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President's
Report
By
Sheri Soderberg Pittman
On
March 18, the USATT Board of Directors held a teleconference.
During that conference call, the Board acted on two motions. The Board terminated Dwight Johnson as executive director and
voted to hire Ray Essick. USATT
does not comment on particular personnel matters.
That does not mean, however, that we will remain silent on the general
issue of personnel. In this
month’s “association primer series,” I will describe concerns facing the
Board and where our association is heading under the helm of our new executive
director, Ray Essick.
As an Olympic sport, we are part of the International Olympic
Committee’s family. In previous
president’s reports, I have shared details with you regarding not only
developments within our parent bodies, the USOC and ITTF, but also details about
our evolving relationship with them.
The USOC is transitioning into giving each NGB a flat $250,000 per year.
Under this new across-the-board formula, most NGBs will suffer, but USATT
will gain. USATT will reach that level of funding in 2003.
That funding, less 20% for administrative costs, is to be designated for
coaching development, elite athletes and the development of elite athletes.
Revenue we get from signing the USOC’s Joint Marketing Agreement will
decrease, but so will the number of protected categories.
The net impact is that USATT will receive less overall funding from the
USOC, which will only be made up if we are successful in obtaining performance
pool grant money. Normally that
money is awarded only to NGBs who have strong medal contenders.
The ITTF’s interest is at the developmental level, including
subsidizing training for youth who have the potential to make strong progress.
Because the ITTF has a particular interest in seeing table tennis make
significant in-roads in the American marketplace, we have the chance to obtain
some special considerations from the ITTF.
The trend in USATT politics to have a revolving door of USATT presidents
leads to a constant destabilization of the association.
I was honored to be re-elected and to have the chance to further
stabilize our association. As anyone who follows USATT activities closely has seen, I do
not view the stabilization process as necessarily meaning automatic job
security. Our Board has certain
expectations as pertains to headquarters performance, and it’s primarily my
role to press the executive director for progress, both as measured in tangible
outcomes and in intangible momentum.
We have a number of challenges facing us, not because of any flaw in our
sport, but for other reasons. First,
the trend of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is a perennial
NGB issue. Training costs money.
Participation in international competitions costs money.
Support of players, if we follow that path, also costs money.
Some NGBs have plenty of money due to television rights fees,
sponsorship, and USOC performance pool funding. Others, like us, struggle.
Without adequate financial resources, sports that are not currently
winning medals are unlikely to become medal contenders. Second, with the recent
economic downturn, companies are looking to cut corporate expenses, including
sponsorships. Third, no one has
ever created a modern template for USATT success.
This Board looks at our challenges as opportunities.
Ray Essick’s expertise in NGB management, in crafting NGB products, and
in serving previously as the chair of both the USOC Coaches Committee and the
USOC Athlete Performance Group will be invaluable to our association as we
revise and implement our amended strategic plan.
Reflecting on Ray’s retirement from Swimming in 1997, the president
wrote, “Since 1980, Essick has led U.S. Swimming membership to a growth of
more than 65 percent. He was instrumental in pioneering several U.S. Swimming
programs that have since become models in the Olympic movement, like athletes’
assistance, coaches’ education, corporate sponsorship, safety, NGB
self-insurance and sports science.… His legacy will be one of leadership in
the Olympic movement. With Ray’s guidance, United States Swimming has become a
model national governing body.” Since
I became USATT president, I have repeatedly asked the USOC to sponsor a
best-practices seminar for NGB presidents.
My request was answered in another form, as we now employ an NGB
best-practices expert.
As a consultant, Ray
has already developed checklists with action steps. That’s how he’s
proceeding. For
the most part, though, he plans to proceed the old-fashioned way: through hard
work. He will be following a 4-step
approach.
Face
reality.
Put
a team in place to effectively resolve problems.
Deal
with the core issues.
Eliminate non-core issues.
One of the reasons Ray was attracted to our association was precisely the
challenges that our association faces. He
also was quite intrigued by the relationship that we have cultivated with the
Chinese Table Tennis Association, especially given the joint marketing
opportunities that USATT/CTTA will have leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing. Ray felt that our
situation posed just the right blend of challenges and opportunities for his
skills.
One of the first tasks that he has been dealing with is concluding
negotiations between the USOC and four other NGBs to receive an ownership share
in a building that will be paid for out of USOC proceeds and occupied by five
NGBs. The building will serve as
the headquarters office for those NGBs. It
is located much closer to the Olympic Training Center than our current office.
Ray’s priorities when he took over as executive director were to focus
on team building within the headquarters staff, to analyze customer services to
our membership, and to shore up our budget both through cost-cutting and
increased revenues. Ray has begun
to review our strategic plans and bookkeeping practices, staff responsibilities,
coaching development program, sponsorship fulfillment, and event/products
marketing. He has renewed his
contacts with the USOC on our behalf and has already placed calls to the ITTF.
He advocates clearly-defined roles for staff and volunteers.
He believes in a shared balance of participation.
Ray has requested a 2-year contract.
The Board will take up a motion to approve the contract at our Board
meeting the weekend of May 10. At
that time, Ray will also present us with an action plan as well as his analysis
of association issues.
This issue contains a report Christian Lillieroos prepared based upon his
trip to China with me and others in January. After that trip, USATT sent three juniors – Mark Hazinski,
Whitney Ping and Misha Kazantsev – to train there for a month under the care
and watch of USATT’s Coaching Certification Coordinator, Mark Nordby.
Mark Nordby is preparing a report for the next issue.
For those of you who haven’t heard, upon Mark Hazinski’s return, he
became the first American-born player to beat U.S. #1 player Fan Yi Yong.
Mark Nordby, noting the phenomenal improvement and outstanding treatment
our players received from the CTTA, told me, “This was the best-spent USATT
money I have ever seen.” Plans
with the “Table Tennis Trade” joint marketing proposal continue to progress.
On a personal note, I regret that certain individuals have distorted the
meaning of a sentence that I wrote several months ago.
These people have accused me of being racist toward the Chinese.
As anyone who knows me, or who reads my writings, can plainly see, I
revere and respect the Chinese Association.
In fact, I started playing table tennis 30 years ago shortly after the
historic Ping Pong Diplomacy tour. That
a sport could play a role in changing the world made a strong and positive
impression on me. Ever since then I
have had a particular affinity for both table tennis and Chinese people. I remember being a very nervous player, so much that in my
first tournament (in 1973) I lost to every player 21-0! Afterwards I gained more skills and confidence, but still
stayed nervous as a player. Along
the way, my love and passion for our sport grew and I’ve volunteered thousands
of hours promoting table tennis, writing magazine articles, and serving in
various volunteer positions.
Shortly before the 1999 World Championships, I became USATT president. Although I deliberated about how to approach the CTTA in order to rejuvenate the relationship between our associations, I suddenly had only a small window of time to meet with them once the tournament concluded. I was all by myself. I spared no restraint shooting for the moon, asking the CTTA to help us in every conceivable area that I thought they could offer us assistance in. If I trembled inside a little bit, it was because I was so hopeful that they would share the same desire and the same vision but wasn’t sure how they would respond to my wish list. It was surreal and humorous at the same time, when someone from the CTTA took my requests totally in stride, quipping, “We’ve been waiting almost 30 years for this moment!” “What?,” I asked. We laughed heartily and continued to speak at length.
I suggest that members draw their own conclusions about my relationship
with the Chinese Association through evidence presented by our improved
relations rather than believe libelous accusations made by individuals who make
slandering me and other USATT volunteers their hobby.
Let’s all band together for the growth and promotion of table tennis.
Background Summary of New USATT Executive
Director Ray B. EssickExecutive
Director, USA Swimming, 1976-1997