughts About the Event

  • Fun event, speakers came from diverse backgrounds
  • Some presentations were a bit problematic:
    • students on exchange
    • previous exchange students became mentors
  • Need to have time to unpack for discussions
  • Audience was very diverse

Team Presentation

  • Surprise that people participated and responded at both the pecha kucha night and at the all-staff meeting
  • Notice more facial responses
  • CTLT does not have a lot of opportunities to ask bigger questions or gain understanding of issues
  • Audience member at the Pecha Kucha night noted the presentation’s use of space and breaking of roles
  • CTLT staff member wanted CTLT to do something similar with things we’re thinking about or are already doing

2. Ideas to help promote the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Event on 18 SEP 2013

  • Presentation by Rick Ouellet during the CTLT all-staff meeting (March 27, 2013) did not give new information that wasn’t previously shared
  • It was good to emphasize the symbolism of UBC’s decision to suspend most classes on 18 SEP 2013
  • Do students know the symbolism of the day of suspended class?
  • Repetition of the information, history is important. Helps things to sink in.
  • CTLT Senior Management is considering organizing a more than 1 hour session to help CTLT staff come to a greater understanding of the significant of the TRC.
    • Maybe the Intercultural Working Group can design the session?

Amy typed up and printed out the responses from the CTLT all-staff meeting regarding the question: “What is CTLT’s role in the TRC event?” We then put them into three groups, which you can see below:

We had some ideas on how we can move forward as you can see from the image below:

Timeline for Work

There was a focus on sharing the small things CTLT staff can do right now and bigger actions we can plan ahead for. For the next all-staff meeting (24 APR 2013), we suggested to announce the following:

  1. Keep the date 18 SEP 2013. Ask people to set it in their calendars, see how that date is going to affect certain deadlines, if possible move due dates, etc.
  2. Add Musqueam Territory to our email address signatures.
  3. Share that there will be more plans coming in a few months.

A few of the suggestions for future plans were developing an infographic, tagging related work with something like #trc, how can we share stores.

What are the other ways we can engage people in the history and importance of the residential schools and the work of the truth and reconciliation commission?

3. Next Meeting

Time & Date: 2:00PM – 3:00PM, Thursday, May 23, 2013
Place: CTLT Resource Room, IKBLC
Facilitator: Zack Lee
Notetaker: TBD

What makes a class “unsafe”?

We repeated our Pecha Kucha presentation from the Intercultural U event at the March 2013 CTLT all-staff meeting where we asked the same question, “What makes a class unsafe?” Everybody was given a sheet of paper, a pen, and a few moments to reflect and write down their responses. It was pleasantly surprising that everyone was willing to participate in the activity. We received a lot of responses, which you can see in the wordle below.

Made from wordle.net. Download the PDF.

If you’re interested in doing something with the responses (e.g. a different kind of visualization), you can copy the responses from a Google doc.

The responses gave me pause and made me realize the commonalities within their diversity. Below are a few of the take away points I learned:

  • Being put on the spot is a difficult situation to be in. You are pressured to answer questions that you may not have had time to think about or reflect on. Give people the time to think before they respond to questions or an opportunity to address the situation at a later time.
  • Discussions thrive from the diversity of ideas being shared. Enter discussions with an open mind. Defend for your ideas with respect towards your colleagues, students or friends. Be willing to change your mind or be convinced by others.
  • Be aware of the group dynamics. Invite others to the conversation and give them a chance to share their ideas. Value the diversity of everybody’s background, experience and skills.
  • Be aware of yourself. We may unintentionally use discriminatory language, share jokes with racist undertones, or be overly assertive and dominate the conversation. Many things we do may come from habit or we are just unaware. Be ready to learn and to change.

Take a look at the wordle and reflect on what people have mentioned. What are your take-aways? Did you experience any of these? Is there anything missing from the responses? What can you do to make a class safe to share ideas and hold difficult conversations?