USA Table Tennis
Board Informational Meeting
July 4, 1999

Sunday, July 4, 1999:

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. MST by Sheri Pittman.

Present(proxy): George Brathwaite, Tong Lee, Barney Reed, Dennis Taylor, and Acting Executive Director Linda Gleeson.

Absent: Jim Butler, Jeff Davis, Diana Gee, Jimmy McClure, Khoa Nguyen, Bob Tretheway, Jiing Wang, Lily Yip

  1. Sheri Pittman welcomed everyone, including 12 visitors, and explained that this was only an informal meeting for Board members. As such, attendance was not required, and, by agreement, no votes would be taken and no proxies were necessary. The purpose of the meeting was to provide the Board and the membership with an opportunity to exchange information and ideas.
  2. Homer Brown recommended that each Board meeting someone from each region should include a presentation of happenings in a region given by someone from that region. He proceeded to explain how his giving conference presentations in 1997 had developed into his opening a club/business called BumperNets in a major Birmingham, Alabama mall. His work led to his being named the CEO Community Hero for Alabama by the Alabama Business Council. Mr. Brown also requested consideration for placing a regional training center in Birmingham.
  3. Dennis Taylor gave an update on the search for a new Executive Director. At this point, the original list of 57 candidates has been narrowed to nine. At a meeting of the search committee prior to this Board meeting, that list of nine was further narrowed to five finalists who would be invited to interview in Colorado Springs. The names of candidates are still confidential and cannot be released.
  4. Doru Gheorghe spoke on behalf of the national coaches regarding the training schedules of the Men’s and Women’s National Teams for 1999. There were one-week camps prior to the Open and there will be another one-week camp prior to the Pan Am Games. After the Worlds, there will be no other programs until next year.

    5. He also informed the Board that the top 20 (maximum of two per country) in the world rankings would automatically qualify for the next Olympics in addition to a continent’s allotment.

    Sheri Pittman congratulated Mr. Gheorghe on his coaching success since Gao Jun won the gold medal in the North American Women’s Championship held in conjunction with the U.S. Open.

  5. David Williams, chair of the PR/Media Committee, recommended PR/media strategies that would help USATT in its marketing of the sport. The committee’s four areas of focus are: increased coverage of the Open and Nationals, developing tools for clubs and local organizers, developing a new membership offer (with membership kits available at local clubs), and making the Open and National more spectator friendly.

    6. Sheri Pittman asked Mr. Williams to present his recommendations to the Board at the Board’s HPP meeting.

  6. Alan Williams, chair of the Club Development & Membership Services Committee, discussed his committee’s recommendations: a telephone survey of current clubs, creation of a database of state coordinators, intra-club matches leading to leagues, use of USATT letterhead by affiliated clubs for promotional purposes, a publicity kit for clubs, and a loan program that would use a one-time infusion of $10,000 to create a revolving loan fund to help clubs with small capital projects.
  7. Richard Lee presented plans for a North American tour consisting of seven tournaments, five of which would be held in the United States. He requested a long-term sanction for the North American Teams Championship for sponsorship development and to help facilitate the purchase of red flooring, All-Star funding of $1500-2000 per US event for the tour, sanctioning priority for a range of dates for each tournament, and US National Team participation in the tour. The first tour event will be in either late February or early March 2000.
  8. Tone Lee presented the composition of the Budget Committee he will be recommending to the Board for approval. The committee is recommending sponsorship efforts to be concentrated on smaller, ethnically-oriented businesses rather than large corporations.
  9. Sheri Pittman announced upcoming Athlete Development Pipeline and High Performance Plan meetings and the upcoming Board meeting for Strategic Planning.
  10. The May/June issue of the magazine is in the mail. The next issue should be out in the first half of August. The editorship is still under discussion. Dennis Taylor, Chair of the Editorial Board, stated a position that the use of intern editors was unacceptable.
  11. George Brathwaite proposed a "town hall" meeting at the 1999 Nationals.
  12. Sheri Pittman announced that Richard McAfee, as chair of the International Committee, would assume a pro-active role in improving our relationships within the international community.
  13. Linda Gleeson reported that the North American Olympic Trials appear to be headed for Rochester, NY on March 1-5, 2000. USATT will be holding a national playoff in January, 2000 to select eight men and eight women to compete with teams from Canada at the North American Trials.

The meeting adjourned at 3:20 p.m.

Submitted by Dennis Taylor, Secretary