President's Report

By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

The United States Olympic Committee recently conducted a Performance-Based Assessment with representatives of USA Table Tennis. The methodology easily translates into a practical tool that any club could use. As you read through this report, think of ways that you could tailor the exercise to fit your needs. In this "association primer series" article, I will also suggest creative ways to use this planning activity.

Attendees

The USOC advised us which USATT individuals should attend. The USOC is focused on winning medals, so the USOC invited and funded our coaches, one athlete representative, staff, and the president of the association. (Attending from USATT was myself, Barney D. Reed, Todd Sweeris, Dan Seemiller, Doru Gheorghe, Bill Lui, Clark Mitchell, Margaret Smith, Debbie Moya and Deborah Gray.) For clubs, the group could include club officers, league organizers, junior program advisers, your landlord, motivated volunteers, potential sponsors and others.

Meeting Logistics

Plan for a time when everyone can attend the entire meeting. Allow for at least four hours. Have the following items: flipchart paper, markers, pads of adhesive paper (about 4"x6"), and colored dots (4 different colors).

Opening Presentations

The leader should address the group for 15 minutes, stating the history of the club and objectives that have been important to the club’s development as well as current initiatives. If there is another person who should also make a presentation, allow 15 minutes for that presentation as well. For example, if you have a landlord, a sponsor, or another significant party that your club interacts with, ask that person to participate and show your interest in knowing how you fit into his/her plan. Time: 15-30 minutes.

Target Setting

Divide into random groups of 6-8 people. You can do this by calculating how many groups you’ll have, then counting off by that number. For example, if there will be four groups, count off 1-2-3-4 then go into the group of your number. The objective is to get fresh ideas. Feel free to make adjustments if two or more people are in the same group who might have very similar viewpoints (spouses, coaches, tournament directors, etc.).

Provide a flip chart pad to each group. Have a separate area in the room for each group. Once the groups are established, create a chart with time increments across the top columns and write one objective on each row. Each group can set their own time increments and objectives. Time increments could be yearly or quarterly or monthly. Objectives might include items such as number of tournaments to be held, number of league participants, money to accrue in the club’s bank account, club memberships, community outreach events, strategy to get juniors onto the national team, or other matters important to the group. Each group should then fill out the chart they’ve created. Limit the targets to no more than six or seven items. Take 20 minutes for this exercise. Then have one person from each group present its chart. Time: 30 minutes.

Fact Finding

The groups reconvene. Create a list of whatever facts are relevant to the club. These details could include what the club hours are, what the daily/monthly/yearly membership fees are, what programs are already being run, what events the club hosts, what other events the players participate in, etc. Again, take 20 minutes to generate the facts, and then have a representative from each group share the findings. Time: 30 minutes.

Mess Finding (Brainstorming)

Reconvene in your groups. Now, given your objectives and your facts, begin brainstorming. Have each group create a foursquare grid and label each of the sections "Membership Development," "Athlete/Coaches Development," "Financial" and "Other." You can, of course, have different categories, but agree in advance with all groups so that each group has the same four categories. The categories that the USOC used with us were "Athlete Development," "Coaches Development," "Feeder Programs" and "Other."

During this brainstorming session, the objective is for the group to think of as many helpful ideas as possible to achieve the objectives listed in the target setting exercise. Each idea should be written on a sticky paper, sized about 4"x6" and placed in the applicable category. Time: 30 minutes.

Solution Finding

Each group selects a person to present their ideas to the group. Take four fresh flipchart sheets and label each sheet with one category item. As the first group presents their ideas, all the participants will give feedback about the correct category. Each idea will be placed on the appropriate sheet in an unobstructed way. The next group then presents their ideas. If an idea is similar to one presented earlier, it should be affixed to the first idea at the bottom of the sheet. This process continues until all groups have presented their best ideas to accomplish the objectives. At the end, all ideas will be listed. Ideas that were generated by multiple groups will also be visibly shown.

Each participant is then given 12 dots. Each participant is asked to signify which items are the most significant by putting on three dots per category, with no more than one dot on any suggestion. Next, each person is given three dots of another color. The three dots can go anywhere, but again, only one dot is allowed per item.

Volunteers count the number of both colored dots and generate charts with the findings. The items with the most dots of the first color are rewritten in a new chart with the highest number of dots on down. Create a bar chart to indicate the number of dots each item received. On a separate chart, the items of the other color dot should be listed in a similar fashion. Post the results in front of the entire group. Now give each person three dots again and ask each person to vote by placing their dots on the items that each person deems most important. Again, each person can only place one dot on any item. Then, on the sheet that shows the tally of the first 3-dot exercise, each person is allowed to vote again on those items. But, for this final vote, each person can place as many of his or her three dots as they wish on any item.

Volunteers then again tally the dots and create a list of the top 3-4 items per agenda topic. Usually the result will show a clear demarcation between the highest priorities per item and the rest of the list. This signifies that a few priorities, when focused on, will yield a more effective result than focusing on a huge field of agenda items. Time: about one hour.

Action Planning

Now each group will focus on the steps needed to implement the top 3-4 ideas per category topic. Groups should be reconfigured at this point to best match up with the category that they desire to promote. Depending on the number of people present, each group may be asked to assume responsibility for one item on another list or, if there are many people participating, some groups could deal with 1-3 priority items. Each group should generate a new chart for each priority item. The headings of the column are: strategy, time frame, responsible parties and cost. Start with the first step and work through each area. Take about 45 minutes, and then have each group present their findings to the entire group. Time: about one hour.

This process will create a sense of team unity because the ideas that are chosen are the ones that the majority of participants have consistently chosen. It creates momentum on the issues of general consensus. Someone from the club should prepare a summary of the group exercise. Another meeting can be set to follow up on initiatives and proposals.

Most of us have been involved in groups or clubs where one person puts forward the agenda. When others don’t support those ideas, the result is struggling clubs. Even in cases in which one person is the private owner of a club, this exercise can help generate volunteers and show the club owner the direction desired by club members.

I was very pleased to discover in my group that many of our ideas would cost almost nothing to implement. It was very encouraging to have so many new ideas that could help us advance USATT without adding to our expenses. Another group, however, the one focusing on athlete development, presented a multi-million dollar expense list. The Board will review and consider our findings from the Performance-Based Assessment as we set the 2003 budget.

Clubs can follow up by creating a written strategy, including a triangular-shaped diagram showing at the top level the club’s vision, then the club’s mission at the second level, followed by about four goals on the third level, and listing about five initiatives along the base of the triangle. That diagram could then be posted in the club.

USATT could publish some of the club’s strategic plans as a means of sharing and generating best practices in the interest of the overall growth of our sport. Please forward your results to me if your club does this exercise. Let’s keep ourselves focused on working together, building up our association and achieving success.

Election

As this issue goes to print, a space is being reserved for the election results. Congratulations to the winners!