Membership Resources
The Membership Coordinator
For each “Membership”, there is a Membership Coordinator. This person serves as the conduit between the Regional Director and the school/membership. They have access to the problems from the international organization (OdysseyHQ), and receive information from their Regional Director (HARO, North TX, Central TX).
Have you received the full problems this year? If not, be sure to purchase/renew your annual membership here. The contact person on your membership application should be the Odyssey of the Mind Coordinator for the school, not the billing contact. Be careful to key in the correct County that you are in as this determines the correct region.
The new problem synopses published on-line in the summer, and the full problems are available to active Memberships in late-August.
View the 6 different problem types. New problems are created each year.
The Coordinator can be a teacher, Magnet or G/T Coordinator, or a parent.
The Coordinator often sets-up a table at a Back-to-school or Open House event to provide information to new parents, publishes information in the school newsletter, organizes Parent Orientation sessions and/or promotes any free events organized by the specific region.
The Coordinator helps form teams, helps implement the regional team qualifications to ensure that there is no conflict between team preferences and organizes Membership level volunteers. For new Coordinators, you can download here a description of the role.
The Coordinator often has a dual role and could be a team Coach.
New instructions for Membership Renewal/Purchase
In 2024-25, every Coordinator must create a new account in new system. Sometimes a different person issues the payments, they can have a separate account as “Billing Contact”. Start here:
PDF: Step by Step Instructions for Membership Sign-up or Renewal in the new Odyssey HQ System.
Under School/Organization: Enter the full school name, no acronym please.
Under Assoc. Region: Enter one of these: TX Central, TX Houston Area, TX North, TX South. Or leave blank if you are a new membership and you don’t know. (Note: New Region names eff. Oct 2024).
If renewing, enter your existing membership number, to expedite the manual validation process. However, the legacy membership numbers are being phased out, in favor of individual profiles.
Where they ask how many memberships you are creating/renewing, leave blank for a single membership. This refers to additional memberships.
A district Coordinator or Billing Contact can enter multiple memberships when renewing to pay with a single PO. Enter the details of the primary school, and then all the membership numbers. After your renewal is approved, you can come back and enter each school detail. A step-by-step guide will be available early September.
Once you have an active membership, the OM Coordinator will have access to the long-term problems. Temporarily for 2024: Regional Directors will provide secure access to all registered coaches so that they can start working on long-term problems while waiting for the new system to be available.
Other Materials
Procedures vary among Texas Regions. The following materials can help you disseminate program information within your school.
Video: "A Creative Experience", introductory 10 minute video from Creative Competitions, Inc (“CCI”), the national tournament organization of Odyssey of the Mind.
PDF: What is Odyssey of the Mind, single page flyer that explains the program and its benefits.
PDF: Current Year Problem Synopses. (Active members must use the Member Area to get the full problems starting late August).
PDF: OM at a Glance. This file contains an overview of the program in Texas, with broad timeline (the “pink” handout).
DOCX: Template Flyer to recruit team members (add your own contacts).
PDF: Invitation to OM Orientation, share it with parents and other teachers in school newsletter.
PDF: Odyssey of the Mind problem solving comparison to 21st Century skills.
Coaches have their own resources web page and should be directed to sign-up for Coach Training.