RACS 2021 elections to Council – nominations

Nominations for the 2021 elections to Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Council open Friday 3 September and close Monday 20 September 2021. 

RACS Council is the governing body of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. The RACS Constitution (PDF 60.88KB) defines its role and responsibilities. It is a privilege to be elected to the trusted role of a RACS Councillor. It is important that nominees for Council are aware of the commitments and responsibilities that come with the position.

Councillors are company directors with fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the Fellowship in fulfilling their governance responsibilities to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Councillors are required to put the interests of RACS ahead of any other interests, including their own or those of other organisations to which they may belong, and to publicly represent the views of Council.

The Corporations Act 2001 defines the legal and statutory requirements of a Company Director. RACS reports to the Australian Charities and Not-for Profits Commission (ACNC). The ACNC website outlines some of those responsibilities.

Councillors are expected to participate in continuing professional corporate governance training and development activities, including those provided as a regular Council activity.

Council meeting commitments are four to five days, three times a year at the end of February, June and October. In addition, Councillors are expected to be members of Council committees and working parties, and to fulfil any committee role conferred on them by Council.

Council embraces and encourages broad diversity of membership—gender and ethnicity, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Māori. Amongst other diversity, Council should comprise a mix of Fellows from public, private and academic practice.

Governance experience and previous involvement in College activities, e.g. course facilitator or examiner, committee member, is an advantage.

Fellows passionate about equitable distribution of surgeons, improving the culture and respect amongst all surgeons in helping our trainees progress to the next generation of surgeons and healthcare sustainability are also encouraged to nominate.

Australian Capital Territory Fellows are also encouraged to nominate, as currently they do not have an  elected representative on Council. 

Council currently does not have an elected Councillor from the Northern Territory, progress is currently underway for a Co-opted Councillor for Northern Territory to join Council.

The three-year term of office commences at the Annual General Meeting on 5 May 2022.

Fellows may nominate as a Fellowship Elected Councillor or Specialty Elected Councillor – not both.

Specialty Elected Councillor positions can be filled only by a member of that specialty and are elected only by the Fellows in their specialty.

Fellowship Elected Councillors are elected by all Fellows.

Fellows will receive an email from our external provided BigPulse (please also check your spam/junk folder) on Friday 3 September with a personal code to access the nomination form. Submission of the nomination form, including supporting statement and photograph, is completed online.

To complete the online nomination, candidates are required to:

• declare there are no restrictions or conditions placed on their practice by any regulatory authority;
• declare their scope of practice has not been limited or credentialing restricted as a sanction or disciplinary action by any hospital where they practise or have practised within the last five years;
• complete the required information on the candidate statement form, including demonstration of their suitability for the role;
• contact two other Fellows who agree to support their nomination;
• provide the names,  email addresses and contact numbers of their two supporters; and
• upload a recent photograph (JPEG).