The last meeting of the GDCh executive board 2016-2019 took place at the invitation of Bayer (and our new treasurer Mr. Fleßner) on the plant site in Bergkamen. Since the majority of the current board could not attend the meeting, it was not entitled to vote (for the first time ever), important decisions were therefore postponed to a conference call. Fortunately, the newly elected board members appeared in full to be informed about the former years and make plans for the future. For several tasks, the new board will try to take up the work that has been started and to push it even further. For example, internationalization, digitalization and the external impact of the GDCh have been identified as key areas where the greatest potential for development is seen (and by which we must ultimately measure our success). If you want more information about the meeting itself, please have a look at our memory protocol! Of course, there was also the opportunity for a factory tour and a dinner together to get to know each other better, in case this was not fully possible during the 6 hour session. After this meeting we are looking forward to the next four years with optimism and full of energy!

On Sunday, November 24th, Frank and I met with the new JCF board in Frankfurt to prepare the visit to the GDCh office the following day. Some of our projects and topics overlap and can be implemented more easily with common energy.

On Monday, November 25th at 09:00 a.m. the time had come, and 7 people arrived at the GDCh office on time. We were welcomed directly in the meeting room by Mr. Koch, Mr. Karger and Max.

As new GDCh board members, we wanted to get to know the office employees and understand their processes better in order to implement our projects faster and more goal-oriented. So that the office does not have double effort, we invited ourselves to the appointment of the BV. Frank and I only partially hung ourselves on the agenda of the JCF BV for the day. After a joint discussion with member marketing, we were both guests in the office of our managing director, Mr. Koch. After more than an hour of discussion about our ideas, the previous work of the board, slide rules from India and the cooperation with the office, we said goodbye for lunch. However, this had to be done quickly, as the commercial director, Mr. Kilz, had already been waiting for us, but had given us permission for a quick lunch. Afterwards he gave us insights into the world of numbers and shares of the GDCh and answered any more or less intelligent question. Since we also exceeded our timeframe with him, we joint the BV in the middle of discussions with the education, career and events departments (Mr. Weinig, Ms. Kapatsina, Ms. Bundschuh) and were able to present some more ideas. Last but not least, after a small final round, we took an obligatory photo and said goodbye.

Thank you very much for the hospitality of the GDCh office!

We'll be happy to drop by again 

Today it got serious for the first time, Katharina and I were invited together with the other newly elected members to the board meeting of the current GDCh board. From 1 p.m. on we went to a hotel, away from the conference for lunch and afterwards into the closed meeting room. After a group photo and the obligatory signing of various data protection passports, the five-hour working through of the agenda began (who is interested in details?: Link to our report on the public items discussed). In this part Katharina and I (not yet entitled to vote) were rather observers and could only contribute our assessments from time to time. For example, it seemed sensible to us to be able to attend the last board meeting in 2019 in December in order to be able to continue the work of the old board seamlessly from 2020 onwards. Beyond tradition, we were able to secure an invitation to Bergkamen (Many thanks to Mr. Fleßner!). Subsequently, the current Executive Board was adopted, and we newcomers were allowed to take action in the "constituent" meeting to elect the GDCh Presidium for 2020-22. Prof. Peter R. Schreiner (University of Gießen) was elected as the new President, Prof. Stefanie Dehnen (University of Marburg) and Dr. Carla Seidel (BASF) as Vice-Presidents. The election of the vice-presidents is thus based very much on the votes of the members during the election of the Board of Executive Directors, as both candidates received the most votes on their lists. Dr. Timo Fleßner (Bayer) was appointed treasurer and thus to the Board of Executive Directors.

During the weekend before the GDCh Science Forum the young chemists were busy again and besides workshops and evening program we also had our speakers meeting. Of course, Frank and Katharina were happy to give their opinion in between and put the new BV candidates through their paces. But actually, besides their work as active JCF members, both were there to deliver a report from the GDCh board.

The fact that the election was won, and both are now sitting on the GDCh board from 2020 was already widely known, but there was given an applause. The first GDCh board meeting, to which both were invited, took place two days later during the Science Forum. Therefore, they reported which topics are on the agenda and how the procedure will look like. Furthermore, some questions of the speakers were clarified and after 10 minutes the show was already over.

It was stated that the How-to-Speaker Workshop needs an introduction to the work of the GDCh Executive Committee and that the JCF Committee on the work of the Executive Committee will take care of it at the next Speaker Meeting.

To stay in contact with the JCF base, Katharina and I participated in the 3th JCF retreat in Jena. Together with the JCF board and members of our taskforce, we hosted a workshop with the topic ‘Elected! And now what?’, during which we were eager to hear your opinions on different topics. Some of these included; the election of the GDCh board, our assignments on the GDCh board and new communication strategies for our work on the GDCh board.

We began with a summary of the election and discussed how we could further improve our campaign (trailer, merchandise, competitions…). Also, we gathered some ideas for one of our main topics: The integration of JCF members in the various specialties.

As a result of the discussion “How could we improve our communication with you?” we decided to start this blog. Herein we will inform you about ongoing topics in the GDCh board and we hope that this way, we can improve transparency.

All in all we had a beautiful and productive weekend in Jena, where we still maintain the “network”. Thanks to JCF Jena for the organization and thanks to all participants!

„New elements for our GDCh“. With this motto we ran for the election of the GDCh board and thanks to you we did it! So, thanks to all who encouraged people to vote! The turnout increased by 3% compared with the last election. Thanks to all who launched activities (election parties!!!) and ultimately thanks for your votes. Now, we can start to develop our future plans and emphasis for the next four years. We hope that we can contribute to the future of the GDCh as much as possible.

Therefore, if you have any ideas and want to participate, please send us an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!