The NYSOMA Board held a meeting January 8 in Binghamton after the head judge/problem captain training. The board thanks all those who took the time to attend the training. This is one of the ways in which we obtain consistency throughout the state.

We currently have 464 registered memberships, which is 22 memberships below last year.

The Board discussed methods to help simplify the membership registration process. We are continuing to work with CCI to develop a process that allows the New York registration and fee payment to be included with the National registration and fee payment. This will allow those wishing to, to register once and pay both fees to do so. An effort is being made to make this process available for the next program year. At the last board meeting the board also discussed eliminating the State tournament fee and raising the New York program membership fee to $100.00 to help simply the registration process. Based on the feedback received from various regions the board readdressed this issue and decided to maintain separate membership and tournament fees. The fees for the 2006 –2007 program year will be $80.00 for membership and $60.00 for tournament. This year’s fees remain unchanged.

The National Odyssey of the Mind Organization has decided that the raw averaged scores for Style will be given to each team. The Board decided that a new form would be used to allow the score checker to record the 5 averaged style scores. This form will be given to the team’s representative when they receive their raw long-term scores. These scores are subjective and can not to be discussed. They are provided as information only.

Also, Odyssey of the Mind has suggested that the teams be scheduled at least 20 minutes apart at competition. Our schedule was 18 minutes apart. The board had previously decided to follow this recommendation in New York. The new state tournament schedule was developed with 20 minute slots per team. In addition this year, NY is happy to welcome a new region, Region 1 to the State tournament. Theses two events have reduced the number of available slots in our tournament day such that we now have only 4 slots available in each competition for ties and lottery. Therefore it has become necessary to reduce the number of lottery slots for each region from 2 to 1. The Association Director will contact each region to inform them of the lottery slot they have been awarded.

The Summer Camp to be held in Region 14 (Canal View School in Spencerport) has been scheduled for July 29, 2006. The Summer Camp will be held in Region 5 at the Orange-Ulster BOCES on July 22, 2006. Refer to the NYSOMA website for additional information.

The next board meeting will be in Herkimer on February 11, 2006.

Jim Hoelscher, Chairman of the Board, January 13, 2006