Greetings – last week I returned from the Supershow in Atlanta. Seven venues, each larger than the floor space at the U.S. Open, packed with sporting goods vendors – an amazing event. I was a kid in a candy shop with no adult supervision!

The one important message I want to send to you regarding my trip is that our table tennis vendors are all enjoying robust sales. Americans are snapping up table tennis tables and equipment to put in their basements, garages and basements at a record pace. It was truly exciting to visit each table tennis booth and inquire about table tennis in America. Many of the major sporting goods stores (Sears, Sports Authority, Target, Wall-Mart, etc.) devote shelf space for Table Tennis and are enjoying an up-tick in the sales category.

The best news of all from Atlanta is that all the table tennis vendors I spoke to (particularly the ones who already support our sport directly through event, elite and youth sponsorship, and magazine and website advertisements) are interested in establishing joint marketing programs to help USA Table Tennis recruit new members. As you read this article, USA Table Tennis and our membership committee are working on improving the membership delivery and benefits package.

To further support our efforts, on March 1st, Megan Kulenburg joined our staff as the new Ratings and Membership Coordinator. Megan is eager to develop member recruitment campaigns and retention strategies. While we will certainly miss Fran Boardman’s expertise (she elected to pursue a career in real estate), I also look forward to harnessing Megan’s customer service and credit card operation skills. Please welcome her as USA Table Tennis’s newest member!

Rather than continue on about the potential of our sport, I now want to shift gears and focus on Coaching.

Over the past few months I have been working with Dan Seemiller and Mark Nordby on a coaching platform, which gets each registered coach, signed up and entered in our database. In late February, we mailed to each registered coach in our database a survey and test. I need all active coaches to rally behind our sport and USA Table Tennis by completing the survey and test and sending it back to us. For those of you interested in coaching kids and youth or who already are doing so, we need to know who you are and what you are doing. For those of you who are interested in becoming a coach, please contact us. We need you!

The USOC has tremendous coaching resources available. Other National Governing Bodies are far more advanced than we are in terms of coaching information and knowledge – we intend to catch up. There is something for everybody to learn no matter what level coach you are. Even the best coaches can learn new ideas and absorb valuable information. Dan and Mark are motivated to deliver this information to you. Additionally, there are programs, money and resources that I am working on now which may have a direct benefit for all registered coaches in the months ahead. If you are currently coaching and want to be a part of this movement, you will need to become certified. Take the test … complete the survey … thank you.