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00:00:28 Podcast Announcer
Welcome to The Energy Pipeline Podcast with your host, KC Yost. Tune in each week to learn more about industry issues, tools, and resources to streamline and modernize the future of the industry. Whether you work in oil and gas or bring a unique perspective, this podcast is your knowledge transfer hub. Welcome to The Energy Pipeline.

00:00:51 KC Yost
Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of The Energy Pipeline Podcast. Today we're fortunate to have Ashleigh Ellis and Jenna Overlee from the Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club as our guests. Welcome to The Energy Pipeline Podcast, ladies.

00:01:06 Jenna Overlee
Thank you.

00:01:06 Ashleigh Ellis
Thank you. Happy to be here. Thanks for having us.

00:01:09 Jenna Overlee
Most definitely.

00:01:10 KC Yost
Great to have you here. Thanks so much for tuning in. Before we get started on the association, I'd like for each of you to take a few minutes to share your background with our listeners, if you would please. Ashleigh, could you start, please?

00:01:24 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah, sure. So I started in the oil and gas industry in 2008. I worked for a line pipe distribution company called Pioneer Pipe. I was there till the end of 2015, and then I joined a company called Mammoth Carbon Products as the business development manager for the Rocky Mountain region. At that time is how and when I found the Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club and got involved volunteering with them, so I've been working with this organization since 2016. Currently, I work for a company called Petrosight. We are a well site reporting software, and I am serving as President of the Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club for the 2023 and 2024 years.

00:02:26 KC Yost
Excellent. So your term is about to expire then?

00:02:31 Ashleigh Ellis
Well, it's not quite the end of the year, but I'm sure it'll happen fast.

00:02:37 KC Yost
Well, good, good. You're seasoned. You're seasoned.

00:02:39 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah.

00:02:40 KC Yost
All right. Jenna, tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

00:02:43 Jenna Overlee
Yeah, most definitely. So I actually started in oil and gas back in 2013 in a recruiting role, did that for a couple years, decided to get out of the industry after the downturn. Got back into it again in 2019 working for a midstream mechanical construction company. We also offered fabrication services for the D-J Basin. I moved into an engineering role, lasted a little bit, but now I'm currently working for Kahuna USA, a great company. I'm going on about seven years in the industry. Our company as a whole is celebrating our 25th year this year, which is very exciting for us. We offer pretty much full gamut engineering services, upstream, midstream, downstream, process of mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, project execution. Currently working on a big EPC project that's wrapping up here as well. Yeah, we're a one-stop shop as far as engineering goes.

00:03:58 KC Yost
Sweet, sweet. That's great. I understand you have your hands in just about all of the different activities at the Pipeliners?

00:04:08 Jenna Overlee
That is correct. Yes, so one of the committee chairs. Help out with pretty much all of the events that we throw, which I think we'll speak about a little bit later, but heavy into the social media aspect and just recruiting individuals to attend the events. Helping with the planning, corporate fundraising, membership. It's fun to be a part of, for sure. It's a great group of people.

00:04:37 KC Yost
Excellent, excellent. Well, just so you know a little of my background, I joined the Houston Pipeliners Association in 1977, and I'm anxious to compare golf tournament notes. I know you've got one coming up at The Broadmoor. I've played The Broadmoor, a pretty cool course. Anyway, we'll talk about that in a little while, but I'll throw in some stories about Houston as we go through here, so maybe you won't make the same challenging errors that we did as we grew. But anyway, so let's-

00:05:14 Jenna Overlee
Kahuna actually attends that every year. We pull our trailer down there, and we're there every single year, so we're pretty familiar with that tournament.

00:05:23 KC Yost
Outstanding. Well, great, great. I need to get out there more often, don't I? Super. So, let's talk about the club. Let's talk about the club. When was the club formed?

00:05:36 Ashleigh Ellis
We were formed in April of 2015.

00:05:41 KC Yost
Oh, you're quite new.

00:05:43 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah. I mean, it's crazy to think that it's been nine years. It went by really fast, but in comparison to a lot of the other pipeliners' clubs, I know that we are fairly young, but it's been a lot of fun. We've really grown and changed a lot over the last nine years, so it's been good.

00:06:08 KC Yost
Well, I think that's really exciting. I mean, Denver is a hub for energy companies and pipelines and pipeliners and all of that. So, by all means, I think it's a great place to have a club. I will tell you. When I did my podcast with the Tulsa people, they made it a point to let me know that they were formed in 1947, and they are literally the oldest pipeline association or club in the United States. Poor Houston wasn't formed until 1953. So anyway, great on you guys, nine years, and maybe you'll have a big celebration on your 10th anniversary.

00:06:53 Ashleigh Ellis
I think we probably need to. That's a great suggestion.

00:06:56 Jenna Overlee
Even though it has only been nine years, I feel like just the turnout at events and the support we receive from the community here in Colorado speaks volumes to what we've done in those past nine years. I will say that it does not feel like we've only been around for nine years. Do you feel the same, Ashleigh?

00:07:17 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah, I agree. Absolutely.

00:07:19 KC Yost
Well, talking about support and that type of thing, let's talk about the membership. How many members does the organization have?

00:07:27 Ashleigh Ellis
So currently we have 52 corporate members, which includes five employees per company that are eligible for discounts to events and subscriptions to the newsletter, that kind of stuff. We also have 70 individual members at the moment. During Covid, our membership declined as you can imagine because nobody could do anything, so we're slowly but surely building that back up.

00:08:01 KC Yost
Excellent, so you say 52. 52 corporate members?

00:08:05 Ashleigh Ellis
Correct.

00:08:05 KC Yost
That's five members per corporation, so that's 250 plus the 70. You're over 300 members in the organization. That's a nice size for only nine years old.

00:08:18 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah. I think that we've done really great with it, so hopefully we can keep that growing. Especially, I'm really proud of us for those numbers considering the industry has shrunk so much in Colorado just because of the political environment. So, a lot of people have moved out of the area and left for different states, but our club has held pretty strong.

00:08:49 KC Yost
Excellent. Well, that's good to know. Good to know. Are there any requirements in the bylaws regarding the mix of memberships, or can you tell us how many people are from operating companies or engineering firms or construction firms, that type of thing? What kind of mix does your membership have?

00:09:11 Ashleigh Ellis
I would say we're definitely more heavy on the vendor side than the operator side, but we don't have any specific requirements. We're happy to have anybody who wants to be a part of our organization.

00:09:26 Jenna Overlee
One thing we do, too, instead of having so many vendors at events, in order to boost attendance for engineering firms, construction companies that are looking to speak to the operators about potential opportunities, we do offer a discount to a majority of our events for operators to attend, which I think we've found success in for sure, as far as just having more operators come to luncheons, the holiday party, clay shoots, things like that.

00:09:57 KC Yost
Great. So, if I came out of retirement and moved to Colorado and started working for an operating company, you'd give me a discount on the events. I like that.

00:10:05 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah. Welcome you with open arms. Come out.

00:10:10 KC Yost
This is the third time I've tried to retire. Hopefully, this one will stick, but you never know. Never say never. Never say never.

00:10:16 Jenna Overlee
There you go.

00:10:16 KC Yost
Well, it sounds like a great organization and over 300 members, especially going through the COVID times and the challenges. I do read a little bit about the challenges that the energy industry is facing in Colorado, and I can understand a lot of that, but to have that number of members and the support that you have, especially with the 52 corporate members, I think speaks volumes for the organization and the membership and how they really want it to thrive. So, kudos to you guys. I like that. I like that a lot.

00:10:55 Jenna Overlee
Thank you.

00:10:55 KC Yost
So, let's talk about the purpose. What is the genuine purpose of the Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club?

00:11:05 Ashleigh Ellis
So, our main purpose for why we were formed is to provide scholarships to those people looking to go to work in the field. Our opinion is that the most important commodity in the industry is the workforce, especially those who are out actually doing the work with their hands in the field. So most of our scholarship recipients attend trade schools for continuing education or initial certificates for things such as pipe welding or inspection certificates. We're not so much focused on scholarships to attend a four-year university.

00:11:52 KC Yost
Well, that's fantastic. That's great. Promoting the trades, I like that a lot. I sat behind or in the operator seat of a D6 dozer in, I don't know, 1976 or something like that. I tell you what. Watching how that operator moved the machine and how things handled then, I was in awe with how things are done. Welders. Got to work as a welder's helper for a while and did a lot of grinding and that type of thing. As a rookie engineer trying to learn what things people have to do in order to make a pipeline viable and get it in the ditch and make it flow a product. So, good on you guys to recognize the trades that need to have this. Do you have any specific trade schools that you seem to focus in on more with the scholarships?

00:12:58 Ashleigh Ellis
There are some around that we've seen a lot of the recipients attending, and it could be anything from an online course to gain an additional certificate. So, it doesn't necessarily have to be an in-classroom thing. If it can help further your career in the pipeline industry, that is the kind of people we're looking to help. But some of the schools that I've seen people go to with that scholarship, our Ames Community College in Greeley.

00:13:33 Jenna Overlee
Front Range.

00:13:34 Ashleigh Ellis
There's a welding school in Gillett. I have to think of the name. We've also been chatting back and forth with San Juan School of Energy in New Mexico to try and partner up with them to award their students some schools. So, Red Rocks Community College. Jenna, can you think of any others?

00:13:59 Jenna Overlee
I would say Front Range in Fort Collins, their welding program, things like that. When I worked for Blackeagle Energy Services, really had a strong push to have those individuals apply for the scholarship program. There's really no rhyme or reason. It's just word-of-mouth and who's in need and who's willing to reach out and ask for help.

00:14:26 KC Yost
Yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit about the scholarship process if we can. What are the requirements for individuals to apply for a scholarship?

00:14:40 Ashleigh Ellis
We don't have extremely stringent requirements, so if you're looking to go into the oil and gas industry, and you're going to a trade school or if you're in the industry already. Our main focus, as I said, is just if you're trying to go into the field work. So sometimes, every once in a while we'll get applications from people who are looking to go into welding, but they want to do it for the automotive industry, so that's something that doesn't apply to us. Not that we wouldn't give out a scholarship for somebody applying for engineering, but it's just not our main focus, so we take them one at a time and see who our best fit is going to be. Also, we like for them to be in the Rocky Mountain region, but that's a pretty big spread because that includes Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico. So, the only problem that we really find with these scholarship applications is getting people to actually apply for them because I think it's just such an uncommon thing for an organization to focus on this that people don't even know that there's an option to look to apply for a scholarship. We've done our best to try and get our information into the hands of these trade schools so they can then pass the word along, but that, to be completely honest, has been our biggest challenge.

00:16:30 KC Yost
So, let me get this straight. You don't have to be a relative of a member of Rocky Mountain in order to apply for a scholarship. Right?

00:16:41 Ashleigh Ellis
No, you don't. Actually, a lot of our applicants work for service companies already. Some of them definitely do get recommended by family members, but it's not a requirement.

00:16:55 KC Yost
Excellent. Excellent. Okay.

00:16:59 Jenna Overlee
I'm sorry.

00:16:59 KC Yost
Go ahead.

00:17:00 Jenna Overlee
I've been part of other organizations in which just the scholarship program or the financial aid program, it's you have to jump through so many hoops, and I think it defers people from wanting to do it, where I think we have a pretty simple process. It's more so just getting the word out and getting applicants to apply so we can award those individuals with scholarships.

00:17:25 KC Yost
Well, we'll work hard with this podcast to get the word out.

00:17:29 Ashleigh Ellis
Thank you.

00:17:30 KC Yost
This is fantastic. I've been associated with Houston for nigh on 50 years now, and I've talked to a number of other pipeliners' clubs and associations. Typically, there's always the member in good standing that has to sponsor an applicant. Anastasia can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe this is the first time where anyone who just wants to learn a trade in the energy industry can apply for a scholarship. I find that very refreshing and wonderful and great to hear. That's very exciting, so hats off to you guys. That's a great deal. I like that. I like that.

00:18:22 Jenna Overlee
Thank you.

00:18:25 KC Yost
Can you tell me how many scholarships you typically pass out in a year and what the dollar amount is?

00:18:33 Ashleigh Ellis
We typically... It varies from year to year, of course, and pre-Covid, we were handing out a bit more. We're working our way back up to those levels, but we'll hand out an average, I would say, of five to six. Typically, our maximum scholarship at the moment is$2, 500 each, but we're looking at hopefully increasing that dollar amount.

00:19:10 KC Yost
What that does is give them ample money for whatever trade school they're going to.

00:19:17 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah, absolutely. Some of them, like I mentioned, if it's an online course, sometimes they don't need $2,500. Maybe the certificate costs $800, so then we'll cover the entire cost of that. $2,500 has been the maximum for a scholarship, but hopefully we'll be able to increase that as we get bigger and raise more money.

00:19:48 KC Yost
Sure, so let me ask. Would this apply to say someone like my daughter who is a mapper here in Houston, that she went after high school to a school to learn how to run AutoCAD, and then how to run different map programs and that type of thing. Would someone like her be eligible for the scholarship, or are these primarily field people that you're trying to focus on?

00:20:20 Ashleigh Ellis
They're primarily field people, but we would definitely look at that application if she moved to the Rocky Mountains.

00:20:31 KC Yost
Well, I suspect my wife would have something to say about that. Fair enough. All right. All right. Well, good.

00:20:37 Jenna Overlee
She could be friends with us. It would be great. She would love it.

00:20:43 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah.

00:20:43 KC Yost
Excellent, excellent. Well, next trip to Colorado, I'll have her give you guys a call.

00:20:48 Jenna Overlee
Oh, please do. Most definitely.

00:20:49 KC Yost
That'd be super, super. So with all of this, any community service? Any other charitable work that the organization does that you might want to share with the listeners?

00:21:01 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah, absolutely. So, in addition to the scholarships, we have a handful of community service activities that we're involved in. First one I'll mention is our Adopt-A-Highway program. We have a mile stretch of highway in Colorado on Highway 93 that we clean once a quarter. We actually just did it on Monday for Earth Day.

00:21:29 Jenna Overlee
A little windy, but we survived.

00:21:32 KC Yost
Good for you.

00:21:35 Ashleigh Ellis
We also volunteer for an organization in town called Food For Thought. They hand out weekend meal bags to kids at Title 1 schools in town, so we'll sign up for a handful of volunteer days with them a year and then just show up in the morning on a Friday morning and help pack all these sacks. We normally do about 4,000 in one day. It's a really great organization.

00:22:08 KC Yost
Wow.

00:22:10 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah, we volunteer with them. We also have a veterans chapter, and we support different veterans organizations. Our purpose with the veterans organization is to help anybody who's coming out of the service get back into a job, hopefully in the oil and gas industry, but we also sponsor different things such as Heroes Expedition Charity, which takes injured veterans on a dove hunt. Then our Citizen Soldier Golf Tournament we partner with them on, and all of the proceeds go to that organization. Their purpose is to get soldiers reintroduced into their community after they come out of active duty. They're really great organizations.

00:23:11 KC Yost
Did I read something on LinkedIn just recently? An advertisement that you guys had out there? Oil and gas supports our troops?

00:23:19 Jenna Overlee
Yeah.

00:23:21 KC Yost
I don't want to get ahead of things because I want to talk about The Broadmoor in a little bit. Yeah, so you guys are really heavily involved in supporting the troops and people transitioning from the armed service into civilian life.

00:23:37 Jenna Overlee
Yes, we are.

00:23:38 KC Yost
Sounds like it.

00:23:39 Jenna Overlee
I think that also has to do with some members of our community, our Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club, having been in the service and introducing us to these events. We partner up. Obviously, they have a large passion for it, and then it transpires into the whole industry and our community feeling the same. Everything we do, obviously you always feel good about community service, but I truly think every event we do, whether it's Adopt-A-Highway, Food For Thought, attending a charitable golf tournament, I mean, everybody leaves there smiling and so happy. We just have such a great community here in the D-J Basin. Everybody is not only working with each other on a transactional basis as far as business, but we're all friends too, which I love.

00:24:34 KC Yost
Fantastic. I'm really quite impressed, and what you guys are doing is really remarkable for such a young club. You guys have really stepped up and hit the ground running, so that's fantastic. Let's talk about meetings. May we? Do you have regular meetings?

00:24:54 Ashleigh Ellis
So, we'll have two to three luncheons per year, but we don't have a set schedule for them right off the bat at the beginning of the year. What we do is we just look at the calendar when we have our biannual board and committee meetings, and we'll try and pick some months and days that we think will work so we're not overwhelming people with too many activities. Then we host them at a location in downtown Denver, and we'll invite different speakers to come. Normally, it's on a topic that's relevant at the time. Recently we've had presentations on carbon capture, which has been a really hot topic, different regulations that are coming out in the industry, things like that.

00:25:55 KC Yost
I see, I see. So you guys don't have a meeting the first Monday of every month and that type of thing. You guys sit down and plan out meetings and decide when you want to have the events and when you want to have the meetings, and then you post that, I guess, to your website for review. Right?

00:26:15 Ashleigh Ellis
Right. We'll put it on our website and also send it out in a newsletter.

00:26:19 Jenna Overlee
Then I would say we have quarterly meetings for everybody that's on the committee for Pipeliners.

00:26:24 Ashleigh Ellis
Oh, yeah.

00:26:24 Jenna Overlee
Then per committee, if there's three of us on the membership committee trying to get people to sign up for the golf tournament, us three will sit down to lunch and come up with strategies on how we can boost attendees, how we can get the word out there. So, we definitely do have meetings quarterly and then per committee. It's just dependent on people's availability and things of that nature.

00:26:56 KC Yost
So, the committee is the group that puts the posting on LinkedIn then, to let us know what's going on.

00:27:05 Jenna Overlee
That would be me.

00:27:07 KC Yost
Beg your pardon? All right, fair enough. I'm talking to the chief. That's good. That's good. That's good.

00:27:14 Jenna Overlee
Oh, yeah.

00:27:14 KC Yost
So, very interesting concept. I like that, and you have a monthly newsletter that you send out to the members. Is that right?

00:27:27 Jenna Overlee
Yeah, that is correct. That is based on upcoming events as well as who has access to our email account. If a corporate member signs up, we ask them to send us a bio about their company and their logo so we can incorporate them in the newsletter. I think that's something we've really tried to focus on lately, just to give them that publicity into the industry and just show them our appreciation for signing up and being a corporate member.

00:28:01 KC Yost
Very good. Very cool. Very cool. So, let's talk about events.

00:28:07 Jenna Overlee
Oh, boy.

00:28:07 KC Yost
You guys have got some pretty cool events.

00:28:12 Jenna Overlee
Yes, we definitely do. We do a couple of golf tournaments, clay shoots, a lot of happy hours, luncheons. All are very well attended. I mean, our golf tournament, the site crashed a week and a half ago because so many people were online right at 8:00 AM trying to sign in. The amount of texts and calls that Ashleigh and I got that morning as I was driving to work. "I don't know what to tell you at this point in time. Please just hold. We're going to figure it out on the back end, and we'll let you know when things are up and ready." But when you have that many people who are so excited about a golf tournament at Arrowhead, which is a beautiful course here in Denver, it's hard for any website to take on all of that. Ashleigh, I think you can speak to it too, just as far as-

00:29:10 Ashleigh Ellis
Oh, yeah. Our golf tournament committee has done a fantastic job making that a very sought after event. It's a great fundraiser for our scholarship committee as well.

00:29:21 KC Yost
Excellent, excellent. I will tell you that I remember the first pipeliners golf tournament I played in was in 1977. There were probably three dozen of us, so what's that? Eight foursomes that played. We drank a lot of beer and raised $500 and gave it to a guy's kid for a scholarship. That's how the Houston Pipeliners Scholarship Fund started as far as I know.

00:29:56 Jenna Overlee
Very cool.

00:29:57 KC Yost
But again, you figure that they were formed in 1953, and their golf tournament in 1977 was still that small. I think what you guys have done in nine years is pretty darn impressive. That's really great.

00:30:13 Jenna Overlee
Yeah. I think we're also proud of the fact that a lot of our committee like Ashleigh, myself, everybody is very young in the industry. There aren't a ton of people on the pipeliners committee that have been in the industry for 30, 40, however many years. So I think we pride ourselves on that as well, just being able to build it the way that we have. Yeah, Ashleigh has been doing awesome for us.

00:30:45 KC Yost
That's great. That's super. Glad to hear you guys are doing well. You have sporting clay tournaments as well.

00:30:53 Ashleigh Ellis
Yeah, our clay shoot is going to be at the end of July. I believe it's July 28th. A couple other events that we have that are a little bit different is we'll have a summer barbecue at the end of the summer. That's Oil Field Appreciation Day essentially, so anybody who's available to come from the field. We'll have it at a location close to the field, so around the Greeley area. It's free for attendees, and it's also a sponsor appreciation barbecue, so looking forward to that. Also, at the end of the year, we put on a Zoo Lights Preview Night. It's a family event, so we rent out the zoo, partner with a bunch of other nonprofit organizations in the oil and gas industry and invite everybody to buy tickets who works in the oil and gas industry and their family members, neighbors, friends. Yeah, we have the whole zoo to ourselves for Zoo Lights.

00:32:07 KC Yost
Wow.

00:32:07 Jenna Overlee
Yeah, and that's always such a fun event. I mean, it's fun to just see people that you work with or call on, customers or whomever, outside of their element with their families, chasing around their kids. I mean, it's just a good way to connect on a different level besides just so business transactional, if you will. So, I think we all enjoy that.

00:32:32 KC Yost
Absolutely. That sounds fantastic. Fantastic. So, you've got all of this stuff going on. It sounds remarkable what you're doing literally after only nine years, so hats off to you guys. If someone is interested in finding out more about the Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club, what do they need to do?

00:32:58 Ashleigh Ellis
So they can contact us at our general email address, which is info@rmpipeliners.org. Can visit our website at rmpipeliners.org. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram. Reach out any of those ways, and we'll be sure to get right back to you and get information. I would love to have anybody attend our events and become members and join our organization.

00:33:33 KC Yost
Wow, that's fantastic. So if anyone is in the Colorado area, Denver area, and you're interested in joining a fine organization, Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club sounds like a great place to be. Ladies, thank you very much. Anything else you want to add before we sign off?

00:33:53 Jenna Overlee
No, thank you for your time. Really appreciate it. I will say, even if you aren't in the Denver area, Colorado, we have a lot of individuals from Texas all over the place that still come in to attend our events, which we're pretty proud of. So it doesn't have to be just Colorado. It can be anywhere. You're welcome at anything.

00:34:16 KC Yost
I stand corrected. Very good. Very good. All right. Well, Ashleigh and Jenna, thanks so very much for taking the time to visit with us today.

00:34:25 Ashleigh Ellis
Thank you for having us.

00:34:26 Jenna Overlee
Yes, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

00:34:29 KC Yost
Now, if anyone would like to learn more about the Rocky Mountain Pipeliners Club, you can again find them on the web at rmpipeliners.org. That's rmpipeliners.org. So, thanks to all of you for tuning into this episode of The Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar Oil & Gas. If you have any questions, comments, or other ideas for top podcast topics, feel free to email me at kc.yost@oggn.com. I also want to thank my producer, Anastasia Willison-Duff, and everyone at the Oil and Gas Global Network for making this podcast possible. Find out more about other OGGN podcasts at oggn.com. This is KC Yost saying goodbye for now. Have a great week, and keep that energy flowing through the pipeline.

00:35:18 Podcast Announcer
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