Hello and welcome to this most recent issue of O&G Magazine, Lifelong Learning, a topic that is close to my heart. Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Learn as if you were to live forever’ and I think this quote speaks to the idea that we should never stop absorbing and exploring new information and ideas. There is always something new and interesting that might enrich our view of the world.

Personally, I have learned so much in the three years that I have been at RANZCOG, both about the speciality of O&G as well as our College in general.

Our organisation is all about learning by the very essence of what we do, and we are constantly changing and evolving our standards for education and assessment as well as striving to improve and develop clinical standards for best practice.

Importantly, our College’s organisational values also reflect the theme of lifelong learning. Through the provision of Education we embrace the opportunity to learn, share knowledge and experience through innovation, discovery, and research and are committed to Excellence: Performance at the highest standard, in our work, training, research and support.

During the pandemic, we learned a lot of lessons as an organisation and had to adapt quickly, as did the health services that our members and trainees work in. Ways of working that we thought were not possible in the past, we swiftly adopted, developed, and learned. Some of which are here to stay.

On the topic of learning, I am pleased to say that RANZCOG’s first fully hybrid Symposium took place between 28 February and 1 March and was a great success. The event was attended by 190 online participants and 150 in person, with presentations delivered by 18 in person and 19 virtually. A highlight was the Fellowship Ceremony with 40 elevations to Fellowship and five Subspecialists.

At the Symposium, we communicated the results from the Discrimination, Bullying and Sexual Harassment (DBSH) survey that was completed by members, and published the report from the Independent Advisory Working Group. The report includes 24 recommendations, with some related to DBSH education. While there have been some improvements in this space over the last five years, there is still much more to learn and do. The action plan in response to the recommendations is currently in development and will be communicated to all members and trainees in due course.

In addition to our hybrid Symposium, March Council Week 2022 also saw some of our Board and Council return to Melbourne for face-to-face meetings and we embraced our new hybrid mode of collaboration and meetings with committees, Board, Council, the Council Forum.

At the time of writing this article, we are about to have the opportunity for meeting and connecting in Darwin for our Regional Scientific Meeting (RSM) and I am looking forward to learning about the ways in which we can better support our members who are delivering obstetrics and gynaecological services to women living in regional, rural and remote Australia.

Thanks to College President Dr Ben Bopp, the RANZCOG Board, Council, and our members, trainees and staff for your input into the development of the 2022–2024 Strategic Plan, which will guide our work over the next three years, and thank you for the work that you do for the College.

We are all in this lifelong journey of learning together.