President's Report

By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

Doru Gheorghe has now served as executive director for just over six months. During this short time, he has brought the state of the association back to stability. In consultation with the Elite Athlete Committee and the USATT Board, Doru drafted USATT’s developmental strategic plan and submitted it to the USOC Sports Partnership team overseeing USATT.

Recently USATT had a follow-up meeting with the USOC Membership & Credentials Committee. Our representatives fully responded to their questions. During this periodic scrutiny by the USOC, we became aware that some of our members had spread rumors to them of mismanagement and financial shenanigans. The review has given us an opportunity to be evaluated by a fair, unbiased, and competent panel.

By now all members should have received an entry form for the 2003 National Championships. I thank Mr. Santos Shih for donating $2,000 per year for the next five years to prize money for Junior and Cadet events. I wish to encourage all members to generously donate to their favorite cause(s) such as the National Teams, Paralympic Team, Youth Programs and to consider providing supplementary prize money for tournament events.

During a business trip to Colorado Springs a couple of weeks ago, I visited our headquarters. The staff is optimistic and is beginning to fulfill my often-stated goal: a staff-driven association. For me, this transformation was particularly timely. I lost my sister Noel Evans to cancer on 9/12/03. For the several weeks prior to her passing away, I was able to spend precious time with her, knowing that staff could handle just about anything at a time when my sister needed me most. I thank my many table tennis friends for not only providing support to USATT during that time, but also to me and the Soderberg family.