CEO CORNER
CEO Monthly Report – June, 2008
Thanks to the diligence and dedication of the Nominating and Governance Committee (NGC) (Chris Vadala, Chairman, Jill Chalmers, Clint Kofford, Jasna Reed and Bob Fox), USATT has a new Board of Directors! As I write this report to you, the USOC is preparing to issue a press release for nationwide distribution announcing the composition of the new USATT Board. We will soon post full bios and photos of the new USATT Board members, along with their contact information, on the website so that each of you can become familiar with your new leadership. To further help to get the word out, I will list the Board member’s names here along with their relative position:
Jim Kahler – Independent from Ohio
Peter Scudner – Independent from Pennsylvania
Harold Jeffcoat – Independent from Texas
Christian Lillieroos – At Large from Oklahoma
Mike Babuin – At Large from North Carolina
Linda Leaf – Club Representative from Wisconsin.
David Del Vecchio – National Organization Representative (NCTTA) from California
Ashu Jain – USATT Athlete Advisory Council Representative to the USOC from NJ
Han Xiao - USATT Athlete Advisory Council Representative from Maryland
The USOC will soon be hosting an in-depth Board Orientation program for the USATT Board to assist them with the overall expectations of their responsibilities as they make the transition to assuming the full authority of their duties.
One of the first responsibilities of the Board will be to hire the CEO for USATT. Our candidate search, as directed by Dennis Davis, has yielded nearly twenty (20) applicants.
The Board will also review the operating budget and forecast for 2008 and will soon be engrossed in drafting a High Performance Plan leading to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. I am pleased to announce that we have just received a very favorable preliminary report as a result of recently completed external audit for 2007. Results of this report will soon be posted on the website.
We recently participated in the Ping Pong Diplomacy: THE REMATCH event hosted by the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA. This was deemed to be a highly successful activity for USATT in terms of press and media coverage, USA and Chinese athlete participation, the continuance of solid relationships originally forged in the 1971 & 1972 Ping Pong Diplomacy event and I believe that the Nixon Library and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries were likewise very pleased with results of THE REMATCH in total. I have read an advance copy of Tim Boggan’s first-hand report on THE REMATCH and he has captured the essence of the event quite well. I remain very proud of the performances of Tawny Banh, Mark Hazinski, Khoa Nguyen and George Braithwaite. I am also pleased that original PPD participants, Judy Hoarfrost, Tim Boggan and Rufford Harrison were able to participate in THE REMATCH activities. Tawny Banh is to be commended for organizing all the technical aspects of the event to include the youth component, college competition component and the official rematch itself. I hope that you get a chance to read the June issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED as there were a total of eight (8) pages devoted to Ping Pong Diplomacy!!
The 2008 U.S. Open is scheduled to be contested in Las Vegas from July 1- 5 once again at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We have just about 30 nations represented to include over 140 foreign participants. Joining in this year’s U.S. Open will be a playing delegation of nine (9) Iranian National Team members who are participating in a U.S. State Department and U.S. Olympic Committee supported Training and Competition Friendship Tour. Leading the Iranian delegation will be their President, Shahrokh Shahnazi, who is also the VP of the Asian Table Tennis Federation. Sheri Pittman is serving as the Chef de Mission for this entire tour that will see the Iranians taking part in the U.S. Open Warm-up event in Fort Lauderdale before making the journey to Las Vegas to participate in the 2008 U.S. Open. We are pleased to enter into this cooperative agreement with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Olympic Committee as this again underscores the value of sport in the larger geo-political situation and climate.
The Olympic Games are upon us and soon all eyes will be on Gao Jun, Wang Chen, Crystal Huang and David Zhuang. I have heard that this is perhaps the strongest team we have ever assembled and I think our athletes are poised to represent us well on the stage of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The delegation will be led by Coach Teodor (Doru) Gheorghe and Team Leader Bob Fox. We have a very experienced delegation and they should feel very comfortable in the setting in Beijing. Our thoughts and prayers and best wishes go out to each member of the Olympic Team representing USATT.
I know that the new Board members are anxious to take on the challenges of taking our sport to new levels of program growth across the landscape of Table Tennis in the USA. We all know the components of the puzzle are all there and they just need to be woven into a long range plan that will involve all the stakeholders in the process. When I was new to USATT in 2007, I indicated that I thought Table Tennis could easily be in the Top 10 of National Governing Bodies in the USA. That opinion/assessment/vision of the future has not changed in the months that have passed.
Respectfully submitted;
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