February news from NY Odyssey

Check out all the latest news.

Baby elephants, dodos, pins, scholarships and NY State's 1st regional tournament in Region 13.

New York Loves Teamwork!

Syracuse is home to the NYS Fairgrounds and the Odyssey of the Mind State Finals. It’s also home for Yadd and Tukada. Wait! Who?

Back in October 2022, the Rosamund Gifford Zoo were taken by surprise. Twin elephants born in captivity. A true miracle as only 1% of elephant pregnancies result in twins and this happened here in Syracuse. It took a team of experts to bring these baby boys into the world and it’s taken teamwork by their mom to nurture and raise them.

As Odyssey is also all about teamwork, we thought a pin acknowledging this rare event here in NYS and the efforts of many to make this a success was called for. Make sure you check out the pin at your regional tournament and at State Finals.

Yadd and Tukada are thriving and are beyond cuteness. Check them out:

Exciting news about the NYSOMA scholarships for 2023.

After being contacted by some OMers, this year, NYSOMA is going to open up scholarship submissions not just to individuals, but to teams. If the team submissions this year are of sufficient quality, then a separate scholarship may be awarded. Our traditional individual scholarships will be evaluated separately from those submitted by teams. The deadline for both submission types is April 1st, at 11:59pm, but don’t leave it to the last minute.

This year’s challenge is to create a lively, entertaining, and creative video (3-5 minute in length) that will show teams everything they need to know about participating in an Odyssey Tournament.

This can be in the form of a documentary, an animated movie, a musical theater extravaganza, or wherever else your creativity leads you...

Apply Here

NYSOMA and the Dodo

This year’s mascot for New York Odyssey is the dodo.

Not only is Odyssey of the Mind coming back to life after the arduous COVID pandemic, but scientists are trying to bring the dodo back into existence via genetic engineering.

Check out this fascinating article in the Smithsonian magazine.

Region 13 does it again!

On Saturday, February 11 Region 13 kicked off the 2022-2023 Odyssey NY regional tournament season. It was a fun day filled with pirate treasure, simple tasks, walls that needed to be overcome, hidden structures and dramatic pauses. Check out some pictures and a video of judges making a fool of themselves!

Congratulations to all teams and coaches. Now on to State Finals at the NYS Fairgrounds on April 15th.

PINS !!

OK, we couldn’t end this newsletter without giving you sneak peek at the remainder of the 2023 NY OM pins. In addition to the NY loves Teamwork pin featuring the baby twin elephants we also have these. You can get these at the Souvenir sales desks at your local regional tournament, or in the Science and Industry building during State Finals.

New Clarifications

A general clarification for all problems - No Drones!

Also Problem 2 has another specific clarification

All Problems

Jan 24, 2023

The use of drones in team performances is prohibited.

Problem 2: Because iCan

Jan 24, 2023

B7 – The series of actions that lead to completing a simple task: Each round of actions must end with a different action to receive score. That is, if an attempt completes actions a, b & c but does not complete the simple task it is scored for completing action c if action c had not been scored. If action c was already completed and scored, that attempt will result in no score for that attempt.

January News from NY Odyssey

Read the latest about Regional Tournaments, Important Deadlines, Scholarships and a first look at some of our 2023 Pins!

Regional Tournaments

Our first regional tournament will get underway on Feb 11th in Region 13, at DCMO BOCES, Harrold Campus in Sidney Center, NY.

Then on

March 4th: Region 5, Region 7, Region 8/9, Region 14

March 11th: Region 6, Region 21

March 18th: Region 12

March 25th: Region 2, Region 4, Region 11, Region 19

Check out the Regional Tournaments page for all the details.

Important Deadlines

The deadline for submitting Team Specific Clarifications is Feb 15th. If you have submitted one and can't see a reply, check your spam/junk mail folder, because it might be there.

General clarifications can be issued all the time up until world finals, so keep checking on the Odyssey HQ site or on the NY Odyssey webpage.

Registration for officials at the NY Odyssey State Finals Tournament on April 15th at the New York State Fairgrounds is now open.

NYSOMA has negotiated some special rates for hotel rooms for teams, coaches and supporters. The cut off dates for accessing these discount room rates are in March (varies by hotel) so make sure you check out the Team Hotel page on the website.

Scholarship Opportunities

NYSOMA is offering a number of scholarships to HS Seniors/1st year College Students.

To be considered for a scholarship, fill out the online form and then upload a 3-5 minute video that explains everything you might want to know about participating in an Odyssey Tournament. This could be in the form of a documentary, video blog, animation or what ever else creative idea you have. Maybe think about attending a tournament in another region to your own to get additional video footage?

The deadline for submission is April 1st.

Winners will be announced at the State Finals and will be showcased on the NY Odyssey website.

COU is also offering a number of different scholarships. Individual scholarship applications are to be received by Feb 15th 2023. The Howard Kurtz Scholarship Odyssey is for HS seniors or College students studying Education who currently participates, or has participated in the past, in Problem 5 - deadline for this is April 30th 2023. There is another opportunity to apply for the Wayne Kehrli Memorial Scholarship for Division 4 participants, currently attending post-secondary education - the deadline for this is May 15th 2023. For more details and to apply visit the Creative Opportunities website.

Pins !!

Here is a first look at 3 of our pins for 2023. These can be purchased at your local Regional Tournament or at State Finals. Stay tuned for more updates!