“But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight – Got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight”

I think this lyric from Bruce Cockburn captures the essence of the past year at CIM. We had something worth fighting for and we had the darkness in the form of a black-swan event that threatened the survival of CIM – the cancellation of CIM 2020 Conference + Expo. What happened next? The CIM team and dedicated CIM volunteers started kicking at the darkness until it bled daylight.

The actions taken in the past year have truly led to what I believe to be a transformation at CIM. For years, we have spoken about becoming One CIM. Positive steps were taken, but we struggled to get there. The challenges we faced together this past year have brought our societies, branches, chapters and committees closer together and created an atmosphere of collaboration that allowed us to forge a renewed, forward-looking strategy that expresses our collective ambition.

During this strategy-development process, we had deep engagement across all of our constituent groups and industry in general. From these conversations emerged a clear view of where we needed to be to keep CIM relevant and to continue to serve our industry and our members well into the future. Our top-line goals are clear:

» To create, co-create, curate and convey world-class knowledge, personal and professional development.

» To unite and engage an expert CIM community, fostering a growing community of ambassadors, where all belong.

 » To expand awareness of the essential contribution mining makes to society – collaborate to improve awareness of our industry, responsible practices and career opportunities.

To accomplish these goals, we’ve developed clear tactical plans with measurable KPIs. In our engagement with industry leaders, their message was clear: they want CIM to expand its professional development platforms and offering across multiple areas; further develop and strengthen its role in the development of guidelines and best practices on a global basis; and increase our engagement with society to build a reputation as an industry that develops and deploys innovative, high-tech solutions required to ensure an ecologically sustainable future.

I would encourage all our members to view the presentation on our renewed strategy.

My role as President of CIM will be to support the CIM team and ensure we execute the strategic plan and focus on delivering on what our members are asking for.

I wish to thank the CIM team, CIM Executive, CIM Council and all the volunteers who helped get us through this past year. I want to recognize the suppliers who continued to support CIM and finally, a very special thank you to the 36 patron companies that stepped up with significant financial contributions to help us bridge the past year.

We are the only Canadian institute that represents the full life cycle of our industry. The show must go on!