President’s Report

In the Nov/Dec 1999 magazine, I began what I called the "association primer" series in order to provide you with a behind-the-scenes look at how and why leaders of USATT make decisions that affect the future of our association. I stated, "We expect that these decisions will move our sport forward to greater heights, respectively, and appeal, eventually culminating in the goal of producing Olympic and World Championship medallists." I then went on to describe the highlights of our association’s new High Performance Plan, including a description of our association priorities.

Over the past year as your president, I have used those priorities as my guiding principle. To refresh your memory, stated briefly, these priorities were: 1) developing medalists, 2) increasing funding, 3) professionalizing our tournaments, 4) creating school programs, 5) enhancing our international relations, and 6) supporting club growth. Of course, along the way, sometimes a squeaky wheel, an inherited problem, or an unforeseen necessity arose and demanded immediate attention. And sometimes, because of the entanglements of issues, thing seem to get worse before they got better. But, I am confident that our association is still adhering to the new sharpened focus we took last year.

The backlog in the processing of ratings became an intolerable breach of expected membership services. A majority of Board members worked closely with Executive Director Ben Nisbet to remedy what had become an unacceptable time lag. I apologize to you, our dear members. You were right to express your displeasure.

My policy, as president, is to listen to your concerns. When I can personally resolve a problem, I will. When the Board has delegated a certain responsibility to another individual, I will refer the issue back to that person. This method of problem solving will promote better productivity and harmony within our association.

My main goal as president is to find and take advantage of opportunities that allow me to concentrate on achieving multiple priorities simultaneously. In the past two months, three major "breakthrough" events occurred: 1) a USATT-ITTF meeting, 2) the Olympics, and 3) the Youth and Coaches trip to China.

Just after Labor Day, Treasurer Tong Lee and I traveled to Ottawa to meet with ITTF President Adham Sharara to negotiate financial terms of the 2001 U.S. Open Pro Tour event. We shared a common goal—for USATT to host a Pro Tour without incurring a significant deficit. The ITTF felt that it should list the United States, being the world superpower that it is, in all marketing materials for the credibility of the Pro Tour. Our position, on behalf of USATT, was that we needed additional financial support in order to carry out the mandates required by the host country. In addition, to the standard financial assistance provided by ITTF, Adham Sharara offered us, subject to ITTF final approval, a one-time subsidy to cover 50% of any deficit, up to a maximum of $20,000, to minimize our financial risk, and a one-time grant of $5,000 toward costs incurred in developing and executing a marketing plan for the event.

That negotiation furthered our objectives of priority numbers 2, 3, and 5. Additionally, he spoke to us about hosting the ITTF High Performance Plan meeting. Although the title is the same as our strategic plan, the ITTF High Performance Plan is a coaching seminar designed to improve continental athlete training. ITTF will fund all the expenses of the course instructor.

The workshop, once conducted, will advance our progress of priority numbers 1, 4, and 6. The ITTF course instructor, Michael Anderson, has already initiated logistics for the event.

The trip to Ottawa, for which the ITTF provided full hospitality, also provided us with the chance to discuss future collaborative efforts, including the Youth and Coaches trip to China. Adham reiterated the importance of a pro-active USATT in order to expedite growth of table tennis in the United States, which, in turn, will foster the ITTF’s worldwide marketing and participation goals.

Both the ITTF and USATT subsequently approved the terms reached in our negotiation. I am pleased to announce that USATT will host an ITTF 2001 Pro Tour event from July 4 to 7 in conjunction with our U.S. Open in Fort Lauderdale from July 4-8.

The second breakthrough event I mentioned was the Olympics. I was in Sydney from September 15-27. The table tennis sessions generally ran from 10 AM to 1 PM, then 3-6 PM, and 8-11 PM. Our complimentary meals were on site, and this automatically provided 15 hours each day, including group transportation, for me to meet with others. Each day presented me with multiple occasions to focus on the priorities I stated briefly earlier. I will summarize examples of how I advanced our priorities during this trip:

Priority 1—developing medallists: National coaches Dan Seemiller and Doru Gheorghe and I met extensively after our team finished playing to discuss the responsibility for creating a game plan. The Chinese TT Association reconfirmed its offer to assist us in bringing up our level of play through the October Youth and Coaches trip as well as future exchanges. ITTF competition manger, Zlatkos Cordas, former coach of 1996 bronze medalist Jorg Rosskorf, shared his recommendations as did former Swedish Coaches Anders Thunstrom and Glenn Osth. Deng Yaping, who was attending the Olympics as a spectator, pledged to help with our women’s development once we figure out in what way she can best assist us.

Priority 2—increasing funding: As most of you have no doubt heard, Bill Gates attended the table tennis four times because he loves the sport. Although he said that he does not sponsor sports, he indicated that he could be interested in further discussions. Digressing one moment, he thrilled our team when he agreed to meet them and also posed for photographs. A CEO of another well-known U.S. company approached me and said that he was interested to sponsoring an event. Norm Blake, the USOC’s CEO, said that he had some of his own plans to help direct us to at least one potential sponsor.

Priority 3—professionalizing our tournaments: ITTF approval of additional funding not only will provide us with insurance against any ITTF Pro Tour incurred losses, but will also ensure that we benefit from their expertise in this area. Photos taken by John Oros, who attended the Games as the ITTF photographer, will help us to use that venue as a model for our flagship events. Colin Clemett and I tentatively confirmed plans for him to conduct an International Referee Seminar and Exam at our December 13-17 U.S. Nationals (pending confirmation of participation by a minimum number of test takers).

Priority 4—creating school programs: Representatives from several foreign associations offered to mail us their school materials.

Priority 5—enhancing our international relations: Representatives from two countries that the U.S. does not enjoy relations with extended verbal invitations to USATT. The daily competition schedule, as I said, allowed for long opportunities to meet and follow up with presidents from other associations, members of the Executive Board of ITTF, and other attendees.

Priority 6—supporting club growth: Self-motivated tournament directors currently drive our Association’s membership growth. I believe that our organization’s future growth potential lies with club growth. For that reason, I asked several countries to share their club development materials with us. I look forward to learning from their models.

The third breakthrough event to transpire since the last magazine is the Youth and Coaches trip to China. The trip is underway as this issue goes to press, so that I will wait until the next issue to relay details to you about the trip. Suffice to say that we are fortunate that the Chinese TT Association has been so gracious with us.

The next pivotal event will be the November 17-19 Board Meeting. I have proposed a new committee structure for Board approval. Under the new structure, functions that are primarily Board or Headquarters responsibilities or that can more easily be performed by one specially-assigned person will be accordingly dealt with. As a result, the number of committees will be reduced from approximately from 40 to 15. Proposed new committees include: Finance/Audit, Grassroots-Juniors, Grassroots-Collegiate, Grassroots-Adults, Hall of Fame, and Women’s Development. The National Team, Coaching and (Elite) Youth Committees would merge into one Elite Athletes and Elite Development Committee. The Ethics and Disciplinary Committee would fold into the Grievance Committee. And the Officials Committee would be renamed the Rules Committee. Existing Committees that would remain intact, although not necessary headed by current chairs, are: Disabled Athletes, Finance/Budget, Hardbat, Nominating and Elections, and Tournaments.

Another amendment I have proposed include the adoption of the election procedures forwarded to the Board by an Ad Hoc committee under the guidance of Wendell Dillon (see page 20). Lastly, I propose a week’s notice (as opposed to 60 days) for matters pertaining to conformances of USATT or USOC By-laws, statutes, or documents of a higher authority than USATT By-laws. That proposed change also provides for the notice requirement to be waived in urgent matters if two-thirds of the Board, on emergency matters only, vote to waive the required notice period.

The Board will also get the 2001 Budget during the November 17-19 Board meeting. San Diego TT Club will host that meeting. We welcome guests.

As always, I look forward to meeting and speaking with you at upcoming events, which during the coming two months will be the North American Open Teams Championships and the U.S. Nationals.