From the USANZ Operations Room

For UroNews 4 June 2021

At the recent RACS ASC, USANZ presented a 4-day Urology program convened by Henry Woo. On the first day of the program, Members were invited to meet face to face at USANZ Hubs in line with local health regulations in a COVID-safe environment at 8 locations across Australia and New Zealand. Throughout the planning stages for the Hubs, there were many challenges with changing health restrictions in each state and ongoing outbreak risks all threatening to derail the event. In all, over 150 Members were joined by industry representatives at the Hubs, a significant achievement in the current circumstances.

Coordinating an event at multiple sites over multiple timezones was always going to be challenging, but the addition of the changing restrictions, not to mention the technical requirements required to stage a hybrid-style event, took this challenge to a new level. The Hubs were a significant undertaking for USANZ and would not have been possible without the extraordinary effort over many months by Anna Tartakovskaia, USANZ Conference Manager. Anna received support on the day by Deborah Klein, USANZ Education & Training Manager; Jonathon Street, USANZ Communications Manager, and a network of conference organisers at the various USANZ Hubs across Australia and New Zealand. Thank you to Anna and everyone who was involved on the day delivering this milestone event.

Camera-shy USANZ Conference Manager Anna Tartakovskaia liaising with Technical Support just before the Keith Kirkland & Villis Marshall Session at the Sydney Hub for Day 1 of the RACS ASC.

Deborah Klein was recently contacted by RACS regarding a collection of archive boxes belonging to USANZ, currently held at the RACS Office in Melbourne. Upon initial inspection, there are hints at a possible treasure trove of artifacts and memorabilia related to the history of USANZ. We are yet to receive the boxes at our office to be able to fully inspect the contents, but we look forward to sharing with you some of the more interesting finds over the coming months.

In other news amongst the team, I'd like to wish our Accounts Officer, Katie Cook a very happy birthday for her recent significant milestone birthday. Happy birthday Katie! 

Before I go, just a reminder about the USANZ and BAUS Joint Session at BAUS 2021 Virtual. I look forward to joining many of you online for the session, co-convened by Briony Norris, representing USANZ, and Declan Murphy, representing BAUS.

Until next month,

Michael Nugara
USANZ CEO