President's Report

January/February 2006

By Sheri Soderberg Pittman

According to Chinese astrology, 2006 is the Year of the Dog.  In America, we say that a dog is man’s best friend.  In USA Table Tennis, clubs should be the association’s best friend.  So, I’m declaring 2006 the Year of the Clubs!  In this “association primer series” you’ll learn more about why clubs are dear to my heart and why clubs will be my focus for the rest of my term as president. 

Many of you probably don’t know that my passion for table tennis stems from the great experiences I had at my local club as I was growing up.  Old-timers may fondly remember Magoo’s.  The owner, former USATT President Charlie Disney, later renamed it Disney’s.  It was an apt name, turns out, because, to me, it made my whole world magical and fun.  Outside of school, my brothers and I practically lived there.  Later, Charlie Disney would chuckle that he “brought up the Soderbergs.” 

What made the club so magical and fun?  There were lots of programs for kids.  We played in junior leagues, high school leagues and socialized together.  The tournaments had lots of age classifications: U13, U5, U17.  Of course, there were adult leagues and programs too.  We always participated in special training camps over Christmas and in the summer.  Eventually a lot of the boys would challenge me.  They’d ask, “What are you doing?  Can’t you see girls don’t belong here?”  I had five brothers.  I was used to boys, so being in that type of environment didn’t faze me.  Gradually, though, I started shifting my attention away from the “field of play” table to the other surrounding tables – the tournament control table, the writing tables, the common area tables.  I loved to offer administrative support, to write about table tennis, and to talk with the people who shared the same love of the sport.       

As I said, we had so much fun.  We’d travel as a caravan from Minneapolis to attend tournaments in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.  For the USOTC’s, the club would charter a Greyhound-type of bus to Detroit.  When the club relocated and needed lots of elbow grease, we all pitched in.  We all learned along the way how to make tournament draws, how to behave and how to work together.   We learned to treat newcomers practically like royalty.  And that’s how our club expanded and excelled.  We got to have more fun with people who got to share in this magical environment we’d created together.  There was an infrastructure in place and everything worked out well.

At the backdrop of all this was Ping Pong Diplomacy.  From the start, I felt pulled in to every aspect of our sport.  Even at the age of 11 or 12, I knew that this was the sport for me.  For life.  No question.  So I always strived to understand table tennis at all levels – locally, nationally and internationally.

My first position on the Board was from 1993-1996.  How did that come to be? 

For one thing, my first club had produced a series of USATT officers – Charlie Disney, Gus Kennedy and Sheila O’Dougherty.  So I always had a sense of what the national association was doing.

Then, during the early 1990s, at this point with 20 years into the sport, I started contributing lots of articles about the top players in the world.  I’d met a few of them in the late 1980s, after I’d returned from my service in the Peace Corps.  Houshang Bozorgzadeh, the coach of my great childhood friend, Johnny Stillions, was our national team manager.  He knew lots of foreign players, so he introduced me to some of them.  Since I had lived in a French-speaking country, it was fun to speak in French to the current top stars Jean-Philippe Gatien and Jean-Michel Saive.   Later I asked myself, why aren’t there articles about them in Table Tennis Topics (which our national magazine was called then)?  So, in 1990, I asked co-editors Tim Boggan and Skott Bakke if they’d be interested in such articles.  My contributions were accepted and often were the magazine’s cover story. 

As I started writing more and more, people would approach me and ask me if I would write about different subjects, what my opinion was on different things, and, finally, whether I would be interested in being involved in policy matters.  I always resisted considering running until I faced the death of my mom toward the end of 1992.  I was absolutely broken hearted by the prospect of losing her, so I decided that the time was right to devote more of my attention to our national association.

When my term was nearing expiration in 1996, I was disillusioned.  The experience had not been a good one.  Besides, at that point, I was about to serve in a position at the Atlanta Olympics and I didn’t want to have any conflicts of interest.  But as a Board member from 1993-1996, I’d received the ITTF’s Bulletin.  Ochiro Ogimura had been the ITTF president during much of that time and he would frequently write about his vision for the United States.  Every time I read what he’d written, I felt his words so powerfully in my heart.  Like him, I always believe that the United States has the potential to become a world leader in our sport.  

By 1998, I decided to run again.  Since 1999, I have served as USATT president.  My term will run out after the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.  It’s been a hard, but also a rewarding, road.  Like many USATT presidents before me, I have had my share of ups and downs.  But the work of transforming our association’s culture has always been the calling that keeps me motivated. 

All of the presidents before me faced chronic challenges.  Decades of factional squabbling, association dysfunction and the perpetual lack of resources has “burned out” many of our best contributors and has caused membership attrition.  The USOC isn’t pleased by our lack of Olympic medal production; therefore, our opportunities and resource allocation within the USOC reflect our presumed medal potential.  And our lack of resources perpetuates the cycle.  Even within our association, many of our members frequent Internet chat rooms and forums where they spread rumors and amuse themselves by criticizing, instead of committing themselves to, USATT.  Over the past several years, during my term, USATT has made many improvements in the areas of ratings, our magazine, professionalizing tournaments, the creation of a league, etc.  But there is so much more to accomplish, especially if we’re committed to total organizational transformation!

In the spring of 2005 I became aware of a worldwide company whose mission is transformation.  It’s called Landmark Education.  I looked it up on the Internet and found their website, www.landmarkforum.com.  I was impressed by the organization’s stand for personal and organizational transformation.  As I navigated myself through the website, I found information about their local office.  I called them and registered for their initial course, the Landmark Forum.  Going through their program has made a huge difference in my leadership capabilities.  It has reinvigorated me.  I recommend this course to everyone.  Please consult their website or feel free to contact me if you need more information about Landmark Education. 

One of the questions Landmark asks as an inquiry is, “What is missing the presence of which would make a difference?”  Surely many things are missing in our organization or we’d be just where we want to be.  So I asked some people to meet with me to really look into this question.  The answer we decided at the general level was groups of people working well together for the success of our sport, and, more specifically, affinity between the clubs and USATT.  What we mean by that is a true relationship between the two that would create mutually beneficial results.  I thank Christian Lillieroos, Mitch Seidenfeld, Aly Salam, Jasna Reed and Khoa Nguyen for their contributions and participation in that discussion.  Over the next few months, I will have the opportunity to further explain the many ideas that we came up with.  But the point is this: if everyone had a magical sense of the sport, the way I did at my local club, our association would look a lot different.  Tournaments would be more fun. Our membership growth would spiral upward and we’d be able to find the resources to accomplish our goals.

So, I’m asking you now whether you’ll also commit to USATT’s transformation.  I’m asking you to start by communicating your thoughts and your needs.  Please e-mail your comments and feedback to me at sheripittman@yahoo.com.

With the remaining space, I’d like to provide you with some updates.

2006 Election and USOC Proposed Bylaws

USATT has received a USOC proposal that would substantially impact our governance structure including our Board’s composition, which will affect future elections.  At the Board’s final meeting in 2006, despite nearly four month’s advance notice, not enough Board members were present to pass any changes to the Bylaws.  Those present agreed with the items that were enumerated by our USOC liaison at the previous meeting and presented in my last president’s report.  As soon as the Board decides what to adopt, including the transition process, we will post that information at www.usatt.org.  You may also find the proposed changes on our website.       

USOC Resource Allocation

The Board approved USATT’s 2006 budget.  At the time we still had not been informed of the USOC resource allocation for our elite athlete programs.  Since then, the USOC has informed us that they will provide USATT with about $175,000.  So we are making some budgetary adjustments and should be able to publish the final budget shortly.    

USATT Regional Training Center

The Board voted to designate the New York International Training Center as our first Regional Training Center.  In doing so, the Board followed the recommendation of both the Regional Training Center Committee and the Elite Athlete Committee.     

2006 World Championships

Congratulations to the 2006 National Team!  If you are interested in attending the World Championships as a spectator, please contact USATT headquarters.

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2006.  And I am looking forward to working together for the total transformation of USA Table Tennis!   I am committed to you all having a fun and magical experience in our sport.