Several of the AUGIS Council members have undergone surgery this year, I suspect this is just an age thing. However, it has been interesting comparing notes and sharing our experiences. I think we have all appreciated the wonderful NHS staff who looked after us and learnt a lot from being on the other side of the fence. Other Council news is we say goodbye to Nick Everitt who has been on Council for many years as an Area Representative and more recently as our Communications Officer. We thank him for all his efforts over the years. He will certainly be missed. Tim Underwood and Keith Roberts are already initiating some great research ideas. We now have full agreement to have a third Surgical Specialty Lead thanks to Bowel Cancer UK. This third SSL post will be advertised and appointed soon. All very positive. Finally,BOMSSandAUGISCouncilshaveagreedtoappoint a third member to the administrative team. This person will be part of the team with Sarvjit and Nichola but will certainly help with our soon to be revamped websites. We must keep up with modern IT! AUGIS is trying to listen to all members and wants to engage. A good example of this was a recent meeting Nick Maynard and I had with the leaders of the Emergency General Surgery group called the National Forum for Acute Surgery. We agreed to work closely, look to have representationoneachother’sCouncilsandbesupportive in common areas of interest. We are stronger together. I look forward to seeing you all in Liverpool after your summer holidays. Best wishes Giles Toogood President, AUGIS President’s Message AUGIS Summer 2019 Newsletter AUGIS Council Members - Summer 2019 President: Professor Giles Toogood President Elect: Mr Nick Maynard Honorary Secretary: Mr Adrian O’Sullivan Honorary Secretary Elect: Mr Simon Galloway Honorary Treasurer: Mr Stephen Fenwick Clinical Services, Audit & Corporate Lead: Mr Iain Cameron Education, Training & Research Lead: Mr Mark Taylor Education, Training & Research Lead Elect: Mr Andrew Smith BOMSS Secretary: Mr Vinod Menon BOMSS President: Professor David Kerrigan HPB Group Representative: Mr Mark Taylor OG Benign Lead: Professor Ashraf Rasheed OG Cancer Lead: Mr James Gossage Trainee Member Representative: Mrs Siobhan McKay Regional Representatives: Mr Bhaskar Kumar (East Anglia), Mr Andrew Kennedy (Northern Ireland), Mr Shajahan Wahed (North & Yorkshire), Mr Dinesh Sharma (North Thames ), Mrs Naheed Farooq (North West & Mersey), Mr Zahir Soonawalla (Oxford & Wessex), Mr Adrian O’Sullivan (Republic of Ireland), Ms Cynthia Borg (South Thames), Mr Richard Krysztopik (South West), Mr Matthew Forshaw (Scotland), Mr Krishnamurthy Ravi (Trent), Mr Bilal Al-Sarireh (Wales), Mr Martin Wadley (West Midlands). AHP/CNS Representatives: Louise Jones, Bernadette Fairley ALS Representative: YKS Viswanath ACP Representative: Mr Shahab Siddiqi 2 I am pleased to report that AUGIS remains a viable concern.  Our financial year runs from 1 June to 31 May and we are about to undergo our annual financial audit, in order to prepare the accounts for presentation at the AGM in Liverpool in September. Over the past year we have had a number of very successful meetings including the AUGIS ASM in Edinburgh the BOMSS ASM in Belfast and the inaugural ROUX Group Meeting in Chesford Grange.  The meetings remain critical for generating income for the association. To ensure the sustainability of the association we increased our consultant, trainee and AHP member rates in January, bringing us in line with comparable associations.  With this extra income we are looking at improving the way we engage and interact with our membership and will invest in an updated website with a closed members only forums for support and discussion. Since our separation from ASGBI we are running our own membership database and have full control of Association funds.  The AUGIS office is increasingly busy and as a result we are looking to recruit an extra member of staff to assist with the increase in workload. We have a busy year ahead; with AUGIS in Liverpool, BOMSS in Aberdeen in January 2020, the 2nd ROUX Meeting will be back in Chesford Grange and of course our combined UGI Congress 2020 which will take place in Belfast on 14- 16 October 2020. Mr Stephen Fenwick Honorary Treasurer AUGIS Summer 2019 Newsletter 3 Honorary Treasurer’s Report Mr Stephen Fenwick Telephone: 020 7869 6115/6116 Specialty Managers: nichola@augis.org / sarvjit@augis.org The Royal College of Surgeons of England 35/43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1093090