Membership Contacts 07-08

Welcome to Wisconsin Odyssey of the Mind for the 2007-2008 program year. We are looking forward to another year of creativity in Wisconsin.

The role of the membership contact varies from membership to membership. The membership contact usually handles membership purchases and team fee payments and may recruit coaches. The membership contact and/or coaches then organize teams and recruit judges.

There are four parts to entering a team in the state tournament.

1. Purchase memberships from Odyssey of the Mind International
• Membership purchase gives access to the long term problems
• Membership purchase must be done before registering for the Wisconsin State Tournament online.
2. Register teams for the Wisconsin State Tournament online at the member area. The registration date determines the state tournament fee.
• Early registration fee is $10 for teams signed up by December 31st
• Registration fee is $20 for teams signed up in January
• A late fee of $30 for teams signed up after January
3. Pay the per team Wisconsin state tournament fee
4. Supply one judge per team by March 1st

All parts of the team sign-up process--membership purchase, online registration, team payment, and providing a judge--must be done by March 1st.

Membership Purchase
Memberships must be purchased from Odyssey of the Mind International prior to registering teams online for the state tournament. Please allow several weeks for processing. Membership purchase gives schools and community groups access to the problems. A single membership purchase allows one team per problem per division to enter the state tournament. Multiple primary teams may participate under one membership. A school can only enter divisions which are housed within a school. A K-5 school may enter multiple primary teams and one team in problems 1-5 with a single membership. A 7-12 school may enter division II teams in problems 1-5 and division III teams in problems 1-5 with a single membership. Additional memberships must be purchased to enter more than one team in the same problem and division.

Online Team Registration
Register teams for the state tournament at the Odyssey of the Mind members area. The membership number and the membership's zip code are needed to log on. The online registration date determines the team registration fee. Required information for registration:

• The school name, address, and contact email
• The coach, name, address, phone and email
• The name and grade for each team member

Use the form that is available in either pdf or Microsoft Word format. Upon successful registration, a confirmation email with the team login and password will be sent to the school contact and coach. Care should be taken to enter accurate email addresses for both. If the school contact is also the coach just enter the same email address in each place. After registration, the coach information can be updated and team members added by logging in at the members area and following the team login link. If there is a need to remove or replace or correct the spelling of a team member send an email to ,membership director.

Team Registration Fee
The online team registration date determines the state tournament fee. The fee for teams registered by December 31st is $10 and $20 for teams registered after December 31st and by January 31st. Registrations are due by January 31st. Registrations after January 31st will be accepted with a late registration fee of $30. Make checks payable to Creativity Unlimited in Wisconsin and send them to:

Eric Lundberg
OotM Membership Director
3945 Woodcrest Ct
Eau Claire, WI 54701

Judge requirement
Each team is required to provide a judge. If a team does not provide a judge, if their judge does not satisfy the training requirement, or if their judge is a no-show at the state tournament, the team will be assessed a 25 point spirit of the problem penalty.

The due date for judges is March 1st. Judges can be nominated (asked to judge) by membership contacts or coaches by submitting the judges email address at the Odyssey of the Mind members area. The nominated judge will be sent an email with directions for registering. The nominating membership will be credited for the judge when he or she follows through and registers. You can also send your judges to the judges page to sign themselves up. Make sure they credit themselves to your school or one of your teams when they register. They will need the membership name, number, problem and division to credit themselves to a specific team. If they don't have this information, they can simply enter the name of your school in the place of the membership name to credit themselves to your school. Membership contacts and coaches can review their list of judges by logging into the Odyssey of the Mind members area and clicking the "Judge/Volunteer List" link. Teams can be credited for judges who are assigned to a long term problem, the primary problem, spontaneous, or the scoreroom. Most judges will need to attend one of the training sessions and will not be able to take time off from their duties to watch a team perform.

We are also asking but not requiring that teams provide us with volunteers to help on tournament day. Volunteers help with set-up, take-down, registration, concessions, and monitoring hallways. Volunteers need no prior training, can work a partial day, and will be able to watch teams of interest. Teams cannot use a volunteer to satisfy the judge requirement. More information and a sign-up link is on the judges and volunteers page.