Welcome New and Veteran OMers!!

On behalf of the VOICES Board, I want to express my sincere appreciation to the many coaches and teams and judges that participated in the state virtual tournaments of 2021 and 2022. The virtual competition format presented new challenges for all. We acknowledge the Odyssey of the Mind experience is best enjoyed in-person. We are going to host in-person region and state tournaments this season. See info on VOICES tournaments schedules and track your local regions for Judges Training.

See the Problem Synopsis for a summary of this season’s creativity challenges. Ask your regions about changes to Spontaneous Problems.

Memberships: The steep increase in cost of membership may be of concern to schools, PTA/PTO/PTSA, and sponsors. This is the first CCI membership cost increase in 30 years. The COVID pandemic also placed great pressure our budgets due to decreased number of memberships, greatly reduced number of teams participating, and very few international teams permitted to travel to the World Finals.

Schools or sponsors must purchase memberships for their teams to receive the details of requirements for each problem. Each region is willing to assist teams from different schools/teams/sponsors to bundle memberships to get a group discount.

Region Planning: VA Regions are busy scheduling training sessions and venues for program coordinators, coaches and judges, and their respective region tournaments. These tournaments will be held in February or March 2023.

Changes to VA Regions 10 and 12: The Region Directors for two VA regions announced their departures this summer. NoVA South Region 12 Co-Directors Joyce and Ron Ghen are retiring from Odyssey of the Mind after many years of dedicated support and valuable contributions. I will also miss Ron as my Assistant Association Director and Tournament Director. An original OMer and long-time dedicated volunteer Rappahannock Region 10 Director Megan Palmer resigned to create time for her many volunteer activities associated with her three daughters.

The majority of Region 12 teams will remain affiliated with Region 12 and will participate in a joint tournament with NoVA North Region 6. A few Region 12 teams have been notified they are being reassigned to either Catoctin Region 14 or NoVA East Region 11.

Region 10 teams are encouraged to participate in Tidewater Region 6 training activities and tournament. Link to Region 6 Odyssey of the Mind drive. In the drive, you will find Coach and Coordinator Resources and the PowerPoint for the Nov 5 training session. Please note that you will need to request access to the Google Drive link above in order to get access.

VA State Tournament: The State Tournament to be held April 15, 2023 at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg. Teams must compete at the state tournament to qualify to advance to compete in the World Finals. The State Tournament will be limited to Problems 1-5 and Spontaneous, all divisions.

World Finals: The 2023 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals will be held May 24-27, 2023 at the Michigan State University.