President's Report

Now that the new year is upon us, we traditionally perform an annual ritual of self-assessment. The USATT campaign last fall was a period of intense introspection for me. I am grateful that you have given me the chance to continue carrying out the vision and path I, as president, had begun establishing for our association. I am also thankful that so many more of you have offered to help USATT.

In past "association primer series" articles, I have described advances we have made on advancing USATT’s six goals. Those goals remain important cornerstones to USATT’s progress. But there are other larger issues that we need to face before we can truly succeed in developing Olympic medalists, increasing revenue, creating a national youth program, improving our international stature, professionalizing our tournaments and fostering membership/club growth.

I have set for myself and USATT these resolutions:

#1 Relationships & Communication

Relationships are vital to our success. The most important relationship USATT has is with its own membership. To that end, we must continuously improve customer satisfaction. We must not only communicate to you, but also really listen to what you have to say. During the campaign, I didn’t only contact people to seek endorsements; I also sought feedback. And what I heard humbled me. We still have a heavy workload in front of us.

Other relationships need our attention as well. There is an array of potential sponsors and community-based organizations that we can partner with.

Among our parent bodies, we are close to attaining our maximum level of representation allowed within the ITTF, but we currently don’t have even one committee assignment within the USOC. This is a result of attentiveness in one area and nearly total neglect in the other area. Improving our strategic position within both of our parent bodies will continue to be a high priority for USATT. By focusing on objectives that are mutually desirable to our parent bodies and us, we can improve relationships with both of them simultaneously. As you receive this magazine, I will be heading to China for an ITTF Executive Board meeting. I will be meeting extensively with the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) to formalize a proposal that I already made to our Board, which would integrate our six organizational priorities into one marketing and developmental plan through a unique partnership with the CTTA.

#2 Communication

USATT continues to be on the verge of kicking off an improved Internet presence. The AmericasTeams contract we signed in mid-2001 has undergone a number of final implementation phases. We are all eager to move forward. Increasing our ability to communicate more extensively through electronic means will not only improve the flow of information, but will also cut postage costs, expand online advertising revenues and provide our members with online membership services. In anticipation of this opportunity, we have been creating additional resources that will be ready for you to download at roughly the same time as our online transmission capacity increases.

#3 Delegation & Teamwork

As USATT expands its focus on customer satisfaction and better communication, so will our need for more people who share a similar vision and dedication. In the past, USATT lacked an effective infrastructure. Over the course of the past 2½ years, I found myself distracted by a constant flow of crises. Anything I was capable of writing, resolving, proposing or doing, I did. While performance of those tasks helped our association get through some tough times, it is not ideal leadership behavior. Since my re-election, I have begun to adopt a new standard: "Do only those things that only you can do."

This puts teamwork at the forefront. Fortunately, many of you with talent, time and helpful backgrounds have offered to help. These contributions will exponentially strengthen our association’s collective base of human resources. While our arms are open wide, we are looking to recruit people with good attitudes. There is a world of difference between a positive attitude and a negative attitude. One aims to improve our association by offering constructive criticism, solutions to problems and talents to propel us forward. The other seeks to undermine and destabilize USATT through attempts to discredit our leaders, undermine our relationships with the USOC or ITTF, or mislead our members.

#4 Growth & Grooming

As USATT expands its network of human resources, we will need to merge growth with grooming. We will be developing plans to train people as we grow and to anticipate growth as we train. Put simply, to grow, we need to groom people to think with a more expansive vision and to be prepared to reap the fruits of their labor

#5 Re-Evaluation & Re-Structuring

As on-going systemic problems get resolved, the Board is devoting more of its time and energy to association governance issues. We are embarking on an internal re-evaluation and organizational assessment. Within the Board, I have set up a series of working groups to focus on three overall areas: association responsibilities, financial management and oversight of headquarters. The working groups consist of governance, planning, programs, communications, financial practices, fund development, marketing & public relations, legal compliance, human resources and information management systems. Each of the working groups will be headed by a different Board member. My goal is to have a master Board manual completed by mid-year. Attention to these details will help our association become more staff-driven and our Board to become more oriented toward the big picture

#6 Compliance & Confidence

One of the best ways to achieve your confidence is to say what we’re going to do, then do what we’ve said. That is also an illustration of what compliance means. We’ve got to do what we’re supposed to do. In the past, our association tended to operate too loosely.

Maybe the incident that occurred in Baltimore happened because the referee tried to "extend a courtesy" instead of applying the rules. In my nearly 30 years of involvement with table tennis, I have never witnessed something so bizarre. Even as I write this, details and interpretations are still emerging. Like so many of you, I was very disappointed by the chain of events that began innocently enough and then deteriorated into complete disorder.

There seems to be a witchhunt mentality. How about if we transform the whole incident into an opportunity to learn and improve? What went wrong and how can we benefit from the wisdom learned from the experience? It seems to me that the primary cause of the problem is our association’s own growing pains. Even before the default that stirred the controversy, there was another minor (in comparison) default that initially sparked the fire. Was this event an international competition? Did ITTF rules apply? If so, then why was a portion of the event run more recreationally and another portion, the elite matches, run more in line with real ITTF rules? During the incident under question, should the referee have complied more rigorously with the ITTF rule that calls for continuity of play or was he right to exercise some discretion in stopping play for paddle repair? All of these questions will be answered in due time.

I hope too that as we march forward, we will gain more of your confidence and that more of you will see ways your talents fit in with USATT’s needs.