This september young chemists from all over Austria met at the 3^rd National Get Together at the beautiful Grundlsee in Styria. Also our newly formed regional representatives from Salzburg took part for the first time and were already integrated in our network perfectly. This weekend of joint seminars offered the chance to exchange important experiences between the local representatives, to plan new projects and to vote for a new member of the national board.

The motto of this year was "What is the and what are we going to become?". After some Introductions the various local representatives showed their projects and events, that they organized in the last year.

Afterwards, small groups worked together to build a new overall concept to write down with which private persons and organisations the is engaging, what benefits for each party exist and what motivates us to continue and improve our work.

On the second day we focused mainly on communication. The newly established system one year ago was reevaluated and approved unanimously. Additionally, the local representatives were able to propose new ideas, which will be implented in the following months. Especially, in the area of Social Media we want to broaden our offer.

But the local representatives were also able to directly influence the national board. Due to the growing national and international networks and the corresponding responsibilities for the national board, the team had to be enlarged. Through an extraordinary election Daniel Menia was voted into the national board by the attending local representatives.

The Jungchemiker - leading team from left to right: Julian Dutzler, Degenhart Hochfilzer, Daniel Menia and Miguel Steiner

With our new overall concept, the improved national board and established communication systems we started to go into more detail about further plans. After the national board presented their schedule for the next two years, the participants came together in their respective local groups and aranged their plans for the future. Those were then presented and after a feedback by the other local representatives and the board they were archived digitally.

Also our big national event, The Austrian Chemistry Days 2019, were discussed. We exchanged possible ideas and contact details for our program. Stay tuned for further details regarding our program in the following months!

On the last day our chair and EYCN delegate, Miguel Steiner, presented the structure of our mother society, our international partners and the current budget. Afterwards, the seminar concluded after a round of feedback and a joint lunch.

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, Linz and Vienna for their support.