My Time on College Council... with Professor Angus Watson
RCSEd Communications Team
The College is currently seeking nominations for one vacancy which will arise on Council at the AGM in November 2022. We recently spoke with Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon and RCSEd Council Member, Professor Angus Watson, to hear about his experience on College Council, and the benefits that it has provided.
I count being on the College Council as one of my career highlights. It is professionally rewarding, and every aspect of my council work is interesting and thought provoking. It is a huge privilege to serve the members and fellows of the College and I regard it as, just that, a privilege. As such, I take it seriously and I have yet to miss a Council development session or a council meeting during my tenure. The Council Members are warm, friendly, inclusive and passionate about what they do. The employees of the College are also fantastic! Every interaction with them is positive and I have been so impressed by their collective commitment to our global family of healthcare workers.
The breadth of work I am personally involved in is amazing; from innovating and running the medical students skills competition, to helping craft new capabilities frameworks for the remote, rural and humanitarian health sector, to chairing the College’s Global Surgery Foundation. In addition, I have just taken over chairing the Research Committee (filling some pretty mighty shoes) and I am really looking forward to getting stuck in and helping to continue to raise the profile of research internationally.
I am incredibly impressed with our global presence and have been extraordinarily lucky to represent RCSEd in Malaysia and Africa as a recipient of the Tuanku Muhriz and Rahima Dawood fellowships. These travelling fellowships have enabled me to see, first hand, both what the College can achieve internationally, and what the challenges are. The travel has made me even more of ‘an internationalist’ and I want to continue to champion the College’s global commitment to education, training and professional enablement. I am very excited about the Chennai and Kuching conferences coming up this year!
Within Council I have felt empowered to innovate. We are not short of great ideas and many of them come from the trainees committee, who collectively have been a ‘breath of fresh air’. However, many other innovations come from the wider fellowship, and it is so impressive to hear about the range of activities that are happening across the College. 250 employees and 30,000 members across 100 countries is big, and organisations of this scale need to be driven, refreshed, governed, inspired and have a culture with team values that everyone can buy into. A great deal of this leadership comes from the Council.
The Council needs to reflect our global membership. It needs you! Nice folk, who deliver within teams, who are passionate about all they do and want to invest in the futures of our professions. By the way, our family isn’t just made up of dental and other surgeons; we have paramedics, surgical nurses, educators, policy makers, administrators and managers across a diverse range of faculties, truly making us a powerful voice within international healthcare. Get involved, be brave, and to steal a Scottish phrase; if you are not successful first time, “try, try and try again!”.
The deadline for Council nominations is 5pm on 20 May 2022. Visit our website for further information.
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