The Judgment



Interview with Rik Neirynck who did the coordination of the judgment.

ON: Rik Neirynck, as the coordinator of the judgment in Dijon, could you tell us how have you organize that?
RN: I have participated in the judgment at many european orchid congress and WOC (Malaysia, Glasgow). I think that the first judgment I have in computer, was this one in Malaysia. At the beginning, we have based on it. Then I introduced all rules I have got and did a comparison between them. In this way, we got those approximated lists and we have look for competent people, for example, Joyce Stewart (WOC Trustee President), Cordelia Head (USA) and John Hermans (England) who have read it many times and have helped a lot. Taking their comments into consideration and the discussions we have had, we got to this final version of the Judges' Handbook which has been printed at the end of the year and to every exhibitor and every judge, at the end of January.

ON: The judges were divided into groups. How did you formed those groups?
RN: As you have seen when you do the registration for the Conference, you can also register for being judge in your preference. A third of the judges inscribed have given their preference, based on it, we started to form the groups. We have waited until last Monday when, based on this information, we started to formed the groups taking into consideration the competence of the inscribed judges and their preference. We have also added in the group people who hadn't given their preference. Certain classes should be judged by groups together. On Wednesday, judges and clerks were invited to have acess to the show in construction to ecome familiar with their assignments. On Thursday, 10, we had the juddges-breakfast, when I gave the last important information, how we will determine the champion (the best) and the vice champion (reserve). A very democratic process because each judge should vote for the first and second place and the champions were those who got the majority of the votes. There were 25 groups, 28 clerks car some groups had 2. A clerk is considered as non-voting member of the team. They should follow the group, take notes. There were some exceptions, 4 clercks had knowledge enough to judge. The criterias for the judgment were those accepted at a worldwide level.

ON: How long lasted the judgment?
We started at 8 o'clock am and finish 1h5' pm.






ON: Thank you, Rik Neirynck



The judgment of plants, flowers, stands, sites, photography and fine arts was done by more than 200 judges coming around the world. For the first time, the sites about orchids were judged and we have the pleasure to see Brazilian Orchids won the Gold Medal and Trophy Grand Champion as the best amateur site on orchids.
The committee of judgment were composed by Joyce Stewart (President of the WOC Trust), Donna Craig, Peter R. Furniss and Dr. Henry Oakeley who participated as trustees of the WOC-Trust. Besides Gabriel Cayrol (President), Rik Neirynck, President of AFJO, Jean-François Aguillon, Janine Couget, Vinciane Dumont, Philipe Lecoufle (RHS Orchid Committee), Romain Maillard, all of them judges at the judges at the AFJO (French language Association for the judgment or orchids) and Anne-Marie Gabriel and Jean-Marie Leckner as secretaries and advisers Kenneth Bruyninckx (Belgian), Cordelia Head (USA), John Hermans (United Kingdom), Alexander Hirtz (Ecuador), Harold Koopowitx (USA), Michael Ooi (Malaysia), Roland Schettler (Germany), Julien Shaw (United Kingdom) and Kiat W. Tan (Singapore). Rik Neirynck was the coordinator for the Judges Hand-book. The team of judges were composed by people who have a good knowledge about orchids and judgments.