Welcome to OotmWeb!!!

The 2023-2024 season is here!!!

Here you'll find some 'tools' for managing Odyssey of the Mind activities!!!

Some history:

I've been involved in Odyssey of the Mind in my home state of New York  at the local (regional) level since 1990, the state level since 1994, and the World level since 2001.  I've been a coach, a regional judge, a state judge, a Worlds judge, a regional problem captain (Spontaneous), a state assistant problem captain (Spontaneous), and a Worlds assistant problem captain (Spontaneous)!!!  Behind the scenes I've been a regional webmaster, a regional registrar, and a state webmaster. 

The Challenge:

I believe very strongly in the skills learned by everyone when we participate in the Odyssey 'experience'.   While the processing and paperwork is a vital piece in conducting a successful season and tournament, it does tend to be the 'stuff' that everyone 'hates' and it can indeed 'get in the way'...  New York State has been the largest participant from a state level (as many as 1100 teams in a particular season), and the particular region I've been in within New York State has also been the largest region with the state (as many as 200 teams in our region).   The 'paperwork' for managing memberships, teams, and officials in these areas is an interesting challenge, to put it mildly.  Historically these activities have been managed by sending lots and lots of paper between individuals.   This is a slow and cumbersome process, wrought with legibility issues (reading handwritten document can be a serious activity!), timeliness issues, and a general lack of ability to 'share' this information with everyone who needs it to provide a quality season and tournament.  Over the past few years I have taken some time to start to develop web-based tools the help 'groups' try and manage these activities.

The Present:

At the present time I have tools that can do the following:

•     Manage the membership registrations for a state organization, allowing a state registrar to manage national and state membership applications received and subsequent state fees collection for those memberships.  It provides real-time information to those submitting this information, thus helping out the "I sent in my application and haven't heard anything about it's status..."
•     Manage the membership registration for a local organization, allowing district coordinators to manage national and local membership applications received and subsequent local fees collection (if fees are collected at a membership level) for those memberships.  It provides real-time information to those submitting this information, thus helping out the "I sent in my application and haven't heard anything about it's status..."
•     Manage the team registration for a local organization, allowing district coordinators  to manage local team applications received and subsequent fees collection (If fees are collected at a team level) for those memberships.  It provides real-time information to those submitting this information, thus helping out the "I sent in my application and haven't heard anything about it's status..."  It also handles making sure that all team membership requirements get met (1 team per/problem/division/membership, students in the building that holds the membership, grade and division placement, etc.)  This information also feeds directly into CCI's Odyssey of the Mind's Scoring Program, OotmScore, facilitating your ability to use the Scoring Program's great capabilities in scheduling and scoring a tournament.
•     Manage the signup and registration of officials for your tournament, allowing your officials coordinator to manage officials signing up and providing real-time information to your problem captains as officials sign up.  For those of you who 'tie' the # of officials to the # of teams it provides a real-time 'scorecard' of how your districts are doing in their commitment to sign up officials.

So far:

This system has been used successfully for two years to manage the state memberships within New York State of almost 500 memberships each year.  For a number of years it has been used successfully in a local region of about 160 teams, and also for a number of years in a local region of only 50 teams.   It also manages the registration of almost 300 officials at a regional level.   I have learned a lot about using technology and the web on how to help make these groups successful.

My goal:

To help groups manage the 'behind the scenes paperwork' so that the kids, coaches, and officials can concentration on the best part of Odyssey of the Mind, the activities.  Interested?   Drop me an email at webmaster@ootmweb.org and let's see if I can be of help in your region and/or state.   I'd love to try and see what you and I can do to help your state/region manage the 'paperwork'.  For a summary of 'functionality' take a moment and review my inquiry document: Inquiry.pdf 

I plan to continue to enhance and expand on these tools based on the groups that use them to better provide a quality Odyssey experience throughout.  Thanks for your time and your consideration.