2010-02-24 Four members of the Debating Society Paderborn decided to participate in a special tutorial for judges which was organised by the VDCH in Wiesbaden from February 19^th-21^st ...

After a longer journey with Germany’s best public train service, Katharina, Elias, Tobias and Hanna finally arrived in Wiesbaden. The tutorial started with a rich dinner and enabled the participants to talk to old friends and to get to know each other better.

The dinner was followed by the introduction of the tutorial leaders (Lea Weitekamp and Tim Brückmann for BPS, Gudrun Lux and Mario Dießner for OPD) and the first part of the seminar covering the rules of BPS debating. The evening ended with a relaxed discussion in the “couch-room” of the hostel.

The second day started with an abundant breakfast which was very necessary to survive the tight schedule. A BPS-debate enabled the participants to practice the theoretical aspects and to apply the advices given by the leaders. After lunch, the focus was put on the German OPD debating format. The detailed discussion of the rules and an OPD-debate gave the participants the possibility to listen to interesting arguments and to judge some of Germany’s best debaters. In order to relax from the hard work, the tutorial leaders suggested to go to a Cuban Salsa-Bar and to have some nice drinks and to dance a bit. The walk from the hostel to the bar allowed us to gain some impressions of Wiesbaden and one of the fifteen well-known thermal springs.

Finally, Sunday came and after the breakfast the participants could improve their soft skills by learning how to give a good and effective feedback as judge. It was the highlight of the seminar as each participant received a personal feedback for the given feedback. The tutorial ended as it began, with a rich lunch and with cordial closing remarks on the part of the leaders.

Summarizing, it was a very interesting and enriching tutorial which allowed the debaters to learn the most important aspects of the mainly used formats in the German debating scene and to prepare for future judging challenges. A big “Thank You” for this great event!

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