By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

I am pleased to welcome Dwight Johnson as the Acting Executive Director of USA Table Tennis. He was brought to our attention by Dan Cloppas, the Executive Director of USA Badminton. Dwight began working with us on March 26. At the U.S. Open, Dwight will present a strategic plan to the Board. USATT will publicize the time and location of the meeting. Based on Dwight’s 100-day lead-in to the U.S. Open, as well as the presentation of his strategic plan, the Board will then take up the issue of removing "Acting" from Dwight’s title.

As you will see from reading Dwight’s statement, he possesses a unique blend of professional and personal attributes that will help our sport to move forward in different spheres at the same time. Dwight’s primary focus is on "empowerment." In his first morning at work, he held a staff meeting and shared his empowerment model with the staff. As I have stated previously, I strongly believe in a staff-driven association. With Dwight’s leadership, we are on our way to a dynamic transition process.

The new paradigm will empower the Board to act more expediently. The Board retains a fiduciary duty to oversee association matters and to provide directives to headquarters regarding the Board’s vision. Dwight has committed to improving the flow of information to the Board. With an improvement in communications in place, the Board will be kept better informed. This will lead to a clarification in the roles of staff and volunteer leaders. Ultimately, Board members who have assisted heavily in several operational functions will be relieved of that burden and will be able to focus their energies exclusively on governance issues.

Dwight’s empowerment approach will have a positive impact on you, our members. Dwight is a strong believer in customer satisfaction. He will be reviewing membership benefits and assessing input from members and affiliated clubs to determine ways in which our association can strengthen our membership base. He is looking not only to retain more of our members but also to launch programs to multiply our growth in membership. Dwight clearly understands the importance of the timely processing of ratings.

Dwight will assume primary responsibility for procuring sponsors and for ensuring their satisfaction. He will serve as our association’s operational contact with the USOC. He also will assume many responsibilities related to international communications and negotiations.

In this issue’s "association primer series," I will focus on topics mentioned in the previous paragraph: 1) recent sponsorship developments; 2) USOC’s evolving role in USATT, especially regarding our marketing plans, and 3) the need to focus on increased international involvement.

USATT received two bids for table sponsorship of the U.S. Open and U.S. Nationals. Just as Stiga had been awarded the clothing contract in 1999 based on its aggressive proposal, Butterfly made an outstanding bid for the table sponsorship. USA Table Tennis is deeply grateful to Stiga/Escalade Sports for its past sponsorship. Treasurer Tong Lee estimated the total value of the bid, over the quadrennium, to exceed $500,000. More details of the sponsorship will be revealed in the next issue.

USOC Marketing Director Blair Tripodi was in Fort Lauderdale in late March and asked to meet with me to discuss the USOC’s NGB Marketing Strategic Plan. Staying true to the course the USOC had revealed last spring, the USOC is marching forward with its concept to teach national governing bodies to fish, rather than to rely on the USOC’s largesse.

Under the new system, Blair will team up Leslie Gamez, one of the Sports Partnership Team members assigned to USA Table Tennis, to develop our own customized plan. In their strategic overview, they will help us analyze key opportunity areas and develop strategies and initiatives.

The USOC will reverse its previous reactive and proactive approaches. It will move towards being proactive in assisting NGBs with marketing opportunities, whereas in the past the USOC was seen as being primarily interested in policing logo usage. The USOC’s mission statement for this new standard is "Lead and deliver sustainable marketing/branding initiatives to the NGB, while being part of the integrated effort of the USOC Marketing Team, the Olympic Family of Sponsors, and the Sports Partnership Division."

Among the strategies the USOC will utilize toward assisting NGBs on the quest toward "teaching ourselves to fish" are 1) USOC attendance at our events in order to help them advise us on maximizing the revenue growth potential associated with our association’s properties and events; 2) USOC-NGB exploration of NGB priorities that coincide with and would mutually benefit identified USOC sponsors; 3) USOC-provided education to NGBs of "best practices" strategies currently utilized by NGBs within the USOC family; 4) development of an integrated USOC/NGB marketing team; and 5) integration of USOC marketing and branding opportunities across NGBs and Sport Partnerships; and 6) establishment of measurement tools to analyze success.

The plan includes an aggressive implementation and execution strategy, dubbed the "90-Day Plan," beginning with the NGB’s execution of this quadrennium’s Joint Marketing Agreement (JMA). Historically USATT has always signed the JMA. This year’s JMA departs radically from previous JMAs in that the USOC is stemming the flow of "fish," to continue with the metaphor. 2001 will be the pivotal year. Beginning in 2002, NGBs will derive significantly less income from the USOC. At the same time, the USOC will eliminate several sponsors from their "exclusive category" privileges. The USOC estimates that NGBs with strong marketing plans will be able to attract willing sponsors who will contribute more money than NGBs currently obtain through what the USOC terms passive sponsors (those who preempted a marketing category, but didn’t seek either to enhance their sponsorship through separate NGB relationships or to capitalize on its exclusive sponsorship relationship).

For an NGB to succeed under this new paradigm, it is essential that we see the enormous opportunities this new approach presents to us. It is a direction that will ultimately provide us with greater autonomy and a sense of greater empowerment, which brings this piece full circle: it’s already the direction we’re seeking to embrace.

As each NGB contemplates its inherent marketing strengths, so we also look to our own association’s ability to position itself. In my opinion, our greatest marketing tool is a culmination of the following facts. China dominates our sport. China is the primary country that many huge U.S. businesses are seeking to enter or to expand their business presence in. Our two associations have enjoyed a long-standing friendly relationship. Our two associations can mutually assist and benefit in a marketing alliance. Our two associations have already successfully concluded a joint partnership (along with the ITTF) through last fall’s Enron Millennial Friendship Tour.

At this year’s world championships, I will continue to work on behalf of our association to work with the Chinese Table Tennis Association toward this end. While I don’t anticipate any "breaking news," since these talks will pertain more to joint marketing concepts than to executing any on the spot agreements, I will certainly provide updates to you through our daily updates on our website, www.usatt.org. Editor Larry Hodges will be providing extensive daily (and sometimes hourly) coverage of all of the latest news and results.

The world championships begin the last week of April and continue through the first week of May. Next year there will be no world championships since this year’s event encompasses both the team and the singles/doubles events. The ITTF seems likely to adopt a yearly plan in which world championships will be held each year, alternating the team event with the individual/doubles events.

Good luck to this year’s team members!

As I said, I look forward to the opportunity this year’s U.S. Open will give us to keep you, the membership, informed of ongoing association developments. I look forward to talking with you in Fort Lauderdale, July 4-8!