by Brad Ring

I will tell the story of how OM was started and maintained at GMI (now Kettering University).

I was a member of our original team in 1994. I was recruited by two guys that had done all the legwork of starting the team. These two guys started the process by getting the support of a key member of the faculty. Once he was convinced of the values of OM, he helped with selling the program to the Vice-President of the university. The VP took on OM as his pet project and provided the team with a portion of his budget ($5000). After this was accomplished, the two team originators set out to recruit the rest of the team. They chose a few people that they felt were creative and hard workers. They also researched for people with past OM experience through the admissions department (that's how they found me). The team was and is 95% run by the team members. All the paperwork, travel arrangements, budgeting, and anything else is handled by the team. The coaches were used for communication and as chaperones for the trip. They input less than a week's worth of their time to the program. It is no problem getting faculty support because they basically get a free week's vacation (they were encouraged to bring their families also). After doing so well our first year, the administration of the school was very much behind us. We were invited to dinner with the board of trustees and other events. The school saw us as a huge recruiting tool. We were able to convince them to allow us to have two teams and up our budget to $8000. The next year was the same and we were able to increase to $10000.

The most difficult task at this point was recruiting. Our school is pretty fast-paced and OM takes a large amount of time when the team is handling the entire program. The carry-over team members handpicked most of the team members. Some were found by putting out recruiting fliers in the school. Anyway that's how it got started and maintained for the first few years. I predict that the teams may fade away from our university, however. I say this because of the dependency on the team's excitement and motivation. The program really needs to have more involvement from the faculty. The faculty are more steadfast in the organization while the students are always moving on. If the passion for OM is not passed down at GMI, the program will fade away.

Some thoughts on competition for Division IV: I very strongly believe that Division IV should compete at the same time and place as the other divisions.

The most incredible thing about World's is the people. The young people are much more creative than those of us who have been taught (or trained). It does the older competition good to experience this youthful creativity as well as giving the younger OMers hope to continue in OM after high school. The atmosphere of the event is unbelievable and that would be lost in a Division IV only competition. Also, at my school, the biggest selling point to administration was the recruiting opportunities. Do not give that up or you will give up your leverage for support. A competition prior to World's would definitely help build the strength of Division IV. I think that credit for OM is great also.

Anyway, I would love to continue to give and receive input on OM, especially about Division IV. I have a strong desire to remain active in OM, so please feel free to maintain an open line of communication. An idea of our OM class to brainstorm: How to convince companies to provide support by donating judging time, funds, etc. to OM. What do they get out of helping?


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