Membership Resources

The Membership Coordinator

Updated 09/01/25

For each “Membership”, there is a Membership Coordinator. This person serves as the conduit between the Regional Director and the school/membership. They have access to the problems from the international organization (OdysseyHQ), and receive information from their Regional Director (TX Houston “HARO”, TX North, TX Central).

Have you received the full problems this year? If not, be sure to purchase/renew your annual membership. Instructions below.

The contact person on your membership application should be the Odyssey of the Mind Coordinator for the school, not the billing contact. Be careful to key in the correct County that you are in, as this determines the correct region.

The new problem synopses are published on-line in the summer, and the full problems are available to active Memberships in late-August.

View the 6 different problem types. New problems are created each year.

Preview of Current problems.

The Coordinator can be a teacher, Magnet or G/T Coordinator, or a parent. 

The Coordinator often sets-up a table at a Back-to-school or Open House event to provide information to new parents, publishes information in the school newsletter, organizes Parent Orientation sessions and/or promotes any free events organized by the specific region.

The Coordinator helps form teams, helps implement the regional team qualifications to ensure that there is no conflict between team preferences and organizes Membership level volunteers. For new Coordinators, you can download here a description of the role.

The Coordinator often has a dual role and could be a team Coach.

Materials for presentations & distribution

Procedures vary among Texas Regions. The following materials can help you disseminate program information within your school.

Video: "A Creative Experience", introductory 10 minute video from Creative Competitions, Inc (“CCI”), the national tournament organization of Odyssey of the Mind.
PDF: What is Odyssey of the Mind, single page flyer that explains the program and its problems.

PDF: Current Year Problem Synopses (coming soon - see Preview link above). Active members must login to the Member Area to download the full problems starting late August.

PDF: OM at a Glance. This file contains an overview of the program in Texas, with broad timeline (the “pink” handout).

PDF: Invitation to OM Orientation, share it with parents and other teachers in school newsletter.

PDF: Odyssey of the Mind problem solving comparison to 21st Century skills.

DOCX: Template Flyer to recruit team members (add your own contacts).

Coaches have their own resources web page and should be directed to sign-up for Coach Training.

Membership Renewal/Purchase

If you created a portal account last year, you must reset your password for 2025-26, due to the system upgrades.

https://portal.odysseyofthemind.com/login

Step 1: Purchase/renew membership for 2025-26:

WHEN: Mid-August to late September. Deadline for late starting teams is November 1st.

• Use your existing account or create a new one, based on your email address.

• Add an existing or new organization (school) to your account.

• Purchase a membership then arrange to make a payment by credit card or by approved Purchase Order.

• OdysseyHQ validate and approve memberships within a couple of business days.

Note: TXOM created the organizations for all teams that advanced to World Finals last year. Other school coordinators may need to create their organization first, before purchasing a membership.

School districts can purchase a gold or platinum membership and add memberships for each campus individually.

NEW! Detailed instructions here.

Each annual membership supports your school with up to 5 competitive teams (one per problem per division), and an unlimited number of Primary (K-2) teams.

Step 2: Add/Activate coaches in your organization

WHO: Anyone with the Membership Coordinator role in the portal. Typically the OM coordinator or GT coordinator.

WHEN: Once your membership is active, you can add/activate coaches and co-coaches to the organization. New coaches must create their own account first, it will go through a workflow to be reviewed and approved within a few days. One person per team should have the role of “Head Coach”.

NEW! Detailed instructions here. Click on Organization. Open Details. Add People. You will be limited to add people within your region and county.

Adding coaches to your organization will give them access to the full long-term problems and other documents in the Member Area. They will be prompted to login with their individual account.

It is recommended that long-term problems should not be emailed around. Please grant access to your coaches to download themselves. Also remind them that while they can review all problems, they must obtain clearance of problem assignment from the coordinator.

Step 3: Create Teams

WHO: The Head Coach should complete this step using their own account as they are automatically assigned to that team.

WHEN: Once all the problems have been assigned to coaches within your school, the School Coordinator must provide this confirmation to Head Coaches so that teams can be created.

HOW: Click on Team. Add Team. Select Organization, Problem and Division. The team is created for this Head Coach. They can add a co-Coach at this time. All Coach and co-Coaches must be over 18 years old.

Coaches create their team roster in the system when they start discussing the specifically assigned/ chosen long-term problem. This is often several weeks downstream of starting to meet. Team memberships cannot be removed from the roster, even if they stop attending team meetings. See Coaches Resources page.