President’s Report

By Sheri Pittman

Tournaments such as the U.S. Open present a wide range of opportunities to our members. Most participants enjoy the chance to prove themselves at the table, to watch the elite players in action and to catch up with old friends while making new ones. It is my duty and honor to represent our association. This month’s "association primer series" focuses on the behind-the-scenes work that I typically do as USATT president.

Tournament Management

It is my responsibility to see that all logistics are delegated properly so that the event runs smoothly and reflects positively on our association. Thanks to the great cooperation by everyone — including the tournament staff, the USATT participants and the Pro Tour players — all went well. We especially appreciate the extraordinary support by the 20+ Japanese umpires.

Because our staff and volunteers handled the event so professionally, my direct intervention was not necessary on most matters. However, at one point a question arose as to whether Wang Chen should be allowed to represent USA in the ITTF Pro Tour. The evening before the preliminaries began, Yu Bin, a Chinese Table Tennis Association Vice President, and I were in the lobby when a fax arrived from the CTTA protesting her participation. On the morning of the preliminaries, the question was still unsettled. ITTF Competition Manager Zlatko Cordas was exchanging e-mails with ITTF’s Executive Director Jordi Serra; Yu Bin and I were similarly engaged in discussions. Within a short time, taking all of the relevant details into account, they agreed to allow her to play as a USA-designated player.

I regularly touched base with Zlatko and other tournament officials. When Zlatko spoke at this year’s tournament party, he declared that our ITTF Pro Tour is "among the top four in the world."

Sponsorship Relations

The U.S. Open is also a showcase event for our sponsors. Their products are seen and used. I need to ensure that our sponsors are pleased with their investment decision.

Earlier this year, the Board opted to go with Butterfly as our new table sponsor. Through its many years as our table sponsor, Stiga had previously set the standard regarding service expectations. Martin-Kilpatrick’s Chris Burner deserves credit for making this transition seamless. He personally oversaw every detail of the tournament set-up. He was also instrumental in upgrading Butterfly’s sponsorship after the U.S. Open. With the support of Martin-Kilpatrick’s owner Bowie Martin and Butterfly’s representative Hideko Konishi, Butterfly has since invited USATT to send up to 4 juniors every year to the world-famous Butterfly Dohjo training center for one month. Thank you, Martin-Kilpatrick and Butterfly, for the wonderful job you did at the U.S. Open and for your generous sponsorship!

USATT Executive Director Dwight Johnson and I formally met with Mitch Rothfleisch of The Table Tennis Pioneers, our Stiga clothing sponsor. I have accepted Mitch’s invitation to meet again at the Stiga Western Open in San Diego in September to discuss future joint USATT/Stiga activities. The presidents and other executives from Escalade Sports, Sweden Table Tennis and The Table Tennis Pioneers will attend the meeting.

I entertained Mr. Hirose and Nittaku’s special guests at the U.S. Open on two occasions. Mr. Hirose expressed deep satisfaction with our association and with Paddle Palace, their US distributor.

USATT’s Contract with "AmericasTeams"

Over the past 12+ months, USATT has signed a series of Internet collaborative agreements with a company now known as AmericasTeams. Those legal documents ranged from promises of confidentiality, to exclusive negotiating agreements, to an actual agreement. I encouraged Joe Krzys, the originator of the masterplan, to attend our Board meeting. Since he was unable to travel at the last minute, he agreed to be teleconferenced into the Board meeting. Joe gave our association permission to divulge news of the deal. Through our AmericasTeams contract, our association will have a financial backer supporting our market niche as the unequivocal website for US table tennis information. For more details, see the interview with Joe Krzys on page 22.

NATT’s Proposed New Tournament & Ratings Software

I attended a software demonstration by Fong Hsu and Richard Lee of North American Table Tennis. The software – which features tournament processing, ratings recalculations and ratings histories – is currently being beta-tested. If it is adopted as USATT’s official software, tournament directors will have an easier time running events and everyone will benefit from more timely and accurate ratings updates.

ITTF Relations

Unfortunately for us, ITTF President Adham Sharara was unable to attend this year’s event. After the tournament, I received this e-mail from him, "Congratulations on a successful U.S. Open. I heard from all that it was the best organized U.S. Open so far. Again, I am sorry I missed it …."

For the first time, the ITTF sent its own press person. ITTF Media & Communication Manager Peter Jensen prepared regular feature news items about the event on the ITTF’s official website, www.ittf.com. I hosted Peter and Zlatko at a small 4th of July gathering.

ITTF Continental Vice President for Latin America Miguel Delgado agreed to be recognized as the ITTF’s representative when we learned that Adham could not attend. Miguel spoke both at the tournament and at USATT’s Board of Director’s meeting. Miguel and I continued to discuss the possibilities of a USA-held Pan American Youth Championship as well as an ITTF-recognized training center in the U.S.

Future USATT-Run ITTF Events

Dave Sakai is heading up a task force to put together a USATT bid to host the world championships before the end of the decade. I arranged for us to meet with Zlatko and Peter to help him get started.

As a prelude to that bid, I have initiated talks with the ITTF about hosting the ITTF Pro Tour Final in 2002 in conjunction with our U.S. Nationals. Compared to regular Pro Tour events, the Pro Tour Final requires much less of a financial investment on our part, yet virtually guarantees the world’s top pool of athletes. The primary financial requirements for the host association are to assume players’ hospitality and event facility fees. For once the stars are aligned in our favor. Hotel rooms are inexpensive. And, in an ironic twist of fate, the convention center has already told us that our complimentary space usage will end after this year’s Nationals unless we can promise television coverage. This solution would also mean that USATT would continue to be listed as the host of an ITTF Pro Tour (an important objective for the ITTF), and would give us flexibility regarding next year’s U.S. Open. USATT has already reserved Las Vegas convention center space for the December 14th weekend in 2002.

At my request, ITTF President Sharara has promised to lend us the assistance of ITTF’s Marketing Director Anders Thunstrom to advance USATT’s marketing strategies.

Preparation For The 2008 Olympics

The U.S. Open concluded just prior to the IOC’s vote to award the 2008 Olympics to Beijing. We prepared ourselves for that outcome. Prior to the U.S. Open, Dwight and I worked together to impress upon the CTTA and the USOC the importance of meeting in Fort Lauderdale. We are delighted that this meeting occurred. Since then Blair Tripodi, the USOC NGB Marketing Director has followed up with Yu Bin to begin discussing some proposed events leading up to the 2008 Olympics. The USOC/CTTA meeting has already boosted our image within the USOC and among many of its affiliated national governing bodies. Most important, though, these efforts to increase funding, add press exposure and expand our accessibility to China’s training techniques will directly benefit our 2008 Olympians.

USOC Relations

Besides meeting with Yu Bin, Blair Tripodi and I discussed proposed joint USATT/LATTU initiatives with Miguel Delgado.

Dwight Johnson reported to the Board the progress we’ve made toward completing our USOC-mandated strategic development plan. Since the U.S. Open, I have drafted our international relations portion of the plan in keeping with USOC President Sandy Baldwin’s vision of adopting a global approach in our association’s development strategies. I have also informed Adham Sharara that we will forward the plan to the ITTF. As he himself wrote (see page 20), the ITTF could be another willing investor in our future.

USATT Elections

The current Board has restored the right of the membership to choose your association officers. As I’ve previously reported, we are transitioning into a quadrennial election cycle. Please exercise your right to vote! The successful candidates will attend the next Board meeting in November. ITTF President Adham Sharara has accepted an invitation to attend the meeting and will also be available to meet separately with USOC representatives at that time.