ARIZONA ODYSSEY OF THE MIND
Western Regional Director's Page

Dear Coaches,

Greetings, and welcome to a new year of Odyssey!

The State Board has issued a few qualifying conditions that must be met by the region in order to stay separate. First, and the most urgent, is that the Western Region must have at least 20 teams registered at the State level by November 1, 2006. After you complete your international registration and receive your membership number, you must register each team at www.azodyssey.org. If this requirement is not met, the Western region may be reabsorbed into Central.

The second important requirement is that you have at least 50 trained judges at your regional tournament.

Each team is required to provide 2 volunteers. One volunteer will act as a judge. The judge needs to attend training on a Saturday before the tournament and be able to stay all day on the day of the tournament. Teachers serving as judges will receive clock hours for their participation in training and the tournament. The judge will NOT be able to see their team perform, so parents should not be asked to judge unless they understand that they will not see their child compete. The second volunteer will serve as a tournament worker. This worker does not need to receive training and will be scheduled around their team’s performance, so they will have a chance to see the team compete. These tournament workers will work for 2-3 hours and will help the tournament director run the tournament. They serve as door monitors, score runners, food servers to the judges, etc.

It is vital that every team provide their required volunteers. We understand there are special circumstances that we all face, but the bottom line is that if there are no judges, there is no tournament. The judges have to be trained every year because the problems are different every year. Odyssey kids spend months solving their long term problem. They deserve judges that understand the problem as well as they do and can appreciate all of their hard work.

When registering your volunteers, please put their correct contact information on the form, especially their e-mail address. We send information out via e-mail, and if we can’t contact them, they will not have the information they need.

As a board, we are confident that the Western Region can build a team of dedicated judges to support the teams. We are also confident that you can maintain this judging team base from year to year to increase the standard of judging in the Region. It is vital to the success of the program.

Deanna is currently finalizing her dates for trainings, workshops and the tournament. She will post this information to the web site and e-mail you when she has things set. If you have questions, please contact her and don’t wait to be contacted. In this transition time there is lots to do and lots to remember. Please help her out by being proactive with your questions and concerns. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Deanna M. Day
Arizona Odyssey of the Mind
Association Director
azad@azodyssey.org

Please contact Deanna Venditelli if you are interested in volunteering or helping out at the regional tournament in any way.

You can also contact the Western Region Director, Deanna Venditelli at this e-mail: west@azodyssey.org

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Last modified: September 19th, 2006

Current Webmaster: Cheryl Fortier