President's Report

November/December 2005

By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

As we head into the end of the year, I’d like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I also look forward to visiting with
attendees at the North American Team Championships and US Nationals.

In this "association primer series," I will summarize the Board discussions that took place at our September meeting. USATT Treasurer Tong Lee has provided a separate report covering USATT's finances.

As I reported in the last President’s Report, the USOC had forwarded to all national governing bodies a proposed new set of Bylaws. Chris Vadala, the USOC Sports Partnership Director whose portfolio includes table tennis, presented an overview of the USOC’s objectives. There were 10 points:

1. The Board alone should be solely responsible for the governance of the association.

2. The Board size should be 7-12 members. (Ours has 13 members.)

3. Among the Board members, 20% should be independent directors and 20% should be athlete representatives.

4. Board terms should be staggered.

5. There should be at least these committees: Audit, Compensation, Nominating, Governance, Ethics & Disciplinary. (Some may be combined.)

6. The number of committees and number of members on each committee should be minimal.

7. The role of staff and the Board should be clearly defined to enable staff to manage day-to-day business.

8. Transparency is required so that USATT members, the USOC, and the general public have confidence in association operations.

9. The association should follow best practices.

10. The association should comply with all requirements of the USOC.

The Board agreed to formally take up the proposed new set of Bylaws at our November meeting. To facilitate adoption of the Bylaws so that we can take either all of the language of various provisions, or modify it slightly, we passed a motion to be able to do so.

Robert Blackwell presented an overview of the concepts contained in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins and the Board agreed to embrace the concepts. In brief, those concepts are: getting the right people, then deciding what to do; confronting the brutal facts; and the hedgehog concept (understanding what you can be the best at). Robert Blackwell and Larry Hodges presented initial findings on how to reduce the attrition of USATT members.

A year ago the Board set 5 quadrennial objectives in addition to the High Performance Plan objectives. Here is a brief review of each one along with a short status report:

1. Improve USATT Marketing: In response to recent USATT-ITTF meetings, our Board decided to invite a representative of the ITTF marketing division, TMS, to make a presentation at an upcoming Board meeting. The ITTF has successfully created its own marketing division and is interested in helping USATT achieve its marketing objectives. The Executive Director has asked for funding for a marketing position to help him to seek sponsorship and to promote and coordinate marketing initiatives.

2. Form State Associations: This process is still underway. The Board heard a proposal from NATT to create customized association software that would help automate many membership services and could be utilized by r state associations to help them to grow. Doru Gheorghe later added that state associations will play an integral role in developing our elite athlete pipeline.

3. Expand the USATT League: NATT made a proposal to promote the USATT League. A California league started by Shashin Shodhan has also had good success. Each team participating has a designated sponsor. Further proposals to expand on that league are forthcoming.

4. Get the Magazine on the Newsstands: This has already been accomplished, and initial sales are encouraging. If our sales continue to do well, USATT can expect broader newsstand exposure.

5. Focus on Women’s Development: The Women’s Development Committee, chaired by Emilia Gheorghe, is working on a number of activities, primarily aimed at increasing youth participation and elite development.

According to Doru Gheorghe, he is keeping the USOC informed of USATT’s progress with the High Performance Plan items. I want to acknowledge the special assistance that was provided by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission and the Palm Beach County Sport’s Institute’s Community Olympic Development Program for all logistical support for the junior and cadet training camp held just after the U.S. Open.

The Board also heard a presentation from Christian Lillieroos, who was representing the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association. NCTTA wishes to be recognized as an affiliate of USATT. Consequently, we are working on developing a proposal that would be feasible. I wish to congratulate NCTTA for the enormous number of accomplishments it has achieved over the past several years. I also recently had the opportunity to visit Texas Wesleyan University and to meet with its president, Dr. Hal Jeffcoat. On behalf of USATT, I thanked him for his many contributions. Please read his article in this issue explaining how he decided to bring table tennis to TWU. I hope that his piece will help others to approach their own institutions seeking support for our sport. Many thanks to all of the other contributors to this issue’s collegiate theme.

Killerspin requested, and the Board approved, the nullification of the remainder of the Licensing and Sponsorship Agreement. We will seek new ways to collaborate.

The Board will hold its second meeting of the year on November 11-12 in Colorado Springs. The November meeting is usually known as the Budget Meeting because the budget for the following year gets set. We hope to know prior to the meeting what funding, if any, the USOC will provide in 2006.

USATT has staggered elections and 2006 will be another election year. Because we will take up the USOC proposed Bylaws, we will soon know how that will impact the 2006 elections. According to the proposed changes, in addition to the two athlete representatives and two-three proposed independent directors, there would be other Board members as follows: A Coach Director would be voted on by USATT coaches. A Referee (Officials) Director would be elected by the officials. Grassroots Directors/State Association Directors would be chosen by their regions. And an Affiliated Organization Director would be chosen by the affiliated organizations. The only officer of the association would be the Chairman of the Board, now known as the president. The Chairman of the Board would be selected by the Board members. The term of the Chairman of the Board would be for two years. In case of a vacancy, the Board would then select a new Chairman of the Board. The Chief Executive Officer, now known as the Executive Director, would appoint a staff member to serve as the Corporate Secretary. Long-time members can see that this proposal would produce quite a shift in the Board representation. Please see my online President’s Report at www.usatt.org to view the entire proposal. The USOC decided to develop model Bylaws when it took over USA Taekwondo and these proposals are essentially what that association adopted. Should these provisions be adopted, there will be an opportunity for many people to seek a USATT Board position. We will make a special announcement on our website and dedicate special space in the next magazine to keep everyone informed about the election changes.

Again, I wish everyone a happy holiday season and I look forward to the many interactions I’ll have with event attendees at the North American Team Championships and the U.S. Closed.