Scribed online A speedy AGM

I always look forward to the dynamic AGM's of the Ontario Expressive Art Therapist's Association, I'd just never done one on Zoom before! After the land acknowledgements, the meeting was opened with some powerful words from Elder Fyre Jean Graveline, a beautiful speaker who created a focused mood among participants regarding the importance of their gathering. At this AGM, there were around 35 attendees, including representatives from across Canada, making it a multi-province event. Several participants were still new to using Zoom, so I knew as their scribe I had to create good visuals that helped them remember the important moments. I had a ballpark idea of when the meeting was going to begin and end, but Expressive Art Therapists are a fairly irrepressible lot, and there were several spirited discussions that made things considerably more tricky to effectively time and scribe in sync. At break, a fabulous beat box session was performed by award-winning beatbox artist Sparx (Emilie Carrey), who also taught the expressive art therapists to beatbox along. Then, once the committee reports were in and administrative and business questions were ironed out, they were very excited to vote on the founding of a new national group representing their profession. They are also expanding their work to some of the more gritty therapy challenges Canadian society has to offer, including working with trauma survivors in hospitals and jails. Both these new features had been greatly facilitated by the tireless efforts of out-going OEATA President Terri Roberton. In the end the whole thing came together into a bright, cheerful graphic just in the nick of time, and one that was well-received as capturing the energy in the "room." I was so very glad they liked it, and of course, to keep standards high, I made sure they were each able to have copies of it (from the final photograph) within minutes of the meeting's conclusion! It made for a nice take-away from an information-packed and busy cross-Canada online AGM. A first and a grand success for OETA!