What went well?

The progress I made; what was achieved and done

The intent behind my placement at Urban Minds was to assist with tasks leading up to their 1UP Leaders Lab, a two-day conference set to occur in August 2024 that required promotion, sponsorship and event coordination, whilst also involved in leading tours of planning offices for high schoolers as well as consulting for Bike Share Toronto. Therefore, the first week involved the following tasks:

1. Adding contacts to a Contacts List in order to reach out to spread promotional material in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton and GTA, on top of finding potential architecture and planning offices to invite as sponsors.
2. Reaching out to my own network to find potential Public Speaking Workshop speakers, as well as potential speakers with relevant expertise to webinar topics
3. Leading an Office Tour for 401 Richmond, an art centre located in downtown Toronto.
4. Attended meetings on how to coordinate a consultation event for Bike Share Toronto, in collaboration with various bike rider groups

 In total, I managed to find over 80 contacts, which was more than the expected target of 70 contacts to potentially reach out to. While I was unsure how to proceed at first, advice from my supervisor and fellow interns helped me in setting a search methodology that allowed me to look for intended audiences more clearly. I found that many public schools and non-profits could be avenues of opportunity that were underexploited in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, which I then used to expand our contact directory.

What could have been done differently?

Things that did not get done and/or could be changed

Although I was expected to help attend the tour at 401 Richmond, I fell ill a few days previously which meant that I was unable to join the tour. Lesson learnt: remember to rest more during the summer, and avoid getting sick! 

In addition, looking for promotional partners was difficult, as Hamilton and the KW region are small cities that don't have many organisations that haven't been contacted yet. It was difficult to find organisations that we hadn't found already. Therefore, moving forward it would be better to stop searching for so many organisations, and begin reaching out to organisations instead to maximise potential.

What did I learn about myself when working with others?

Contributions, behaviours and values I exhibited

Since Urban Minds is a non-profit organisation, it does not have an office which means that we are all working online. This is hard to keep communications open with one another, since it's not easy to ask what other people are working on. I learnt to reach out to other people to ask questions whenever I was in doubt, since it makes working more efficient. However, the working environment still felt quite insular as people do not reply at given times because we are all working different hours, which made the first week feel somewhat lonely. Nonetheless, I learnt that it's important to be able to interpret initiatives independently to act effectively without supervision. Nonetheless, keeping people updated is a step that I could improve on.

What did I learn about leadership?

Leadership attributes and insights I developed

 It was exciting to be involved in discussion panels for the Bike Share Toronto community ride event, where people would be able to ride across Scarborough to determine more Bike Share hubs and the weakness of cycling infrastructure in Scarborough. As a volunteer, I was aware that I should not take too much personal presence during meetings. However, I felt that there were inputs that I could have contributed during discussion. As a result, I realised that I could work on inserting myself into the discussion politely and in a way that doesn't interrupt the whole flow of the meeting, but also make sure to provide constructive feedback and follow up. In addition, I find that it would also be good to train myself on meaningful questions that I could make in order to have deeper discussion of logistics and attention to detail.

What do I want to develop or focus on next?

What I still need to develop

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, I need to develop better time management skills. I find myself taking too much time for certain tasks, as well as feeling a need to contribute in a more prominent position. This needs to be balanced with the pre-existing workload, but I would interpret this to be more proactive in discussion and following up on my own work.