LAST CALL for Active Minds at MIT! Do YOU have what it takes??

[Semmie Kim]

Hello all!

My name is Semmie Kim and I'm currently serving on the UA Committee on 
Student Life (CSL) as a vice chair this term. One of our big initiatives 
is to get a new student group started on campus called
Active Minds. I wanted to take this time to introduce you to the 
organization and tell you a bit about what we're looking to do to get it 
started.

Active Minds was founded in 2001 at UPenn as "Open Minds" as a 
"student-run mental health awareness, education and advocacy 
organization" intended for college campuses. It promotes
mental health and wellness using peer outreach by working to "remove the 
stigma that surrounds mental illness and create an open environment for 
discussion of mental health issues" such as suicide, eating disorders 
and depression. For more information, check out http://www.activeminds.org.

CSL is asking YOU to take an active role in starting up and promoting 
our new chapter of Active Minds at MIT. Our vision for Active Minds is 
to serve as an "umbrella organization" for all the mental health-related 
groups on campus that links all related clubs together while consciously 
encouraging peer-to-peer interaction in order to promote mental 
wellness. There are so many different groups at MIT that we're also 
looking for suggestions as to what other organizations we can ask to 
join us in supporting Active Minds. Please forward this to anyone who 
you think would be an ideal candidate for Active Minds exec board. We're 
also looking for an advisor from the MIT faculty or staff at this time.

At this point, we need an executive board, ideally with a representative 
from each mental health group. The Active Minds constitution currently 
states that the executive board consists of a President, Vice President, 
Secretary, Treasurer, Research Liaison, Publicity Chair and Webmaster. 
More importantly, we need members from all over campus! CSL is playing a 
rather considerable part in getting this thing off the ground, so we've 
decided that during our annual spring event, Wellness Week (4/30 to 
5/4), we’ll have the first general body meeting/kickoff event for Active 
Minds with everyone involved to attend and "officially" start the 
chapter. I'm now working with the ASA and UA Finboard to get recognition 
and funding for the group.

If all of this sounds interesting to you and you want to get involved, 
PLEASE e-mail me back (semmie at mit.edu) ASAP and request an exec board 
application, which I will send to you promptly. They're due on 4/22 and 
during the week of 4/23, CSL will ask you to come in for a short 
interview. We really want to have our first exec board finalized before 
Wellness Week so that the officers can lead the first kickoff meeting 
(most likely the evening of 5/1 or 5/2.)

THANK YOU so much for reading through this whole thing -- I really 
appreciate your patience!

-- 
Semmie Kim
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
UA Committee on Student Life
Class of 2010
semmie at mit.edu