CAPL UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2020

It has been an unprecedented last four to five months as an association, industry and society. As individuals and families adapt to the new normal even the new normal seems to change daily. I am very pleased how our Board has responded to these challenges. With COVID-19 restrictions easing I hope you have taken time to enjoy the summer with friends and family and recharge.

Re-Branding of the Pillars for 2020/2021

In my June video message, which can be found here https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6676539721629474816/, I discussed the 3 pillars. The pillars are used as focal points with action items to execute through our term. The board has spent many hours to determine where our efforts are best spent for the CAPL. The pillars act as our score card for the year and focus on key deliverables for the board to execute on. Task groups have been identified and agreed to meet over the summer to drill down these ideas into tangible initiatives, map out each step and assign tasks to individual board members. Here is an inside look to the course we have set:

Sustaining the Black – Creating an Organization for the Landmen of Tomorrow

Sustaining the black, a continuation from our back in black theme, has its focus rooted in sound financial controls. Everything from staffing the office, the office lease itself and photo copier contracts have been reviewed to ensure our association will be here to support our members for many years.

 We included adding value to members in this category. We will provide listings of the free content from the AAPL, plan to host an online conference, and are offering webinars at marginal costs. New education is setting stretch targets for several courses and budget for webinar realization with a system identified to distribute co.

A sponsorship package will be created to allow certainty in sponsorship dollars at budget time and plan to have a sponsor appreciated event but need to figure out what that looks like in this economy.

We also want to capitalize on FAM. FAM is our superpower as I like to call it because they have run a committee that offers great content, support and value to our members for many years. We want to share more of their content and have the education they provide available to all our members.  

Collaboration – External Focus

Collaborating with other members of our land family is another one of our key focuses. We work better when we can take the best-in-class learnings from many associations and apply then to ours. We have started with joining a capacity building partnership with CAPLA and PJVA. I am excited to be part of the conversations on the strategic partnerships that begin in the fall.

We will also look to our members for guidance. With ~1400 highly skilled professionals it would be a waste of a resource not to tap into. We will be generating a membership survey with a few key questions and the responses will influence our strategic direction. The survey will help address focus in both collaboration and the identity pillars and as a compass showing if we are on the right path.

We are working on providing events that will support the new mode we are in and continue to add diversity to the membership. This includes leveraging traction gained in Business Development to influence objectives and synergies with other associations and regulatory and stakeholders.

Identity – Internal Focus

For the CAPL we are asking, what’s in a name? Everything, in my opinion. If we are going to be the forward thinking, seasoned negotiators we are maybe we need to have an organization title that reflects as such? A rebrand or swapping of the “P” from Petroleum to Professional will be examined. It aligns with the AAPL name change and demonstrates a more reflective name of our role.

Another interesting concept is one of adding chapters to our associations because the we are a not just a Calgary association but a Canadian association. We are examining what this model could look like and what regions in specific would better our members for focused education and networking in those regions.

Membership categories will be reviewed. I like the directors view on thinking outside the box and reviewing midstream, right of way specialists and alternative such as solar, wind and telecom to the mix. We are looking to build the categories from the ground up (no land pun intended) and consider all land interest possibilities.

A modernization mandate will be started. It is in the beginning stages but would be a separate task force of past presidents used to spur dialog. Input would be an article or draft to be circulated with ideas to be presented to the board for discussion.

This is a look at what’s to come from your board. I want to thank all our members for their commitment to the CAPL and for our volunteer’s agility through the challenging first half of 2020. Honestly speaking, it’s a tough road ahead so our boards continued commitment to execution is imperative. Together we need to focus on the action items through to year end and into next year – and as we do so, we will emerge as a stronger organization.  

Stay healthy, stay safe and see you all soon.

Shaun