A holiday greeting and a survey about GA date (2025)

Dear colleagues,

First of all, we would like to wish you and all your loved ones a very pleasant holiday season. We hope that the end of the year will be marked by calm and rest, which we all certainly need.

After a thorough and open five-hour long discussion, the ČAD General Assembly of December 17 approved a motion declaring the results of the voting from November 28 to be invalid due to serious errors and failure to comply with the valid regulations.

Due to the impossibility of holding the elections for the new Board in time, it was decided that these elections will take place at another General Assembly, which will take place in early 2025.

Ensuring that everything is done properly and in accordance with the democratic principles we hold dear can sometimes take a lot of time and effort. We would like to thank everyone who gave their valuable time to the General Assembly, especially during these busy times. A big thank you also goes to the members of the Electoral Commission, who helped us demonstrate that we as an Association can organize online voting in a fair, transparent and secure manner.

The Minutes of the last General Assembly, the report of the Electoral Commission, and other relevant materials will be shared as soon as possible, no later than by the end of this calendar year.

It is now necessary to convene another General Assembly to elect the new Board. As we want the date to be as convenient as possible to ensure the largest participation possible, we are gathering feedback on when we should convene it. We would be happy if you could get involved and let us know your preferences via this questionnaire until 30.12. 2024 (18:00).

We do realize that this deadline is very tight, but we consider it necessary to convene the General Assembly no later than December 31, 2024, during the mandate of the current Board, so that there is no legal issue with this decision.

In the same Google form, we would like to give you the opportunity to start a discussion about the priorities and goals that ČAD should focus on and that the newly elected Board will be tasked to fulfill.

In 2025, you can also look forward to a number of other things:

1) a series of posts as part of a communication campaign about Standard of Supervision in Doctoral Education

2) the launch of a new version of the ČAD Discussion Platform, which will provide, among other things, a space for asking questions, networking, and sharing information about interesting events for PhDs in the Czech Republic

3) a participatory discussion on the necessary amendments to the ČAD’s internal regulations in reaction to the shortcomings and vulnerabilities revealed at the end of 2024

4) continuation of community building through meetings of members and the mini-interview series

ČAD is here for its members. That is why it is important that it’s you who decides about what happens in the Association. We consider a participatory approach to be an essential part of how our Association operates.

We're looking forward to our cooperation and we wish you a happy holiday!

Your ČAD Board

Klára, Kuba, Marie, Zbyněk