On the 23rd and 24th of September, members of the from all locations (Graz, Innsbruck, Linz and Vienna) assembled for the 2nd National Get Together. We gathered already on the weekend before the 17th Austrian Chemistry Days in Salzburg to welcome our new members of our network and to look back on the last year and develop plans for 2018.

The topic of the first day was "Past and Future". After a round of introductions, the teams presented the various projects and events, which they were able to organise in the last year. Afterwards those experiences were further exchanged in small groups and the new information and plans for the future were presented with a flipchart to all members. Those ideas were then open for discussion.

The program proceeded with another seminal point in the agenda as the retiring chair, Martin Wieser, explained the rules of our first election of the national board to all participants. Each local representative was able to cast a vote for the new board, that is responsible for the nationwide coordination of projects and the representation of Austria in other international networks. Of course all candidates had the chance to present themselves and their plans for the next year before the election. We are happy to be able to announce our new board consisting of Degenhart Hochfilzer, Julian Dutzler and Miguel Steiner.

Degenhart Hochfilzer and Miguel Steiner were also able to present their activities as the Austrian representatives in the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) and European Young Chemists' Network (EYCN) to create a knowledge transfer from the international networks to all locations of the .

The program continued vividly on the second day with the theme "Exchange between national board and local representatives and communication in general"". The board presented the guidelines for finances, graphics and internal reports and introduced a concept for a new platform to combine all internal communications on one site to increase our efficiency in organising new projects in the future. On the other hand all participants were able to express their suggestions, wishes and ideas for the new national board. Additionally, new guidelines for our new projects like excursion to industry partners or workshops were developed together.

This extensive program was made possible by our sponsors and we therefore kindly thank the European Young Chemists' Network (EYCN), Evonik Industries, the Association of the Austrian Chemical Industry (FCIÖ) and the universities of Innsbruck and Vienna for their support.