Odyssey of the Mind

Information on various judging postions can be found at the World OotM web site. While this is more specific to the World Final competition, the descriptions apply to other tournaments as well.

As a judge, you need to be familiar with all the problem clarifications provided to the teams. The public clarifications can be found at: http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/clarifications/default.php . In addition, there are "private" clarifications provided to teams. Private clarifications are those that are specific to a solution, which should not be revealed to other teams. Your problem captain can provide you with those clarifications, as and when they are available.

General Judging information:

All judges are volunteer positions at all levels. Judging is a wonderful way to give a bit of your time for great benefit to the kids! Remember, with no judges, there can be no competition.

The Silicon Valley region requires each team to designate at least one volunteer judge. For the first couple of years, when the tournament size will be small, we would need to have more than one judge per team to fill all the judging positions fully, so extra volunteer judges would be appreciated!

Judging is a 2-day commitment - the day of the training session, and the day of the tournament. Additionally, if you are judging on behalf of a team, and your team advances to the state tournament, you will be required to judge at the state tournament as well. Please be aware that on tournament day, you will not be able to watch your affiliated team perform. ALSO NOTE THAT THE JUDGE MUST BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD.

To become an Odyssey of the Mind judge, you need to follow these steps:

1. Sign up using the link that will be posted here close to tournament date. If you are judging on behalf of a team, be sure to fill that part out so the team gets the credit.
2. Attend one of the judge training sessions (shown in the Upcoming Events section on the right). It is a full day class for new judges, and half-day for returning judges. After the class, and before the tournament date, please be sure to review the materials provided at your leisure, so you can be as good a judge as you can be. NOTE: UNLIKE THE COACH TRAINING SESSIONS, YOU CANNOT CHOOSE TO ATTEND THE JUDGE TRAINING SESSION CONDUCTED BY THE SF BAY REGION. Since the Problem Captain has to form his/her own judging team, you are required to attend one of the two Silicon Valley training sessions.
3. Show up on tournament day, as instructed by the problem captain, and have fun judging!

Additional information can be found in the Judging Resources menu section.