President's Report

September/October 2004
By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

The USATT Board met in Colorado Springs on June 18-19.  Since I try to share some information about the internal workings of USATT in every president’s report, I will elaborate on what happens at Board meetings during this “association primer series” as well as share some of the highlights of the meeting.

The meetings, which take place twice a year, begin on Friday evenings.  In the call to order, all of the attendees briefly introduce themselves.  Besides Board members and staff, invited guests and visiting USATT members often attend these meetings. 

The next order of business is reports.  In the President’s Report, I talk about recent representations on behalf of USATT and the state of our association.  I was pleased to summarize the many accomplishments USATT had achieved since the last Board meeting.

During Tong Lee’s Treasurer’s Report, we also heard from USATT’s auditor, Ken Waugh.  He was very impressed by the state of USATT’s finances, the internal controls put in place by Deborah Gray and the smooth transition of accounting responsibilities to Carolyn Van Der Wege.  Ken presented the audit of our 2003 IRS Form 990 and stated that USATT’s reserves were now at a healthy $294,000. 

Jimmy McClure, USATT’s veteran USOC Board member, had just concluded 21 years of service due to the USOC’s internal restructuring that resulted in the dissolution of the former Board.  Chris Vadala, the Sports Partnership Director who serves as USATT’s primary contact with the USOC, elaborated on the expected new direction of the USOC, which is that the staff will carry on all primary USOC functions other than Audit, Compensation Review, Nominating/Governance and Ethics.  

The USOC is expected to disband its former committee-level activities, such as the review process conducted by the USOC’s Membership & Credentials Committee.  Chris stated that the concerns he had previously shared with us, for example, about USATT’s managerial capabilities, no longer applied.  Chris echoed Ken Waugh’s praise for the staff’s professionalism and spirit of cooperation. 

Next on the agenda was the Executive Director’s Report.  Doru had worked very hard preparing the High Performance Plan for the next Olympic quadrennium based on our previously-submitted Strategic Plan.  The Board was duly impressed by Doru’s thorough grasp of all of the competitive elements contained in the plan.  With the resolution of many of our association’s previous challenges, USATT is poised to move aggressively ahead in support of our athletes. While there was the type of discussion that always springs up when such innovative proposals are discussed, the Board eventually agreed to commit to the course Doru had outlined.

The meeting closed Friday and opened Saturday in Executive Session.  Executive Sessions are considered “closed-door,” private Board sessions and usually are kept confidential because of proprietary or sensitive legal discussions.   Under USATT’s General Counsel arrangement with the Washington, DC law firm of Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville, P.C., USATT has benefited from receiving hundreds of hours of pro bono legal service.  

The Board received a second report from Doru.  He previewed and/or reviewed a number of the latest day-to-day details of the association – topics such as the status of our national tournaments, staffing, Olympic preparation, membership services and ratings.

Almost every committee had furnished reports and we reviewed the major points presented by each of the chairs.  Board members who also chair committees are uniquely-situated to give verbal reports, so we heard from Barney Reed, Dr. Wang and Willy Leparulo about their committee’s activities and initiatives. 

Like all national governing bodies, USATT has an appointed technical liaison to New York City for their 2012 Olympic bid.  George Brathwaite gave us a report highlighting his recent interaction with them.

Larry Hodges, the jack-of-all-trades within our association, provided the Board with an update on the magazine, USATT League, website, USATT forum and club programs.    

Then the Board took up several motions.  Since this was the last meeting before the election, there were a number of campaign-related issues and By-Law changes taken up.

 Members can always access full information about meetings on USATT’s website, www.usatt.org. Motions made and the resultant votes usually appear within just days of meetings.  Minutes are put online about a month after meetings. 

Budgets are set for the following year during the fall meeting, usually held each November.  During those meetings USATT’s finances are the main topic of discussion.

USATT members are always welcome to attend meetings (except during the executive sessions).  It would be ideal to be able to hold meetings at various locations throughout the country to provide greater access for our members, but the proximity of our own as well as USOC staff members makes Colorado Springs the most practical location. 

U.S. Open

The Board meeting took place just about 10 days prior to the U.S. Open.  As I reported previously, USATT expected to face many new challenges because of the move to Chicago.  I’ll defer to Doru’s report in the next issue for more details about the U.S. Open. 

Olympics

USATT was pleased to qualify seven of our athletes.  At the end of July USATT finally received the long-awaited field-of-play credential for Men’s Coach Dan Seemiller.  Unfortunately, Team Leader Bob Fox was unable to go due to a health issue.  Bob and Dan worked hard to assume team leader responsibilities.  Since this issue is being printed before the Olympics, but will be delivered after the Olympics, I hope that everyone was able to watch lots of table tennis coverage and that USATT’s team members had a successful and safe experience. 

USATT’s High Performance Director

Shortly after the Olympics, USATT expects to welcome Ben Grigore as USATT’s first-ever High Performance Director.  Upon his arrival, USATT will release more information about him, his credentials and action plans. 

Fall Election

Then, heading into the fall, the USOC will oversee USATT’s 2004 election.  Thanks to Nominating & Elections Committee Chair Ross Brown and the committee members for their work preparing for the election. 

Thanks to all of you who are contributing so many volunteer hours to USATT!