Executive Director's Report

By Teodore "Doru" Gheorghe

Now that the U.S. Open is over and we are getting ready for the Nationals, I would like to congratulate all the winners for their success, and all other participants for their support and for being a part of this event.

Many thanks to Richard Lee and his NATT crew, and all the volunteers, umpires, officials and USATT staff for their dedication and hard work to make this tournament happen.

Last but not least I would like to thank our sponsors Butterfly, Nittaku, Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center, Florida Sports Foundation, Marina Marriott Hotel and especially all the people behind these names who helped organize this event.

I would like to thank all of you – both those who congratulated us and those who complained. We learn a lot from complaints, and some of the complaints are valid. We will try to correct what was wrong and improve it in the upcoming Nationals and further tournaments.

The 2004 Olympic Selection Procedure is online at www.usatt.org. Those of you who are interested in participating in the Olympic Trials should read it over carefully and send in the entry with all documentation before the deadline. We will try to choose the best location to host the Trials. If you have any questions about the procedures, please contact me at ed@usatt.org or 719-866-4583.

The USATT Strategic Plan will be submitted to USOC for approval by September 1, 2003. After the plan is approved, we will implement the plan.

USATT recently nominated several new Committee Chairmen and established several new committees. By the end of the year we plan to have all committee structures in place.

We established an informational system that improves the flow of information between the committees and the Board of Directors. This system will allow each committee to be better informed when they make a decision.

The Elite Athlete Committee has reallocated the budget and the savings from the Oakbrook contract into new training camps and competitions. Besides the ones already approved, our elite athletes will participate in the Canadian Junior Open, an ITTF Junior Camp in Canada, a Cadet Junior Camp in Canada, the North American Team Championships, and a Training Camp for our junior team before the Worlds.

The USATT League will be running by the time you read this, thanks to Paddle Palace and Stiga/Escalade. Larry Hodges and Robert Mayer are working on this. (See article in this issue.) We hope that this program will bring more enthusiastic table tennis players to our family.

We are in the process of developing a revenue generation program based on incentives for participating individuals or companies. Individuals or specialized companies willing to help USATT and make some money should contact me by sending their resume to USATT or e-mail it to ed@usatt.org.

We are working on improving our web page and our services to the membership. If you have any suggestions please let us know by contacting Tommy Perkins at programs@usatt.org or Chris McCartney at admin@usatt.org.

I would like to thank those of you who wrote me following my request in my previous report. I’ll consider your ideas and try to develop and implement the ones that fit into our strategic plan. I may get back to you in the near future with questions regarding your ideas.

I want to encourage more of you that really want to help to write me and give your thoughts about what we should do and how we should do it, to make our Association better and stronger.