The NYSOMA Board held it’s a one-day meeting January 9 in Binghamton following the Problem Captain/Head Judge training. As information 99 people attended the PC/HJ training. The board thanks those that attended. The willingness to attend this training session and then train others in their respective regions is essential to achieving consistent judging throughout the state. Based on the positive feedback received from the new HJ training session consideration will be given to offer this again next year.

NYSOMA conducted coaches training sessions in regions 4, 6, 7, & 21 combined, region 5, region 2, and region 14. Positive feedback was received from all sessions. Consideration will be given to providing sessions in various locations again next year.

NYSOMA participated in the PTA Annual Conference held at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center on November 5 and 6. Program information was distributed to interested attendees and they were given a chance to enter a drawing for a free membership. This year’s winner was from Burt, New York.

Premier Photo will again attend the State tournament. Further information will be provided in the tournament program.

The board agreed to again have our Creativity Booth at both the State and the World Finals tournaments.

The board approved region 14’s request to split division I of problems 1, 2, and 5. No other requests to split were received.

In recognition of NYSOMA’s 25th anniversary the board approved the following:

• provide an official recognition certificate for each school district that has been involved in Odyssey for 25 years. Regional Directors are responsible for generating the list of school districts.
• provide each Odyssey participant in the state an OMER book mark courtesy of Creative Competitions Inc. After the meeting further study determined that this is not feasible and participants will not receive an OMER bookmark.
• provide each participant at the state tournament an event bracelet
• using the new event center on campus for a combined closing ceremony this year

The board will be updating NYSOMA’s bylaws and Policies and Procedures to bring them in line with current requirements for not for profit, tax exempt corporations. The board thanks Anita Peliter of Nixon Peabody for providing guidance on this matter as well as her help in reviewing NYSOMA’s incorporation status, tax exempt status and tax paperwork.

The registrar reported that we have 481 National memberships. The registrar also reported that some school districts are still using the old registration forms and sending them to the old PO address. Please refer to the NYSOMA web site for the correct forms and address.

The next board meeting will be in Rochester on February 12, 2005.

Jim Hoelscher, Chairman of the Board, January 18, 2005 (amended January 27, 2005)