Dear Odyssey of the Mind Judge/Volunteer,

FORM TO BE COMPLETED IS AT BOTTOM OF THIS INFORMATIONAL LETTER!

Thank you for agreeing to serve as a judge for the Piedmont Region 4 Odyssey of the Mind Tournament on March 16, 2024 at Franklin County High School located at 700 Tanyard Road, Rocky Mount, VA.  This will be a rebuilding year!   If you know of other individuals that may be willing to assist us, please have them register as a judge or volunteer.

All judges will be required to attend a judge training session ONLINE.   Look out for email from Problem Captain.   On the day of competition, judges will be needed from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Franklin County High School.  Please keep in mind judges will not be able to leave their assigned judging team to be spectators.  If you wish to see a team's performance you should register as a volunteer rather than a judge.  All efforts will be made to schedule volunteers for two hour sessions so that they can see team performances if they note an affiliation with a team on the registration form.  Volunteers will not need to attend the judges training.

Please note the following:   

• When registering, please be sure to select judge or volunteer. 
• Remember judges will not be able to leave their judging assignment to view performances while volunteers will be scheduled for two hour shifts.
• Please list the problem name/number you wish to judge in the space requesting which problem you have judged.  Please list your first and second choice of the problem you wish to judge.  (A synopsis of each problem and types of judging positions available is included in this document.)
• Please list any specific judge assignment requests in the Comments section (judge Division 1, style judge, want to work score room, etc...)
• Please know that we will try to accommodate your first or second judge position request.  We thank you in advance for your understanding if we must make alternate judging assignments to ensure we have full competition judging teams.
• Please list any dietary needs in the Comments section.  Please indicate your lunch choice number in drop down for lunch.
• Please be sure to note your t-shirt size.

The official must register him/herself by January 05, 2024 by completing a judge or volunteer registration form on-line and follow the following steps:

FOR JUDGES:

•   Go to http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/judges/  

OR 

  For Volunteers             

  http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/volunteer_registrations.php?assoc=VA

•   Click on Official Sign Up

•   Click on the state of Virginia on the map

•   Click on Piedmont Region 4 Regional Tournament on March 16

•   Complete the online judge/volunteer registration form

Long-Term Problem and Spontaneous Synopses: The full long-term problem synopses are found at www.odysseyofthemind.com . Primary (grades K-2), Division I (grades 3-5), Division II (grades 6-8), Division III (grades 9-12)

Available Judging Positions:   Please be sure to note your first and second judging position request in the comments section

Spontaneous: Judges will be needed for verbal, verbal/hands-on, and hands-on spontaneous judging teams. Teams will participate in solving on the spot spontaneous problems that contain verbal, verbal/hands-on, or hands-on components.

• Verbal spontaneous problems require verbal responses. They may incorporate improvisation or dramatization. Teams are scored for common and creative responses. Creative responses are scored higher than common responses
• Hands-on spontaneous problems require teams to physically create a tangible solution. Each hands-on problem has its own specific scoring categories.
• Verbal/hands-on spontaneous problems require teams to create a tangible solution and include some type of verbal component, for example, creating a story about the solution. Team members are scored for solving the problem and, oftentimes, for how well they work together and the creativity of the solution.

Timekeeper: Individual is responsible for giving each team the exact amount of time allowed for the problem (8 minutes). It is critical that the timekeeper be precise and exact. For long term problems, the timekeeper completes the timekeeper’s checklist and then introduces the team to the judges and the audience. In problems where a penalty for overtime is given, he/she assesses a penalty for teams that go overtime. In other problems, he/she stops the team at the end of the 8 minutes. For spontaneous, the timekeeper reviews the various times that will be given. For example, think time, practice time, response time, and clearly tells the team when to begin and end each timed position.

Score Checker: The score checker collects score sheets from the scoring judges and reviews and averages them before sending them off to the score room. The score checker makes sure the judges score within the appropriate range for subjective categories and award the correct number of points for the objective categories.

Staging Area Judge: The Staging Area Judge is the first official to greet the team in long-term. He/she puts the team at ease while reviewing the team’s paperwork. The Staging Area Judge forwards the paperwork to the appropriate long-term judges and inspects the team’s props, membership sign, etc.

Style Judge for Long Term Problems # 1-5: Style is the “icing on the cake,” so to speak. It is the special things that a team has made or done that fit together to make their solution unlike anyone else’s. It adds the component of artistic talent, or performance talent, or any other kind of talent to the basic skills needed to solve the long-term problem. Judging is done on a team-completed style form, which includes these elements, as well as a paragraph at the bottom describing how the style elements create an effect. This is a subjective score and it cannot be debated, argued or changed by the team.

Long Term Judge for Problems #1-5:

There are two types of scoring categories for the long-term problems:

• Subjective scoring categories are generally based on creativity, quality, effectiveness, humor, and other areas that are qualitative and an opinion of the judge. These are scored on a sliding scale, such as 1 to 15 points. An example of a subjective scoring category is “Creativity of the vehicle’s appearance,” and each problem judge would rate it somewhere within the stated point range, depending on how creative they feel the look of the vehicle.
• Objective scoring categories are based on whether or not the team completes certain requirements of the problem. These scores are absolute, such as 0 or 5 points. An example of objective scoring is, “The vehicle crosses the Finish Line.” The team would receive zero score for not crossing the line and 5 points for crossing the line.

If you have any questions, please contact us at piedmontodyssey@gmail.com  We look forward to sharing the Odyssey of the Mind spirit with you on March 16, 2024.

Sincerely,

Melinda Wickline 

Piedmont Region Director

piedmontodyssey@gmail.com