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It is very important for jurors to update their competences and catch up with any development in judging practice regularly. In 2012 and 2013 the jury seminars in Budapest had facilitated this in the best possible way. In 2014 the champions league of European jurors will move to Berlin – the German capital will host the next FEPA jury seminar.

The seminar will be organized by Bund Deutscher Philatelisten (BDPh), and the responsible person is Thomas Hoepfner, who is a BDPh board member. The main part, the training, will be about Postal History and Thematic Philately. Two high profile philatelists have agreed to lead the groups: Dr. Wolf Heß for Postal History and Vojtech Jankovic for Thematic Philately. Both will give keynote presentations.

The Postal History presentation will be on “Treatment and importance”, and one of the main questions that will be answered is the possible influence on other judging criteria. Another aspect will be to examine the reasons why there may be a disconnect between exhibitors and jurors when it comes to rating treatment and importance.

In Thematic Philately the title of the presentation will be “How to judge innovation”, and this will be about the term itself and how innovation is part of the composition of an exhibit. In addition to that there will be an analysis how innovation is interwoven with other judging areas such as philatelic material.

To make the training as “real” as possible, there will be exhibits displayed in frames. The judging will be done in small teams, and afterwards the results will be consolidated and analysed. This will be the basis for in-depth discussions, and the target will be to identify critical areas and to find a common understanding regarding a fair and objective judging. Finally, there will be the chance to draw conclusions and – if that makes sense – agree on follow-up actions.

As it is expected that around 50 jurors from a lot of different European countries will be participating in the seminar, this will be an ideal opportunity to learn how the understanding of judging may differ in certain aspects. If it is possible to find a consensus in such aspects, this will improve the quality of judging and also give exhibitors a better experience by limiting the point range when moving from exhibition to exhibition. Another good thing will be to be able to give exhibitors consistent feedback and advice how to improve the exhibit.

Looking beyond the seminar’s immediate benefits, it is extremely valuable to have such synchronizing and networking opportunities. It will make the “FEPA family” stronger and more competitive overall.

The seminar has received FEPA recognition, and participation is possible for jurors of any FEPA membership country with level 1 and/or FIP/FEPA grade.

For more information please contact Thomas Hoepfner – Email t.hoepfner@bdph.de

The press info can be downloaded as a pdf here.