In the following, you can find the detailed information about the planned retread. The text also contains some general information pertaining funding of business trips. Please read the text carefully.

Health Information

update August 12:

A separate Health Information section was added, please read it carefully.

We believe that it is important for the success of your PhD study to get know your PhD peers. Hence, the retreat will commence as advertised assuming a stable COVID situation. Otherwise, an alternative solution will be found (e.g. an online course for the Spring 2020 cohort and postponement for the Autumn 2020 cohort). As of today (August 4) we see both outcomes as equally probable. The final decision will be made about two weeks before the retreat. Your opinion is also important for us - let us know in the case of doubts, e.g. if you are in an at-risk-group for severe COVID or perceive other unacceptable risk. You can use the registration form "additional comments" section for this.

We count on your individual responsibility in handling the risks and protecting other participants of the retreat (e.g. visiting an indoor club event on the eve of the retreat might not be the wisest thing to do ;) ). Participation in the retreat should be avoided if you show the symptoms of COVID, had a contact with a person with these symptoms or with a person who tested positively for the disease, even if asymptomatic. Seek medical consultation instead. In the case of doubt (e.g. cold-like symptoms in the run-up to the retreat), please let us know.

That said, we will of course make an effort to decrease a potential infection risk during the retreat. Indoor events will take place in rather large and reasonably ventilated rooms and we will consider moving a part of the program outdoors if the weather permits. You are welcome to wear a mask if you wish so. None of these measures are bullet-proof, but they do lower the risk.

Schedule

The retreat is planned to kick off on Saturday, September 5 at 17:00. However, someone will be on-site from ca. 14:00 to handle your accommodation and registration.

We will appreciate if you are in Telč on time; we will start with some activities aimed at getting to know each other and it would be unfortunate to miss that. :)

The last part of the official programme will be the Monday lunch, starting around noon. On the second and third day, the breakfast is served from 8 am to 9 am, after which the retreat programme starts. Lunch breaks are planned to start around 12. On Sunday, we plan a 2-hour "siesta" after the lunch, a great opportunity to take a stroll around the town. Other than that, the schedule is filled with the retreat programme

Funding

The funding of your participation depends on whether, at the time of the retreat, you will have some sort of contract with the university (either a work contract, "pracovní smlouva," or a work agreement "dohoda o provedení práce/pracovní činnosti") or not.

IMPORTANT: When eating out (we plan some social events for the evenings), you are expected to pay your consumption out of your pocket and will get reimbursed later. Please do not leave the restaurants without paying. ;-)

If you have a contract, you need to fill in the travel form in INET. Based on this, you will receive a reimbursement for your transportation costs (with a caveat for car travel, see below) and your accommodation will be pre-paid by the faculty. You will also receive the law-mandated per diems to cover your meal costs. Since the per diems for domestic travel are not very high, we will try to arrange an extra stipend to cover the rest. How to fill in a travel form You don't have to complete the form immediately (to save some work in case the retreat is cancelled), but please do it by August 25 at the latest.

If you do not have a contract, you do not need to fill in anything (your part): you will pay for everything (meals, transport, accommodation) out of your pocket and you will then get a special stipend to cover your costs.

Registration Form

https://forms.gle/pgfGDyznPPg2ATMd9

Deadline for submitting the form: August 11, 2020

Venue

The retreat takes place at the University Centre Telč: https://mapy.cz/s/kupokojuke.

Accommodation

We arranged accommodation in comfortable double rooms at the university centre Telč. For those with a contract, the accommodation will be pre-paid. Otherwise, you will need to pay CZK 900 (for the whole stay) out of your pocket and will be reimbursed via a stipend.

Meals

Breakfasts and lunches will be provided at UC Telč. You will have to pay these out of your pocket (we expect around CZK 800, you will receive payment instructions via e-mail) and will be reimbursed after the event.

update August 12:

We will do the Saturday dinner in an informal way: we plan to take out some pizza or kebab from nearby places and have a picnic in the chateau park or UCT courtyard (or inside UCT in the case of a bad weather).

For Sunday evening, we have booked a private lounge at the "U Hraběnky" restaurant.

Menus to select from will be sent to you in a due time.

Travel

Travel by car

In this new world, an individual mode of transport might be preferred. However, there are some important administrative rules to consider, provided that you fall into the "have a contract with the university" category:

The usage of a car on an official business trip is only permitted if you satisfy all the following requirements:

• You are an employee with a regular work contract ("pracovní smlouva"). A work agreement ("dohoda o provedení práce," pracovní činnosti) is NOT sufficient.
• Your car is registered with the faculty accounting department (they will provide an info about how to do that).
• You have completed the "OHS training for drivers" ("školení řidičů") available in IS.

If you do not meet these requirements, do not use a car while on a business trip. You might get us and yourself into an insurance trouble. N.b.: when filling in the travel form ("cestovní příkaz"), you can give the address of UC Telč as the start- and end-point of your business trip. Then, your travel to and from Telč will not constitute a business trip and in principle you can then travel in any way you like. However, your fuel costs will not be reimbursed.

If you do not have any contract with the university and hence do not fill in a travel form, your participation does not constitute a business trip and you can travel as you like.

If you go by a car and would like to offer a shared ride to your colleagues (or find someone to give you a ride), you can use the discussion forum in IS.

Parking info: 

We might also have a limited number of parking permits for the historic centre (right outside of UCT). These will be provided on a first come first served basis.

Travel by public transport

Timetables for public transport can be searched here: https://idos.idnes.cz/en/vlakyautobusymhdvse/spojeni/

If you choose to go by bus, an advance booking might be a good idea. A train trip via Havlíčkův Brod is a slower but slightly more comfortable alternative.

Checklist: What to Bring (and What to Leave at Home :-) )

The only thing necessary to bring is some paper notebook and writing instruments.

We do not have any organized "coffee breaks," but we will have a kitchenette at our disposal; you can bring your favourite tea or coffee to prepare some refreshment yourselves (mugs will be provided).

Sunday evening is yours: we hope that you'll help us to fill the evening with a program that you will enjoy. So please bring anything that might help you to achieve that: perhaps a musical instrument, perhaps a board game, or perhaps nothing, if you'd just like to have a beer and chat. :)

We'd like to gently discourage you from bringing your laptops, if only because there will be hardly any time to use them. Throughout the whole retreat, there will be at most 2-3 hours of some frontal, lecture-like teaching, the rest are activities that require your active and focused participation (small working groups, discussions, exercises, etc.).

update August 12:

Some additional useful stuff:

• hand sanitizer
• facemask (see Health Information)
• a blanket or something similar, for a possible outdoor programme in the Telč chateau park
  

Homework

We have a very lightweight homework for you, to be done before the retreat. More details in due time via e-mail.

General info on using the INET travel forms can be found here (only in Czech as of now: https://is.muni.cz/auth/do/fi/informace_pro_zamestnance/navody/E_cestaky-jak_na_ne.pdf)

1. Go to https://inet.muni.cz/app/cestaky/prehled (switch to EN if required).

2. Click "Založit nový cestovní příkaz" ("Create a new travel form")

3. Into "Trip purpose" write "Účast na doktorandském kurzu DUVOD" ("Attending the DUVOD PhD course")

4. In "Cestu platí" ("Travel expenses paid by") choose the Faculty of Informatics.

5. The "date/starting point, etc." is rather self-explanatory. Choose the place from which you travel and where you return and starting and end dates/times based on the estimated travel time (it is better to over-approximate the time spent on teh trip a bit, you can always make it shorter later). The exception is when you travel a car without being authorized to do so on a business trip. Then the start and end points gave to be "nám. Zachariáše z Hradce 2, Telč", start time say September 5, 17:00, end time Monday, 12:30.

6. In "Související náklady" ("Related costs"), write "ubytování na UC Telč, 600 Kč" ("Accomodation at UC Telč, CZK 600") I'll write you exact amounts via e-mail.

7. Tick the modes of transport you plan to use while on the business trip.

8. Scroll to the table below. Click "Přidat nový zdroj" ("Add a new resource "). As "zakázka" ("Order"), fill in 1111, as "Department", select 331100, and then choose "podzakázka" ("sub-order") 14 (KTP-Křetínský...).

9. In the relevant fields, write reasonable over-approximations of your travel costs. Since your accommodation will be pre-paid, and per-diems are computed automatically, you only need to fill in the "jízdné" ("Fare") field. If you plan to officially use a car, you can enter the expected mileage based, say on Google maps.

10. Check once again the whole form and submit for a financial control.

You will also need to fill in a second part of the form after the trip. More on that later.

The course will take place in-person in case the COVID situation does not get significantly worse as compared with the present state (August 12, around 300 new cases per working day). Now it is hard to define what exactly "significantly worse" means. Several factors as important, including new case count, case distribution (localized outbreaks vs. general increase), growth rate, etc. Hence, we reserve the right to cancel the in-person event on a very short notice. Please take this possibility into account.

In any case: if, at any point, you feel that attending the course is too risky for you, please reach out to us with a request for postponement of your in-person participation (the course is mandatory, but your attendance can be postponed into later semesters, pending an agreement with the Office for Research and Doctoral Studies). We plan to grant 100 % of these requests, no questions asked.

In case of cancellation, the in-person meeting will be replaced by a Zoom event in the planned dates of the course. However, certain (in our opinion rather interesting) parts of the course would be absent in such a scenario.

Measures

To reduce the risk of disease transmission, we plan to adopt several measures, including the following:

• You will be required to submit/sign a declaration of absence of symptoms upon arrival to the course. Please read the declaration here. If you, at any point before the start of the course, you conclude that you cannot sign the declaration, please notify us immediately.
• You are encouraged to travel to DUVOD using an individual mode of transport (a car), taking into account the administrative caveats specified in General Information section. If this is not an option for you, please take responsible hygienic precautions when travelling on public transport. In particular, we strongly encourage you to wear a facemask when taking travelling by public transport.
  • You can use the IS discussion forum if you seek someone to share a ride. Since this will be limited to course participants, it should not increase the baseline risk. :)
    
• We do not plan to mingle with the local people (which is not that much due to COVID: the course programme takes most of the time and we have a private lounge booked for the Sunday dinner, so there is not much time to mingle). When venturing outside (e.g. to a shop), please follow the general hygienic recommendations as well as orders of the local public health office ("KHS pro Jihlavský kraj"). Consider wearing a facemask when visiting a public indoor space. 
• Disinfection will be available, and you are also encouraged to bring your own hand sanitizer. Please follow the public health advice regarding the proper hand and respiratory hygiene, e.g. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public.
• During the opening session, we will devote some time to negotiating collective measures we can take to increase the safety. Some of you have indicated a willingness to adhere to stricter measures due to, e.g. sharing a household with an at-risk person. This might mean, e.g. the others to conscientiously keep the recommended distance from you, or other requests. This will be a proper time to openly voice such requests. It is expected that all of us will do our best to conform to these requests.
• Regarding facemasks: we do not plan to enforce wearing of these during indoor events, as it might be uncomfortable during the all-day programme. Still, if you wish to wear one, you are encouraged to do so. In any case, please bring your own facemask. It might come handy, e.g. if you develop respiratory symptoms while on the way to the course or if wearing is imposed by the authorities on a short notice. We can also negotiate a facemask policy for activities where maintaining the recommended distance could be difficult (say during small group discussions).
  

The purpose of this section is to give you an idea how much you will need to pay on the spot and how much you will get back later.

On-the-spot payments for accommodation:

Students with a contract (have a travel form): 0 Kč

Students without a contract and with a double room: 900 Kč for the whole stay

Students without a contract and with a single room: 1800 Kč for the whole stay

On-the-spot payments for breakfasts, lunches, and Saturday dinner:

Ca. 820 Kč for each participant (we are still arranging the Saturday dinner, the exact price will be specified ASAP).

How to pay:

What reimbursement to expect:

First-year students with a contract/travel form: You will receive full reimbursement for your travel costs. (Keep the tickets if you go by public transport!) The per-diems are calculated automatically according to a labour law. Since, inland per-diems are rather low, we typically add a 300 Kč additional stipend for meals.

First-year students without a contract/travel form: You will receive a stipend equivalent to the typical reimbursement of those with a contract, plus the accommodation costs: in the past, this was about 1900 Kč for students in double rooms. I will try to increase to 2500 Kč for students in single rooms, to make this equivalent to the "insider rate" for single rooms.

Older voluntary participants :) : No planned reimbursement, unfortunately, though you can ask your supervisor for funding.

We have some lightweight but important homework for you to do before the retreat:

- Prepare and practice (!) a 2-3 minute "elevator pitch" for your research.
(Three minutes is a hard deadline, we'll cut your talk after that, so please
practice well.) If you do not have yet an exact idea about your PhD project
(understandable if this is your first term as a PhD student), you can give a
broader description of your area of research or of any ideas that you have about
your future project. Try to aim for these two key objectives: 1) make the talk
understandable for your colleagues, who might come from an entirely different
area of computer science; and 2) make the talk persuasive, convincing your
colleagues that your research project is interesting and important.

- Think about the following question: "Why have I decided to pursue a Ph.D.
degree?" Please be brutally honest. :) Write down your (brutally honest) answer
and bring the (unsigned) paper with you to the retreat. Ideally, reply with more
than a single sentence.

Again, check also the official guide: https://is.muni.cz/auth/do/fi/informace_pro_zamestnance/navody/E_cestaky-jak_na_ne.pdf

1. Go to inet (https://inet.muni.cz/app/cestaky/prehled) and select your DUVOD travel order.

2. Click "Fill in the travel information" ("Přejít na vyplnění údajů po cestě")

3. Fill in the trip report ("zpráva o cestě"). In general, the trip report should very briefly summarize the purpose and the outcome of the trip. (For trips funded by a project, there should also be some form of dedication to the project, but this is typically not our case.) For uniformity, this time just copy-paste the report below (adjust the gender where necessary):

*** COPY TEXT BELOW ***

Ve dnech 5.-7.9. jsem vykonal tuzemskou zahraniční cestu. Jednalo se o aktivní účast na doktorandském kurzu DUVOD pořádaném v Univerzitním centru Telč. V rámci kurzu jsem byl informován o formálních náležitostech Ph.D. studia na FI MU jakožto i obecných aspektech a zvyklostech vědecké práce. Mohu prohlásit, že cíl pracovní cesty byl splněn.

*** COPY TEXT ABOVE ***

4. Tick the forms of transport you actually used (if trip started/ended in Telč, choose "other" and explain in the text field that the trip started and ended at the destination place, preceded and followed by a private-purpose trip).

5. "Spolucestující" ("fellow passangers"): only necessary to fill in if you shared a care with someone and you are putting the car trip into the travel form. For business trips abroad (which is not our case), it is often handy to fill this in also when you share a public mode of transport with a colleague, it makes it easier to sync the border crossing times.

6. Now fill in the "course of the trip" ("průběh cesty"). Since this was a domestic trip, a single "stage" is sufficient. Click "Add a new stage" ("založit novou etapu") and fill in the true start and end of the trip (should be consistent with your travel tickets). If the start and end of the trip are in Telč, this should be reflected, i.e. the start and end should not very much differ from 4pm Saturday - 2pm Monday.

7. "Krácení stravného" ("cutting food expenses"): DO NOT tick anything here. You have paid/will pay for the meals costs yourself, so you are entitled to the full per diems.

8. "Seznam dokladů" ("list of receipts"). Add the list of all receipts for which you want to claim reimbursement, EXCEPT for restaurant receipts (these are supposed to be covered by per diems). For first-year students, the accommodation was pre-paid by the faculty so you do not have to submit a receipt (older students with a contract and arranged funding can of course claim accommodation costs in their forms, in which case add the receipt from UCT). So your "receipts" will typically be the trip tickets. E.g. if you have two bus tickets, one for "Brno -> Telč", one for "Telč -> Brno," then add two separate entries for "jízdné" ("fare"), in the description of each write e.g. "bus Brno -> Telč" ("bus Telč -> Brno," respectively), enter the printed price of your ticket, and choose "platil cestovatel" ("paid by the traveller").

9. Check again and submit to the accounting department using the green-tick button at the bottom.

10. After you submit the inet form, it is necessary to print out the accompanying form ("průvodka"), sign it, attach all the claimed receipts, and hand this over to the accounting department. All this should be done within 10 working days after return from the trip.

Hand the papers over to "pokladna FI" (Ms. Křivánková, building B, 5th floor) in their office hours. If you have trouble doing this in reasonable time (e.g. not staying in Brno due to COVID), please contact her regarding possible alternative arrangements. (Sending via post?) Note that the receipts should be numbered according to the "průvodka" list; smaller tickets and receipts should be glued to an A4 paper for a better archivability. Do not staple together.