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Jen's Journal


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photography!
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

i took this picture a few days ago.

it is of amal's best friend maria (you probably don't know who either of them are...but they are very cool people

i brightened it a bit in photoshop...and incresed the contrast...but otherwise, it's just a quick picture that i took with the digital camera..

wow.

i miss photography! i totally need to start taking more pictures because i think this one is very cool...

February 24, 2002 | 10:49 AM Comments  0 comments

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last week.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

MONDAY - feb.11
******
- Y House meeting with Amanda and Maria - I was 45 minutes LATE for the meeting. ugh. i was coming from another meeting with a company called nine dots. someone from nine dots heard our panel session at the AIMS conference and was interested in our 'consulting' services. Mandy gave an update on how the Y House is interested in having us conduct a workshop for street youth who live at the Y house - so that they have an opportunity to share their story (especially in an artistic sense)

- mike and i met with charlie coffey (royal bank) - we brought him muffins and chocolate milk :) we had a chat about our progress, showed him the new brochure (*gasp* we don't have a quote from our only REAL SPONSOR!!) we have been invited to an upcoming event on march 7 (Celebration of the Toronto Aboriginal Community)...we asked about how we might be able to be involved with the Ontario Youth Promise...he gave us a contact...

- I met with Amelia (who is from Melbourne and is visiting TOronto) Mike and I met with her when we were in AU as her mom runs a computer centre for disadvantaged youth...she has a lot of experience with marketing and pr. she wants to get involved with TIG. we shared our DRAFT organizational manual with her. i also shared contacts with her from toronto as she is thinking of moving here.

- i met with amal who is coordinating our upcoming workshop called 'pushing your comfort zone and loving it' - mandy printed about 100 flyers for her to promote the event - we talked about logistics etc.

- mike and i were invited to a get together with someone from Canada25 - it was a dinner/drinks kinda setting. we connected with people from meal exchange and a few other orgs. they are facing similar challenges as we are..it was good to connect

TUESDAY - feb.12
*******
- met with the coordinators for York Universitie's International Exchange program to talk about how TIG's community can help students who are on exchange, as well as how their experience can 'live on' when they return home. we talked about having them sign up as TIG members and helping them create their own updates pages to share their experiences, using our events calendar to get involved in local activities, and possibly connecting with local TIG members..

- Vittoria and I met with Michael Jones (who is a pianist and does organizational development)...we had an incredible discussion!! he may help facilitate a retreat for TIG members in Ontario. notes from discussion typed up by Vee - posted below:

Michael Jones Meeting
Tuesday February 12, 2002.

Interesting Councils/Websites etc..
• Academy of Leaders
• International Leadership Association

Arts (Cultural, Leadership)/Youth/Leadership

• WorldCafé.com/.org
Future, Challenges, Seminars
Conversational Café’s – tables for conversations
Environment
Culture
Community of Practice
Bring more of yourself to work
Where is my music of the past?
• For General Inspiration…
Help people be more collaborative
Imaginative intelligence
Help ppl be confident
Able to line from their gifts and talents
Become Improvizational

Creating a TIG Title…
Ideas for our Retreat Day…
Profiles of attendees
Individuals bring a symbol of some form
Invite mentors + sponsors (cross generalization learning)
Title should reflect a goal they want to achieve
Insight/leadership/innovation/creativity
Bring in art
Steers Committee; possible futures? What resources do we need?

Overview: 40-50 People, breakfast/lunch, piano, speakers, interactive games





OUTLINE
9AM Welcome
Music Continental Breakfast
**Handouts
Icebreaker
------Side Note---------
Inspire Inform Involve
Let the word line through the process?
Major Interactions, Status of?
Educational Focus OR Tig member?
Include Booklet with Profiles of Attendees/Mentors/Speakers
Name // email
Experiences
Skills
Interests
*Meaningful TIG Experience
anything inspiring/interesting as key as a TIG member?

*what makes a good leader?

Include TIGVision, Mission, values, principles, profile, mentors + presenters, printed form to sign up
9:30 What are their goals?
What connects them?

Inspire…What does TIG represent? ‘Lay the path that you walk’
Possible futures and share the dream
People want to belong to a story

Check In
Bring themselves into the room
Hopes/aspirations
What makes a good leader?

Inform ppl of the gifts they bring – Groups of 4

Art Icebreaker – Mural – ‘Possible futures of TIG’ Quote in the middle

Date -mural
-Mirella can help us enter the creation process

Other Notes –

Others reflect back the gifts…
Group of 4
A.Inform gifts
Qualities they have that are unique
B.’What you care about’
Others name something unique about their partner

LUNCH

--Side Notes Continued--

‘Who is going to play your music if you don’t’

Involve Start Business cards – help network
Explain positions

Dynamic/based on initiative – its what you put in it
While playing; ‘reflection and writing time’
helps slow our turkey down??!
Share Reflections
What was meaningful for you?
Reflection time between any activity

Packages
*Note: Include Sign Up Sheets for attendees
For Coordinators – perhaps alternate package or one pager including TIG information and goal of retreat

Vision/Goals of Afternoon
How do you see yourself contributing to this initiative?

*Coordinators take note of when ppl
are speaking during their
reflections/expressing their
thoughts throughout the day

Next Steps for individuals…
Ideas for how this initiative can have a greater impact
What’s coming up?
What should our upcoming projects be?

Conclusion
Top 10 Things Tiggers can do to follow up from this retreat day
(i.e Update page, Search for members online, through email/profiles provided, conduct the next workshop/gathering, create a piece of art/expression on your inspiration of the day retreat, write an article etc etc)

------------------------
feb.12 contd.

- met with theresa from 3com! she wants me to set up a meeting with the president of 3com canda to try and get laptops, digicams and video conferencing stuff as they have let go many employees...she also wants to help us develop our sponsorship packages

- on tuesday night, Vittoria stayed over at my place and we did Chackra Yoga, sipped tea and chilled. it was great to share ideas and catch up on things :)

Wednesday - feb.13
*********
We had a staff meeting in the morning - amanda sent out the notes! basically, everyone gave a mega update on what they've been working on, challenges/highlights, upcoming goals etc. Michelle and Vittoria joined us, which was great!

- john abrams, my contact at McD called a day earlY (we were scheduled to chat on thursday) i haven't talked to him in 6 months!! (since he left mcd) we got caught up and i shared progress that TIG has been making. he seemed really jazzed. when i described TIG (being a network, community, resource, platform etc. etc.) and asked if it sounded like to much...he said "Jennifer, you are telling me that TIG is a pine tree, an oak tree, a maple tree etc. - of course it makes sense! you just can't see that TIG is a forest, because of the trees"....

WOW!!! i finally get that saying!!!

- seeing as Vanessa's fundraising workshop was taking place at 5:30, many volunteers and new TIG members came into the office early to chill out, meet up etc. it was crazy and fun having more people around!!

- there was a crazy homeless man that came in our office. at first he was just wierd...he was asking a lot of questions...he walked in and said 'hey guys, i'm here to crash the party' - right in on our meeting!! he decided that he wanted to attend vanessa's workshop and was really killing the 'safe environment' feeling. sush came up to me and said that she thought she overheard someone talking about a homeless man wandering the building. we went down to security and apparently, they were looking for him all day. Meanwhile, back in the workshop, grant (one of our newer members) told the homeless man that if he interrupted the group one more time (after several warnings) that he would have to ask him to leave. Security showed up just on time and escorted him out of the building. crazy experience.

- mike, martin and i dropped vittoria off at home that evening so that mike and martin could fix her computer and get it back on the internet :) after that, we enjoyed some great italian food!!

Thursday - feb.14
********
- our day at the TIG office started off with vanessa giving each of us a cute little present and mandy sending us a TIG virtual greeting card that she created for our members to use on valentines day!!

- mike and i meet with people from sunnybrook hospital about Phase2 of the partyprogram.com website

- amanda, vanessa and i spent several hours re-arranging the office to prepare for karis and susheela joining us as co-op students!!! it took a while.

- i stayed at the office until 9:30 getting my desk organized. i had files, papers, brochures, documents etc. all over the place!! i ended up creating a few binders with tabs to help sort through my collection of ideas / meeting notes / research and printed e-mials.

Friday - feb.15
******
- derek came in early for our meeting with amelia (who didn't end up showing up)...derek was kinda sad because he had a late night..

- i had a conference call with Ashfaq from the international child art foundation - there are several ways that we might be able to be involved in their upcoming 'creativity olympics' collecting artwork from around the world. i was thinking that we could help those submissions that do not make it to the final round get featured on the net through our global gallery!!

- jessee (19 year old tig member) came in to meet mike, derek, mandy and i about getting involved as a volunteer. he has a lot of business experience and a bit of a technology background. he left with a binder filled with responses from our recent TIG survey. he may start by helping us with market research / marketing stuff!!!

- i had a conference call with dumi (YES) to discuss progress. several changes needed to be made on the site and TIG is going to build their online registration application.

- vanessa and i met with jacqueline from the YMCA to talk about how we can collaborate on youth employment initiatives. mandy and sush need to create a poster that can be printed and posted in youth employment centres across the GTA

- i met with Susan Bazilli who was recognized as a 'social entrepreneur' at the world economic forum. she contacted me because she is interested in TIG - i talked to her about our programs and initiatives. she is a lawyer and does a lot of work helping women around the world. she may use TIG in trainings that she does in other countries. she is well connected.

- i had a conference call with Tad form Youth for environmental sanity about their alumni network...there may be opportunity for collaboration...

- karis came into the office at about 6:30 - so we chatted - and then after getting feedback on the space (not so positive), karis, mike and martin re-arranged things further. i worked on e-mails - ugh - a ton of those! by 9:30 we left the building, went out for japanese food and watched a movie!!

------------------------------------

i need some days with NO meetings!!! i totally need to follow-up with some of the people that i've been meeting and hope to develop some meaningful partnerships out of these connections.

that's all for now :)
~ jen