Houston Region specific Information

Updated 01/05/25

Welcome to the Houston Area Region Odyssey (“HARO”) page. You will find here additional details that are specific to Houston, in addition to all the general program information that is explained on this website. To renew old memberships, visit our membership page with new instructions here.

NEW 9/29/24: Teams must register their team roster with the Regional Director. This will also help coaches get access to a temporary Member’s area and download the full term problems.

This step is not limited to competitive teams and will also be used for competition. ALL teams must register by the time they start with the long-term.

NEW 10/30/24: If you receive an email from OdysseyHQ about “Creating a Team for Your OM Membership“, hold off until we advise otherwise. We will let you know if there is any action to take. For now, continue to register your teams in TX.

Updated 12/11/24: All Team List forms are now available. It’s time to start reviewing your forms! Details in our Member Area.

Check your HARO Team Qualifications to know what you need to do. Due dates are listed below under our Key Dates.

NEW 12/18/24: Judge Registration is Open for Houston and South TX teams. Send your judge the link and information we shared in the Dec 12th Newsletter. Advise them that they commit to both HARO and State competitions.

Reminder: Teams do NOT need to register with OdysseyHQ (wildapricot.org site) this year. We will run our Regional Competitions entirely with google forms for Texas.

NEW 12/27/24: View your Team Qualification status here for HARO and for SOUTH. This list will be updated every weekend. It includes your payment status and names of judge(s) and volunteer(s) who registered against your team.

Quick links to general information on our website:

Team REGISTRATION (google FORM)

Tournament Staff for HARO

What’s Happening in January 2025:

Teams should compile their preliminary forms to make sure that they have hit all the score items. Forms tell the judge what to look for and gets them ready to score every items. If they don’t know it, they could miss something important!

Also teams continue working on Style items. Creativity is the essence of OM. Hint: The Monthly open forum in December had a very good coverage of Style. Watch the recording in the Member Area here.

Important deadlines coming up: By January 15th, the team judge must be registered and the tournament fee must be paid (Instructions here). Both are very important for team qualifications. If you need an invoice, please ask.

Judge Registration is in its third week. Don’t procastinate! Send your judge the link and information we shared in the Dec 12th Newsletter. Advise them that they commit to both HARO and State competitions.
For South TX judges, they register and take training with Houston judges, but they do not attend Houston competition.

Key dates for Houston season

Link to our Google Calendar to add events to your personal calendar. Please note that rsvp is only accepted through the specific sign-up links below.

The list below includes all dates mentioned in newsletters:

Month	Date	Time	Type	Details
August/ September 2024			Key date	Annual membership renewal* to access the current year full problems and program guide. Purchase/renew your annual membership* here.
September to February		Ongoing	Key date	Team meetings under the direction of their coach to determine their team solutions, build their own sets and costumes, write their scripts and practice presenting them in an 8-minute skit.
November	1^st	10:00 pm	Deadline	Last date for Annual Membership Renewal/ Purchase HERE.
December	Sun 15^th	10 pm	Deadline	Online Team registration* closes for all regional competitions*
December, 2024	Wed 18^th		Key Date	Online Judge registration is open until Jan 15^th.
January 2025	Wed 15^th	10 pm	Deadline	Payment for HARO competition fee. Late teams are not guaranteed to be on the competition schedule. Instructions here. Invoices will only be issued upon request.
January	Wed 15^th	10 pm	Deadline	Deadline to include any qualified scheduling requests within the Tournament Registration.
January	Wed 15^th	10 pm	Deadline	Deadline for registration of team judges for HARO competition.
January	Wed 15^th	10 pm	Deadline	Deadline for registration of team judges for SOUTH TX teams.
January	Wed 15^th		Key Date	All Judges start receiving Training Packet A by email
January	Mon 20^th	10 pm	Deadline	Tournament Staff, deadline to register. For memberships with 4 or more teams. Info here.
January	Mon 20^th	4 pm to 6 pm	Event	Tournament Staff Orientation. For memberships with 4 or more teams, by rsvp (4 slots). Info here.
January	Fri 31^st	10 pm	Deadline	All Judges: Deadline to watch the online General Training video, irrespective of which training session you attend. Link is in the judge confirmation email.
February	Sat 1^st	2 to 5 pm	Event	On-site Judges Training at San Jacinto College, South Campus, 13735 Beamer Rd, Houston 77089.
February	Sun 2^nd	10 pm	Deadline	Deadline for registration of untrained volunteers for all regional competitions. Job selection varies by region.
February	Mon 3^rd	10 pm	Deadline	Judges: Based on your session rsvp, deadline to take General Training certification test online if you attended the on-site full training. Link is in the judge confirmation email.
February	Wed 5^th	10 pm	Deadline	Judges: Based on your session rsvp, deadline to take General Training certification test online, for attendance to Virtual Judge Training make-up session. Link is in the judge confirmation email.
February	Thu 6^th		Key Date	Judges: Based on your session rsvp, you start receiving Training Packet B by email and an invitation for attendance to Virtual Judge Training make-up session.
February	Sat 8^th	3 pm to 5 pm	Event	Virtual Judges Training. Make-up sessions with limited scope. Pre-requisites apply.
February	Sun 9^th	4 pm to 6 pm	Event	Tournament Staff Orientation. For memberships with 4 or more teams, by rsvp (4 slots). Info here.
February	Tue 11^th	7:30 pm	Event	HARO Competition Walk-through for Coaches. Virtual one-hour session. No rsvp needed. Join here.
February	Sat 22^nd	8:00 am - 4:00 pm	Competition	HARO Regional Competition, Pershing Middle School, 3838 Blue Bonnet Drive, followed by the Awards ceremony on-site.
February	Tue 25^th	10 pm	Deadline	Judges: Deadline to advance your registration for the State Competition.
March	Sat 1^st	10 pm	Deadline	Payment for STATE competition fee. Late teams are not guaranteed to be on the competition schedule. Instructions here.
March	Sat 29^th	8:00 am - 4:00 pm	Competition	TX State Competition, at San Jacinto College, South Campus, followed by the Awards ceremony on-site. (Advancing teams)
May	Wed 21^st evening to Sat 24^th	three full days	Competition	World Finals, Michigan State University, in Lansing, MI. (Advancing teams)