President's Report

July/August 2004
By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

I’d like to thank USATT’s athletes, staff, volunteers, supporters and sponsors for excellent cooperation. USATT is doing very well in several areas. I will summarize several recent achievements in this issue’s "association primer series."

As this issue goes to press, the US Open is just around the corner. USATT thanks our title sponsor, Killerspin, for underwriting a large percentage of the costs of the event. Thanks to great input from the Board, USATT General Counsel Dennis Taylor, and Treasurer Tong Lee, Doru has worked with all parties to stage the ITTF Pro Tour and US Open. We look forward to the event and hope to hear a lot of feedback from you, our members, as we start to prepare for future US Opens in collaboration with Killerspin. Moving the event has created several challenges, but we are confident that the team we have in place will continue to increase the professionalism of our events, as we have been able to do incrementally over the past several years.

Doru Gheorghe and the staff are now assuming basically all managerial functions, fulfilling my long-stated goal of having the staff handle day-to-day operations. Doru’s report provides an excellent update of the status of several USATT activities.

USATT will conduct camps before the US Open and the Olympics to prepare our players. We are especially thrilled with Gao Jun’s recent excellent performances.

USATT and the Palm Beach County Sports Institute are about to mark the one-year anniversary of a USOC program. For several years I had been overseeing implementation of the Palm Beach County Community Olympic Development Program. In that capacity, I was able to create an opportunity for USATT to become affiliated with this outstanding USOC program at no cost to USATT.

Coach Zhang Ping, formerly of Tianjin, China, became the CODP’s Table Tennis Administrator/Coach last July. Already he has created programs at four locations, including Florida Atlantic University. Plus, he’s starting three Boys & Girls Club programs and a YMCA program. Coach Ping has the rare credentials of being a national-level coach, ITTF certified umpire and referee as well as being the tournament organizer of a number of Chinese national and ITTF events. See www.pbccodp.com for more information.

I look forward to cooperating with communities interested in creating a CODP offering table tennis. I thank Pam Gerig, the Palm Beach County Sports Commission and Sports Institute’s Executive Director, for her support of USATT. I also thank Alicia McConnell, Tammie Forster and Lori Hamacher of the USOC’s Athlete Development Programs for their professionalism and dedication.

Editor Larry Hodges continues to put together a high-quality magazine. Advertising revenues seem to reach new records almost every issue. The online league program is growing on a daily basis. Ratings are caught up. Volunteer support is swelling. And USATT is probably in its best-ever financial position. As USATT continues to evolve, there are greater needs for resources and you, our members, are doing a great job of stepping forward to help! So I close with words of thanks to our dedicated Board, staff, officials, volunteers, sponsors and supporters at all levels.