MINUTES
MINUTES
Board of Directors Meeting
Colorado Springs, CO
May 10-11, 2002
Friday, May 10, 2002
The Meeting—held in the Gold Room of the
USOC Athlete Center at Colorado Springs—was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by
President Sheri Pittman (SP). Present for all or part of the Meeting were Board
members Li Ai (LA), Tawny Banh (TAWNY), Tim Boggan (TB), George Brathwaite (GB),
Tong Lee (TL), Jimmy McClure (JM), Hank McCoullum (HM), Barney Reed (BR), Todd
Sweeris (TS), Dennis Taylor (DT), and Jiing Wang (JW). Also present were USATT
Operations Director Margaret Smith and USA
Table Tennis Editor Larry Hodges. Our
Auditor, Ken Waugh, was there in person to present his Report. Richard Lee and
Fong Hsu arrived to urge progress in their earlier Matchpoint Software and
Outsourcing the Nationals proposals to the Board. Absent: Robert Mayer (whose
wife had recently given birth to their first child).
ITEM #1. All Board members were asked to sign the following forms: Acknowledgement of Receipt and Understanding of USA Table Tennis Statement of Principles on Ethical Behavior and Conflict of Interest; Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement; and Code of Ethics Pledge.
Sheri and Tim explained
table tennis involvements they had that the Board did not consider Conflicts of
Interest.
ITEM #2. It was agreed that the Mar.18 Teleconference Minutes be subject to legal review and our approval of them delayed.
ITEM #3.
Prompted in part by Ray B. Essick’s unprecedently abrupt resignation as
Executive Director, Sheri read her well-received President’s Report to the
Board. She thanked Ray for his direction, stressed the need for Association
members to be positive not negative, unified not divisive, and urged, “as USOC
CEO Lloyd Ward requested,” that we on the Board “review our targets, engage
in fact finding, brainstorm, and focus on solutions.”
ITEM #4. Auditor
Waugh, who services 17 USOC NGBs, gave his Report for the year ending Dec. 31,
2001. Our financial records had to reconstructed, and were, before his Audit.
Waugh said that the problem was that in 2001 our Association “used two
different employees as accountants, neither of whom had the necessary education
or experience to perform the job requirements.” However, our current
accountant, Deborah Gray, is a professional and she put our books in order prior
to the Audit. Thus, from now on, the Board can expect to receive timely and
accurate financial reports. On a question by Todd Sweeris, Waugh stated that our
association should have a cash reserve of $400,000, and he suggested that we set
a 5-year period to achieve this objective. After his presentation the Board
acted on…
MOTION 1: Moved that we accept Auditor Waugh’s Report.
Proposed by Jimmy McClure, seconded by Hank McCoullum.
Passed: 11-0-0 (LA absent).
ITEM #5. Tong
presented his detailed (May 10, 2002) Treasurer’s Report. It stressed the
accuracy of our Budgeted Income and Expense for Jan. through Dec., 2001 that
resulted in a Net Income of $27.34.
ITEM #6. Richard Lee and Fong Hsu gave Board members an Update of their Matchpoint Software proposal, and, as we’d previously endorsed the concept, they urged us “to commit, today, to the purchase agreement and its terms, pending the staff approval of the software.” A definitive agreement “today” proved elusive, for though everyone recognized that Fran Boardman’s recommendation of the software was essential, they also had to consider Operations Director Margaret Smith’s strongly felt position—that Fran needed what at the moment she didn’t have, a “total comfort level to test the software.” Consequently, after some difficulty in wording, the Board arrived at…
MOTION 2: Moved that USATT purchase and adopt Matchpoint software 90 days from the present, conditioned upon the reasonable mutual satisfaction of software operations of USATT staff and NATT, reasonable resolution of any remaining details in the composite of direct purchase proposals made by NATT, and negotiation of a reasonable mutually acceptable service contract.”
Proposed by Dennis Taylor, seconded by Todd Sweeris.
Passed: 11-0-0 (LA absent).
ITEM #7. Regarding Richard and Fong’s changes in their earlier proposal to outsource our National Championships, the Board agreed to…
MOTION 3: Moved that the Board recommend the development of a mutually agreeable plan for Matchpoint Software to outsource the National’s.
Proposed by Todd Sweeris, seconded by Tim Boggan.
Passed: 10-0-1 (LA absent).
Abstain: DT.
ITEM #8. Jimmy McClure gave his USOC Report. The consensus of Jimmy’s round-table discussion group was that the USOC Board of Directors shouldn’t be diminished—that every NGB should be represented, and that all decisions made must be good for all sports. However, the 24-member Executive Committee was thought to be too large and too expensive to maintain, and should be reduced in half. Since there was no chance to have the Olympic Games in the U.S. in the next 10 years, the thought was to have mini-Olympics in various cities, showcasing maybe six sports for 2-3 weeks in each city. In the last year the USOC Foundation broke about even financially, whereas our USATT Foundation made 6% on its money.
ITEM #9. George Brathwaite gave his Northeast Region League Report—spoke of how successful the matches (held in conjunction with two tournaments) have been so far, and how he hopes for league expansion.
ITEM #10. Larry Hodges reported that the necessary software for his Club League Program is almost ready. He’s pleased to say that advertisers are happy with the magazine, and that hits on our website have doubled this year as opposed to last.
ITEM #11. Operations Director Margaret Smith in her report stressed that the Office Staff needs help, is overworked. She pointed out that the move to our new Headquarters location downtown couldn’t come at a worse time, for it will likely be just before our U.S. Open. Margaret warned that, though the USOC is paying for the needed new roof, it may well cost us $10,000 to make the necessary renovations to USATT’s allocated office space in the building.
ITEM #12. Barney Reed, Jr.’s suspension, regarding which no appeal is possible, necessitates that the Board write a letter showing our agreement with the USADA result. The suspension brings unresolved problems—whether it impacts only Barney, or those he played with and against (their results, their awards). It was hoped we could soon bring closure to these problems.
ITEM #13. Tawny, Todd, and Li Ai, our Athlete Representatives, spoke briefly of Jr. Cadet Trials, Regional Training Centers, Elite Athletes, and the opportunity of four of our young players to go for training at the Butterfly Dohjo in Tokyo.
ITEM #14. Barney Reed, as Chair of our
USTTA/Chula Vista Olympic Training Center Committee, reported that we certainly
want to partner with the USOC in expanding the Chula Vista facilities. As we can
see from Barney’s Report, in just the last year the Committee has accomplished
much.
MOTION 4: Moved that players in State Championships need only be domiciled in that state, not citizens.
Proposed by Hank McCoullum, seconded by Jimmy McClure.
Passed: 11-1-0.
In Favor: LA, TAWNEY, TB, GB, TL, JM, HM, SP, BR, TS, JW.
Opposed: DT.
ITEM #16. Hank called attention to some conflicting wording in Chapter 18, Section 1 (“Eligibility”) of our USATT Handbook.
ITEM #17. On receiving Christian Lillieroos’s Request that the Board recognize the NCTTA as the US National Governing Body for Intercollegiate Team Table Tennis, and a further request that the USTTA contribute $10,000 to the Texas Wesleyan University Varsity Table Tennis Foundation, Hank McCoullum initiated a discussion. The general feeling of the Board was that USATT is the national governing body of the sport of table tennis, and it probably does not have the authority to recognize NCTTA as the National Governing Body for Intercollegiate Team Table Tennis, even if it wanted to. However, Sheri suggested that USATT begin formal discussion with the NCTTA to explore how the two parties could work together to promote collegiate table tennis. It was also the general feeling that it was not an appropriate time for the Board to consider a request that USATT contribute $10,000 to the Texas Weslayan University Varsity Table Tennis Foundation. There was no formal motion to proceed after the discussion.
ITEM #18. Sheri handed out a pyramidic chart she’d made up showing the grassroots development focus of the Palm Beach County Sports Institute. Their Community Olympic Development Program (see attached USOC/U.S. Canoe and Kayak Agreement of analogous interest to USATT) seeks to attract “local community funding through grants and sponsorships.”
ITEM #19. Jimmy McClure urged closure to the Aly Salam/Ray Cavicchio charges.
Saturday, May 11, 2002
Saturday’s session--again held in the Gold Room--was called to order by President Pittman at 9:00 a.m. Present for all or part of the Meeting were Board members Li Ai (LA), Tawny Banh (TAWNY), Tim Boggan (TB), George Brathwaite (GB), Tong Lee (TL), Jimmy McClure (JM), Barney Reed (BR), Todd Sweeris (TS), Dennis Taylor (DT), and Jiing Wang (JW). USATT Editor Larry Hodges again attended the complete session. Scott Preiss made a brief appearance to offer his and his wife’s liaison services with the USOC. Absent: Hank McCoullum, Robert Mayer.
Ray B. Essick, though in office only momentarily as it were, produced a packet of papers which he’d intended to use at this Meeting, detailing how, in his view, the USATT was in a crisis position, and what the Board might best do about it. His conclusion: give him as Executive Director as much authority as possible, and go “with the USOC and cooperate with them in every way possible.”
Of course, as Tim noted, for at least a quarter of a century much of Ray’s sense of self-worth, his very identity, has been connected with his exceptional success in USOC-related activities as they pertain to Swimming. Table Tennis, as he soon discovered, was a highly individualized, “Darwinian” sport that offered him hassles because, for one thing, the Board members are no mere transient volunteers—they, too, have their self-worth, their identities tied up in Sport. And they are not all so eager to see Table Tennis subsumed into the corporate team structure of the Olympic “family.” Ray was a USOC “soldier.” He knew exactly what he wanted to do with our Association, if he could be allowed to do it. He wanted to reduce volunteer authority (those most knowledgeable about the Sport) in favor of E.D.-directed and trained staff authority (“Staff is encouraged to be involved in the leadership of committee projects”…”As Executive Director, I will determine what an employee’s job will consist of and what will be added or subtracted for that position”).
He professed surprise that some table tennis volunteers would say, in effect, “What’s in it for me?” Umpires wanted to be paid! Wouldn’t it be an honor to umpire matches? But of course, like any dedicated worker, and especially one who understandably didn’t want to be micromanaged, Ray, very much aware of Balance of Power difficulties, of the Division of Power he favored among Volunteer Driven and Staff-Driven Authority, surely asked himself, “What’s in it for me?” Answer: not enough…joy, soul satisfaction in trying to shape up an Association at least somewhat resistant to his vision.
Although Ray quickly decided that he and the USTTA were not, as he put it, “ a good mix,” Sheri and indeed the Board felt that, in setting a Saturday Agenda following USOC CEO Lloyd Ward’s request that we “review our targets, engage in fact finding, brainstorm, and focus on solutions,” we could use Ray’s packeted presentation as our focal point. After all, he’d proven to be a very capable fellow, and had he persisted, been here in person, he might have won all of us over to at least give him a chance to do things his way. Page after page of this presentation, whether we agreed with it, or not, would make us think, would provide us with a Reality Check for where presently our Association was. As Ray put it, our Board, “like an alcoholic,” had to admit that there was a problem. I myself didn’t appreciate the analogy, didn’t think the USATT, unable to move the Sport for 70 years with or without the USOC, was into self-obliteration. The Sport had a history of people who cared—there were and still are hundreds of responsible, conscientious workers keeping the lines of communication open.
However, undeniably, as Ray emphasized, the USATT continues to have areas of concern, chief of which are:. (1) Financial: No reserves. Todd, as a CPA, emphasized that we’ve not been putting money away as a non-profit organization should, that, as Ray urged, we have to plan on acquiring a surplus. But the Americas Teams money we’d counted on (from the 32 sports Internet Collaborative we joined) is delayed, and new expenditures loom in building repairs and ranking expenses.
(2) Technical: Since we have no Olympic medal hopes in the foreseeable future, we have a low prestige position with the USOC and can’t hope to get more than the minimum basic funds. Do we have any better suggestions than (to joke?) “Let’s ‘adopt’ promising 12-year-old Chinese kids” or “Have China rent us a medalist or two”? We certainly want to support the best of our youngest players, concentrate our attention on them, and yet we can’t just abandon our current elite players. Ray agrees that we must enter U.S. Teams in the Olympics, the Pan American Games, and the World Championships, and yet he says that we don’t have to enter other elite events. But this is surely to preserve the status quo. In large block letters, taking up a whole page, comes the line, “Being The Best In The USA Isn’t Good Enough.” Ray is telling us this? With all due respect, who’s got delirium tremens? We all know what excellence is—and we know that our players can only be as good as the players they continually play against. To improve, they have to be in the competitive situations of world-class players—that’s a given.
(3) Governance Problem. We have a high administrative turnover—as witness the Executive Directors who have come and gone. However, despite Ray and Margaret’s appraisal, whether we presently have an inadequate Headquarters staff is perhaps debatable—and, with Margaret as Operations Director, we have no immediate plans to hire another Executive Director.
Speaking of facing reality, we have to look directly at the fact that, regardless of our association with the USOC, Table Tennis will likely never be able to compete as a Premier Sport in the U.S. Ray urges that we have to find ways to identify the best table tennis talent. But we have, year after year, identified quite a bit of such talent. Question is, Parents, Children, where do we go from there…to what end?
Those trying to work for the betterment of the USATT have to do the best they can. Barney’s warning that, “If we don’t get off the same track, nothing new will happen” certainly makes sense. Ray’s directive to prioritize, to separate the Association’s Core issues from the non-Core issues was taken to heart by Sheri who, via large sketch sheets filled with Board member suggestions taped on the Meeting Room wall in front of us, engaged in sifting through thoughts on Values, Visions, Missions, Goals, Task Objectives, and Steps involving Action Planning and Team Building.
Through a series of steps, involving individual Board members’ priority choices, we decided on three Core targets. First was Membership Growth. Ray had said that “Increasing membership has little impact on revenue unless a new population is interested.” But he also said that that can’t happen with Television, for the “numbers of people watching a cable broadcast in a slot we could afford is too small to have any impact on increasing membership.” Consequently we were intent on furthering Larry’s concept of Club Leagues and Club Ratings all over the country to gain and hold membership. As an editorial in Topics back in 1948 had said, “The local table tennis club in all communities is the only enduring foundation upon which we can build for the future.” Some suggestions were: to use the USATT magazine and website to disseminate Club information; to give clubs 15% of the membership fee club members pay to become USATT members; to prepare a Membership Manual; and to investigate how other associations increase their membership.
The second Core target Board members picked was Restructuring the Association. Ray felt that USATT Authority was too centralized, that members “out there” have no identification with national programs and can’t get involved. He advised the USATT to consider including “local organizations to conduct the business of the association within certain geographic boundaries.” Such organizations could assist clubs—facilitate their programs, conduct events, help them get new members.
The third Core target was Fiscal Responsibility, with an alert eye to Fiscal Opportunities. We might, for example, find collaborators who can fund programs we offer. And, though it hurts, we may have to budget out some non-Core items….
[At this point Tim had to leave to catch his flight.]
Respectfully submitted.
USATT Secretary,
Tim Boggan
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