2025 President’s AGM Report

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In 2025, we worked on SAPAA 2.0, transitioning from government stewardship to developing programs for remaining and new stewards while enhancing knowledge. Not all of the ten priorities were a success but SAPAA should be proud of the progress made.

Allocation of Effort Hours Across Different SAPAA Activities - January 1 to October 31, 2025
Allocation of Effort Hours Across Different SAPAA Activities – January 1 to October 31, 2025

At the 2024 SAPAA Annual General Meeting, is was agreed to pursue strategic direction known as SAPAA 2.0. In a nutshell, how much of the legacy Alberta Government volunteer stewardship program could SAPAA reasonably taken on. The plan to do so was articulated in a special edition of the SAPAA Newsletter No. 52, November 2024.

SAPAA 2.0

SAPAA’s 2.0 Defined. Historically, SAPAA supported government-appointed Stewards as a ‘guild’ of sorts. SAPAA 2.0 is about taking over some of the functions from the paused government program. SAPAA can’t replace a government-funded program, but:

SAPAA 2.0 will develop programs and resources to support the remaining government Stewards, recruit new ones, and improve the body of stewardship knowledge/ practice.

This direction was articulated in ten priorities, as follows. 2025 effort hours relating to each of the following, individual projects, and successes (and challenges) are described in each section below.

  1. Operations. Sustaining our current operations to support our volunteers and give them a best in class experience while delivering program excellence.
  2. Support Legacy Stewards. Interactions with the government through communications, and programming. Current examples: website, site inspection form, emails, and newsletters.
  3. GoA Relations. Maintain a productive working relationship with Ministries and the Minister(s) of the day. 
  4. Cultivate Peer Relationships. In particular with Nature Alberta, the Land Stewardship Centre, the Alberta Wilderness Association, Alberta Conservation Association, and CPAWS (South and North Alberta).
  5. Site Inspections. Continue to develop and refine the site inspection process. Align questions with GoA priorities, continue Ministerial reporting, and increase inspection submissions.
  6. Communicate WAERNAHR. Communicate to the responsible Minister(s), peer organizations, and the public the existence and state of these sites.
  7. Google Map. Create a new Google map owned by SAPAA.
  8. Mini Conference. Run a mini conference for SAPAA members and friends. 
  9. Stewardship Best Practices. Identify and communicate best practices to members and peer organizations. Topics include administration, safety, science, and technology. Best practices come from Alberta, across Canada, and globally.
  10. Membership Benefits. Increase the value of a paid SAPAA membership through programming, access to resources, discounts, etc.

1. Operations

  • Estimated total Effort: 205 hours.
  • Select and Significant Projects and Activities Undertaken in support of the priority.
    • 0107 – SAPAA 2.0 Plan: Develop the SAPAA 2.0 Strategic Plan
    • 0118 – Insurance Sufficiency: Is Nature Alberta insurance sufficient? Yes it is.
    • 0120 – Implement Google Workspace for email, files, etc. Implemented.
    • 0161 – Data Proof of Concept (PoC): Data PoC Evaluate and Propose a Data Architecture for SAPAA; Data Architecture completed and tested in Microsoft Access.

2. Support Legacy Stewards

  • Estimated total Effort: 4 hours.
  • Significant Projects and Activities Undertaken in support of the priority.
    • 0213 – Legacy Reports Request legacy site inspection reports from GoA
    • 0221 – Reclaiming 40 Years of Stewardship: In progress, about 12 Stewards have elected to have their reports reclaimed.
    • Also see 0301 – CBC Jan 2025 Story and 0305 – Analysis Miistakis Review

3. GoA Relations

  • Estimated total Effort: 29 hours.
  • Significant Projects and Activities Undertaken in support of the priority.

4. Cultivate Peer Relationships

5. Site Inspections

  • Estimated total Effort: 63 hours.
  • Significant Projects and Activities Undertaken in support of the priority.
    • 0510 – 2025 Strategy Develop strategy document
    • 0515 – 2025 Questions.
    • 0516 – Question Review A friendly peer review of the proposed questions.
    • 0517 – 2026 Questions Planning for 2026 questions.
    • 0521 – Form Technology
    • 0522 – iNaturalist Implementation
    • 0523 – Google Photos Evaluate Google Photos as the primary store for SAPAA’s images.
    • 0524 – Photo Mgt Develop and manage SAPAA Images.
    • 0526 – Implement Labels Implement Google Workspace labels to support photos.
    • 0531 – Parcel Management: Develop a naming convention to differentiate site parcels where 2+ exist.
    • 0560 – Launch 2025 Form.
    • 0565 – Inspect Training Web Based Training.
    • 0567 – Field Notes PDF Field Notes.
    • 0570 – Response Management of inspections
    • 0590 – 2025-Ministers Report (pending)

6. Communicate WAERNAHR

  • Estimated total Effort: 3 hours.
  • See the Web Report noting that this was the primary method of communication for 2025. Social media efforts, brochures, etc. were not implemented.

7. Google Map

  • Estimated total Effort: 4 hours.
  • Google map was implemented under a SAPAA Email address.

8. Mini Conference

  • Estimated total Effort: 0 hours.
  • Due to limited volunteer capacity, this activity was not worked on in 2025.

9. Stewardship Best Practices

  • Estimated total Effort: 66 hours.
  • Significant Projects and Activities Undertaken in support of the priority.
    • 0910 – Connect & Read: Keep the Connect & Read (Links, Resources, and Further Reading) page up to date. Unfortunately this page has not been updated.
    • 0915 – GoA Contacts: Changes have been updated.
    • 0931 – Implement iNaturalist: Insert into the individual webpages a link to the corresponding iNaturalist.ca boundary. As required, create a boundary in iNaturalist.ca. Perform other webpage maintenance as required while the page is being updated.
    • 0932 – Create iNat Project: in progress by David F. and Tony B.
    • 0935 – iNat-Reporting Develop presentation methodology to report from iNaturalist.
    • 0936 – iNat Training: 2025-06-28 – iNaturalist Field Training.

10. Membership Benefits

  • Estimated total Effort: 37 hours.
  • Significant Projects and Activities Undertaken in support of the priority.
    • 1002 – Email Octopus Set up: Email management system.
    • 1010 – Bus Cards & Lanyard: (Paused pending volunteer capacity) As part of a larger branding activity, develop business cards and an identification lanyard. These can be given out and/or worn by the board, members, etc. They do not need to be produced at the same time.
    • 1012 – Brochure: (Paused pending volunteer capacity) Design, propose, and produce a brochure that can be used both in the field and via other venues such as trade fairs. Focus is on 2025 field season with an update in 2026
    • 1020 – GPS & App training (Paused pending volunteer capacity)
    • 1030 – Training Grazing Lease System (Paused pending volunteer capacity)
    • 1040 – Training Landscape Analysis Tool (Paused pending volunteer capacity)
    • 1055 – SAPAA Newsletter No. 53, February 2025
    • 1061 – SAPAA Newsletter No. 54, May 2025
    • 1067 – SAPAA Newsletter No. 55, Oct 2025
    • 1068 – SAPAA Newsletter No. 56, November 2025

2 thoughts on “2025 President’s AGM Report”

  1. Pingback: 2025 AGM Registration | SAPAA

  2. Patsy's avatarPatsy

    Much of the work that took place under Peer Relationships is opaque to me, yet it is important, especially with students. A priority is likely to engage with young people. An event at the Bennett Centre in Edmonton involving schoolchildren would have provided a good opportunity.

    Could we have more reporting on what takes place during these web or personal interactions.

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