USA Table Tennis
Board Teleconference
June 29, 1999

Tuesday, June 29, 1999:

The meeting connected at 7:05 p.m. MST by Sheri Pittman.

Present(proxy): George Brathwaite, Jim Butler, Jeff Davis, Tong Lee, Jimmy McClure, Khoa Nguyen, Sheri Pittman, Barney Reed, Dennis Taylor, Bob Tretheway, Jiing Wang (Sheri Pittman), Acting Executive Director Linda Gleeson, and Corporate Counsel Bart Enoch.

Virginia Sung, the runner-up in balloting for Female National Athlete Representative, served in the capacity of athlete representative. (USOC and USATT bylaws mandate a minimum of 20% athlete representation on Board votes.)

Absent: Diana Gee

(Lily Yip was not present in the capacity as a Board member.)

1. The teleconference took place at the same time as the US Open. Sheri Pittman announced that Lily Yip, Barry Dattel, and Bob Fox are in the room. Several Board members met in a conference room; others participated through the teleconference hook-up.
2. The Grievance Panel concluded that Gao Jun had not established Olympic eligibility by the inception of the National Team Trials for the Pan Am Games. Understanding that to be a requirement for participation, the Grievance Panel has recommended that Gao Jun be removed from the team that will be sent to the Pan Am Games and that she be replaced on the team by Lily Yip. Bart Enoch stressed that USATT needs to establish its position for the pending arbitration hearing – which would be filed by Gao Jun if the Board finds in favor of Lily Yip, or by Lily Yip if the Board does not accept the Grievance Panel’s recommendation.

MOTION 1: Move that the USATT Board uphold and support the decision of the special grievance hearing panel to name Lily Yip as the third member of the USATT team to the Pan Am Games.

Proposed by George Brathwaite; seconded by Jeff Davis.

The special grievance hearing panel (Shonie Aki, Diana Gee, and Derek May) voted to sustain the grievance of Lily Yip, name Ms. Yip to the Pan Am team, and remove Gao Jun from the team, pending the bylaw-mandated hearing with full counsel participation on Ms. Gao’s eligibility.

The primary argument in support of the motion was that the Grievance Panel had considered the issue in-depth and rendered its decision in agreement with Lily Yip. There was also some discussion that the Board should generally defer to committee recommendations.

The primary opposing argument was that the USOC is responsible for the nomination of the US Pan Am Games team. The USOC had sent correspondence to USATT stating that the USOC had reviewed the issue of Gao Jun’s eligibility and had determined that Gao Jun was eligible to represent the United States in the Pan Am Games.

Passed: 9-3

IN FAVOR: GB, JB, JD, TL, JM, KN, BR, VS, BT

opposed: SP, DT, JW.

The meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.

Submitted by Dennis Taylor, Secretary

NOTE: On the same day that USATT reported the result of the teleconference to the USOC, the USOC contacted USA Table Tennis and stated that, in fact (as it turned out), USATT had already submitted our Pan Am Games Team nomination to the USOC in early May. Because of this discovery, the USOC notified us that we had no jurisdiction over the matter and that determinations made by our association were, therefore, moot. The USOC subsequently immediately referred the matter to an arbitrator whose finding would be final and binding. The arbitrator found that Gao Jun was eligible to represent the US in the Pan Am Games under USOC rules and guidelines. Gao Jun represented the US in the Pan Am Games.