The first meeting of the FAI Chief of Judge Training Workshop convened at 14.00hrs in the German Sports Academy in Hessen (Frankfurt) with Karla Cole as CoJTCC in the chair. In her opening introduction she emphasised how much help she had received from Helmut Bastuck of the German Parachuting Federation in being able to stage this workshop.

Karla presenting Helmut Bastuck with a thank-you gift for his extensive help

Whilst the majority of the participants were well known to one and another, each was asked in turn to introduce themselves to the group by giving a brief outline of their judging experience and in which disciplines they were qualified. Karla went on to explain her own experience which together with her enthusiasm and ambition, had been the driving force in taking on this new role as FAI Chief of Judging Training Course Coordinator.

During 2015 16 FAI courses across several disciplines were undertaken and of the 72 trainees, 59 passed giving a pass rate of around 80%.

In the 12 months since her appointment she has been struck by the enormity of the task ahead. Not only the huge differences - and attitudes - between NACs, but so far has received in excess of 200 communications concerned with matters relating to judging. Questions were received from a broad array of correspondents, from experienced FAI Judges to the grass roots jumpers through to NACs and other FAI Chiefs of Judge trainers.  It soon became clear that major discrepancies existed across the board as far as judging courses and trainers were concerned..

This workshop has been designed to bring together thoughts and ideas on how to set about achieving a standardised and universally acceptable FAI Judge Training Courses. 

Introductory Powerpoint Presentation

The first task for the participants was to write down on cards those questions which they themselves felt needed addressing. It wasn't long before the board was adorned with blue cards, though it was likely that many of the cards ie questions, would disappear as the topics were addressed over the weekend.

One aspect of today's agenda was a 'Discovery Afternoon' where the group would explore more about CISM and ASIANIA, respectively introduced by Pascal de Haes and Faye Cox. The ASIANIA Powerpoint Presentation can be viewed as a video, which has been timed to advance automatically in the time it takes to read each page.  The CISM Powerpoint Presentation is also viewable as a video and can be read at your own pace by using the play/pause controls.

Whilst we had no representative from COLPAR, Bjorn Korth told us how he had run a successful CP course in 2015. He went on to explain that for those COLPAR members who didn't have a National rating,  COLPAR had its introduced one of its own. He too, like Faye, also recognised that once again the English language was a hurdle that many trainees struggled with, even though they were highly qualified and capable individuals.

Overall the afternoon workshop was a brain storming session where ideas, feelings, opinions and wishes were aired, giving rise to areas that will be further addressed over the weekend.

The workshop drew to a close at 19.00hrs with a 8.00hrs start for Sunday.

Brain storming session in full swing!