This article is to serve as an update on what your CALEP Public Relations team (E=MC2) has been doing to serve the membership over the last year.  As you are all aware, our industry is facing unprecedented challenges, and I’m not just referring to commodity prices.  More and more we find ourselves faced with the narrative that what we do for a living is wrong, shameful, and behind the times.  I’m hearing more and more from voices outside of our industry that oil and gas is a sunset market; a product of a bygone era.  While we within the industry know that narrative to be false, many other Canadians who aren’t connected to our industry are increasingly buying into this message.  To that end E=MC2 has continued to focus our energies on creating opportunities for dialogue, especially with our impressionable youth.

E=MC2 has ensured that CALEP continues to be as visible as we can be on every level, but one of our key initiatives has been getting out to local schools and engaging with a generation that has been told that there is no future career prospects in the energy sector.  Our volunteers are in both junior and senior high schools across Calgary; at career fairs and exhibitions that allow us to have engaging conversations to let our young people know that our industry is still here, and although going through a tough time, is still a fantastic business to work in.  More specifically, we like to dispel some misconceptions about our industry, and what Landmen actually do.  We feel that in having this dialogue, we can perhaps impact our industry down the road on a more macro level, increasing support and knowledge about a key driver to the Canadian economy.

We have also increased our presence at post-secondary institutions across Alberta.  In the past year we have attended events at Mount Royal University, the University of Calgary, Olds College, and most recently, Red Deer College.  Some of you may not know that Red Deer College is in the process of transitioning into a University, and CALEP through E=MC2, is working with them to see how we might be able to partner with them as they make this change.  The Red Deer area is strongly connected to the energy industry, and E=MC2 feels that CALEP could significantly benefit from having a land program at a brand new University in that area.  Hopefully more to come on that in the next few years.  The University of Calgary has also revived their land program, and E=MC2 has been working with the new E+ student association to ensure that we can support that program the best we can. Mount Royal still has their land programs on hiatus due to low numbers, but recently I was encouraged by attending a Board of Advisors meeting for these programs and having great discussions about how best to revive these programs in the near to mid future.  Olds College, meanwhile has been a stalwart and continues to create a consistent brand of excellent new Landmen every year, and CALEP continues to support them in every way we can.

As of writing this I can confirm that CALEP will also again be attending the World of Choices event on December 4^th, 2019, which is an event catered to reaching out to young women and giving them opportunities to spend time with career mentors and learn more about their future career prospects from successful female Landmen.  This is an event that E=MC2 strongly supports, and feel that it creates great value for the CALEP brand.

The best thing we can do as Landmen, and employees of our industry, is to continue to ensure that we are open to having honest, tough conversations about where we are at today.  We are to be responsible and accountable to ourselves and our industry, and in order to do that we must ensure that we are engaged; that we are positive voices for our industry.  That is what E=MC2 is trying to achieve.  Thank you all for your continued support, and a huge thank you to all of the volunteers that make all of the above possible.

Sincerely,

Justin Sullivan

Director of Public Relations