AGM Resolutions Revisited
Revised Resolutions
Further to my previous view on the resolutions, they have been revised and I shall now work through them again.
The game changer since the last report has been the presentation made by Adrian Christy at the National Council meeting in June wherein he outlined a strategy for TTE and table tennis in England moving forward. The positivity of the presentation and the opportunities for the membership to take a more active role in the decision=making processes of the board were very well received at National Council.
Adrian also did a presentation on these resolutions was interesting and disappointing at the same time. He covered the board resolutions in some depth, but then dismissively mentioned the five resolutions brought forward by members of the National Council. This was a missed opportunity for him to acknowledge how important these resolutions are (even if they are not!) and how the view of TTE towards the membership would be positively changing in the future.
Somerset County has issued an open letter regarding the resolutions and the general dissatisfaction of how TTE has been run in recent years. This dissatisfaction may still manifest itself as negative votes on the resolutions by many leagues and some counties. I guess that the best that TTE can hope for is that the negative votes will not be cast due to apathy, laziness or being unable to work through the technological maze of how to cast a vote at the AGM.
Somerset placed much of the blame on Sara Sutcliffe and some relief that she is no longer working with TTE. To that, I would add that Sandra Deaton was complicit in most of the activity, but for whatever reason is still in office. There were also members of the Senior Leadership Team who in their arrogance, ignorance and incompetence have been very poor in their decision making. It is interesting that none of the SLT has followed Sara to Yachting. Obviously, her opinion of them is as low as ours as she has not taken any of her old trusted team to join her.
I guess that the best that TTE can hope for is that the negative votes will not be cast due to apathy, laziness or being unable to work through the technological maze of how to cast a vote at the AGM..
So, we have the situation where heart wants to vote against the resolutions to absolutely force change at the top end of TTE, but head has the pragmatic view that we would not want to throw away £11 million over 5 years that may damage our sport. We still have the issue that we do not trust how TTE actually spends this money.
My willingness to recommend positive votes would be significantly eased if Sandra Deaton were no longer part of any decision-making process or representing the interests of England internationally. We need succession planning to start now in this respect.
So how to cast a protest vote whilst maintaining the funding is the question. I think that they will need to be addressed separately. Vote positively for the resolutions, then call for a vote of no confidence in the Chair and members of the board on an individual basis. Most of the board are effective and work in the interests of the membership, therefore a vote in the board collectively would be throwing out many talented babies with the bath water.
The innocent party in all this is Adrian Christy and he deserves an opportunity to put his strategy in place.
The innocent party in all this is Adrian Christy and he deserves an opportunity to put his strategy in place
The Revised Resolutions
The Resolutions
Resoluton 1 – Special – Amend article 23.1 – Company members shall elect 4 members.
This will be presented or even re-presented by Peter Charters.
Members will be aware that a similar Resolution was presented by Peter Charters (Berkshire) to the AGM in 2021 which the Board heard and understood.
The request to increase the Table Tennis knowledge on the Board, through increased Member representation, has subsequently been considered by the Board and the proposal is one that the Board is fully supportive of.
The Board has engaged with Peter Charters to represent the Resolution this year and the amendment to the current Article is recommended to the Members for adoption.
The Catt’s Eye View – this resolution narrowly missed passing in 2021. It is good to see the Board supporting this as it is the overwhelming view of the membership.
I will be looking to stand for this extra MED position. I guess that it would be too much to expect to be elected unopposed in part-payment and recognition of my previous experience. I guess that it will be interesting to see whether a “anybody but TC “candidate is put forward.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolution 2 – Special – New Article 23.8 – Nominations received for Elected Directors shall be considered by the Nominations Committee taking account of the candidate’s ability, experience and expertise to fulfil the identified role on the Board, and of the need to ensure that the Board has the appropriate balance of skills, experience, diversity, independence and knowledge. All candidates will be presented to the Members to vote for their preferred candidate.
The Catt’s Eye View – the Board is making the point that this is in line with the Code for Sport Governance, which it is.
My previous view was that this resolution would be used by the Board to veto candidates that it thought to be “undesirable” for whatever reason.
The addition of the amendment
All candidates will be presented to the Members to vote for their preferred candidate
Should make this resolution acceptable to the membership.
On this revised wording of this resolution, I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
The Resolutions
Resolution 3 – Special – Amend article 24.2 – Such directors shall be appointed by resolution of the Board following an open, formal, publicly advertised and transparent selection process by an appointments panel the Nominations Committee, taking account of the candidate’s ability, experience and expertise to fulfil the identified role on the Board, and of the need to ensure that the Board has the appropriate balance of skills, experience, diversity, independence and knowledge.
The Catt’s Eye View – this resolution is complaint with the Code for Sport Governance and is simply the application of good practice in the selection process for Directors to meet the business needs of the Board on an ongoing basis.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolution 4 – Ordinary – That from 1 August 2022 the following affiliation fees apply:
- Senior Compete Member £20 £18
- Junior/Cadet Compete Member £10 £9
- Compete Plus will remain at a £22 upgrade for senior and £11 for Juniors/Cadets
The Catt’s Eye View – this is the increase to fees that was agreed in 2016 to reach £20 in 2020.
My issue with this increase is the arbitrary nature of the increase. Do we know that this is the right level of fees for Table Tennis England (TTE) to finance all the things that the membership wants/needs?
I am disappointed to see that the increase has been reduced. The Board originally proposed an increase to £20 (£10 juniors) but has agreed to adopt a compromise proposal by Michael Howard (Milton Keynes League) of a lesser increase to £18 (£9 junior). The increase to £20 was universally accepted at National Council with no discussion needed. It seems that the Board cannot accept “yes” for an answer.
This reduction in the increase suggests to me that the Membership Fees do not play much part in the business calculations of the Board. The £2 reduction equates to £50,000 based on a membership of 25,000. I wonder what will not be provided by TTE due to this money not being received.
If it is to do with the current economic climate, will people pay £18 when they could not afford £20? How elastic is the demand? Perhaps we should help hardship by allowing monthly payment of the fees to spread the expense over the season.
This comes back to transparency and accountability. These ideals form a major part of the Code for Sport Governance and it is one of the major complaints that the membership has about the management of Table tennis in England that this has been absent.
I have been on the Board in the Finance & Audit Committee and I cannot be clear about what the membership fees are actually used to finance. So, the membership has no chance.
If the membership could understand how its fees are applied within the financial structure of TTE, in conjunction with public funding, then fee increases would be easy to justify.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
The Resolutions
Resolution 5 – Special – Remove Article 34.3 – Article 34.3 states ‘Affiliation fees shall be set only at a General Meeting
The Catt’s Eye View – The main problem with this resolution comes back to transparency and accountability issues and the lack of trust in the Board and management of TTE by the Membership. Although this could change if the Chair of the Board were to change.
It is good practice that the Board sets the strategy and the budget and by definition this would include the setting of membership fees in conjunction with the other funding that is received by TTE.
To ensure transparency, and open dialogue, the Board commits to:
- Ensure consultation with the membership through National Council and Members’ Advisory Group (MAG) in the setting of membership fees for the following year; this will take place earlier in the process – December/January meetings.
- A long-term plan that limits the increase of fees to no more than £2 annually over a 5 year period (to 2027/28), save that the Board has the ability to review should the organisation be faced with exceptional circumstances.
The undertaking regarding a maximum £2 increase makes no business sense. Again, it involves arbitrary increases rather than increases that are in line with a strategy for the sport over the next 5 or 10 years. There is no need to set this maximum figure, it is superfluous.
What is stated within the rationale is an open dialogue, which happens now.
As stated above, this could be covered by an article simply stating adherence to the Code for Sport Governance rather than trying to get this through in its own right.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution, but it still needs some revision to make it universally acceptable.
Resolution 6– Special – That throughout the Articles all references to ‘Individual Company Member’ shall be amended to ‘Director Company Member’.
The Catt’s Eye View – This will go some way towards tidying up the very poorly worded Articles of Association.
The Articles of Association should be revised to mirror or very closely follow the guidance in the Code for Sport Governance. There are some discrepancies that should be tidied up.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolution 7 – Special – Amend Article 41.4 – In the case of an equality of votes, whether on a show of hands or on a poll, the person who is chairing the meeting shall have a second, or casting, vote on matters relating to finance but not on any other matters; in any other case the resolution shall fail.
The Catt’s Eye View – I am puzzled that this article was ever changed as I cannot find any record of it ever have been passed with the wording that is now being struck out.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolution 8– Special – Amend Article 51 That throughout Article 51 the phrase ‘Board of Appeal’ shall be replaced by ‘Appeals Panel’
The Catt’s Eye View – This is simply a re-badging exercise.
I think that the Appeals Panel should have its terms of reference and scope of jurisdiction widened. It is set up to deal with issues revolving round breaches of the Articles of Association. This is too narrow as many issues causing complaints are not matters that are within the articles. Therefore, the Appeals Board serves no useful purposes under its current remit.
Sport Integrity, a new independent disclosure and complaints service pilot, is being launched in May to support athletes, coaches and all support personnel within the Olympic and Paralympic high-performance community across the UK. https://www.uksport.gov.uk/news/2022/04/07/sport-integrity-a-new-independent-disclosure-and-complaints-service
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
The Resolutions
Resolution 9 – Ordinary – put forward by Richard Hudson, Jos Kelly, Alan Ransome, Alex Murdoch, Neil le Milliere & Peter Charters
We consider that over the last few years the relationship between the Board and its membership has been unhelpful and has damaged the sport. It needs to be strengthened. This meeting requests the Board to confirm that they understand that the members are the key stakeholder in the sport and should be considered as such with this longstanding understanding remaining in place.
The Catt’s Eye View – This is an interesting resolution. Confirmation of a “longstanding understanding” between ETTA/TTE management and the membership.
It would probably be better to make real arrangements to repair the relationship and understand all of our relative positions in the ongoing management and running of the sport.
The Board is likely to make an acknowledgement, but this will simply be a gesture until attitudes and practices (and possibly some senior personnel) change. There should be a clearer understanding of the Code for Sport Governance and a closer alignment of our Articles of Association to ensure that TTE remains compliant and the membership understand why certain actions are necessary. Better communication is the key
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolution 10 – Ordinary – put forward by Richard Hudson, Jos Kelly, Alan Ransome, Alex Murdoch, Neil le Milliere & Peter Charters
There is a concern that the pathways no longer appear to be open for talented committed volunteer officials to make progress into decision making roles within the operational side of the Associations work. This meeting requests the Board to consider ways that senior, knowledgeable, and experienced volunteers can have much greater inclusion in the operational side of the work of the Association which would be to the benefit of the sport as it has been for the large majority of the Association’s existence.
The Catt’s Eye View – Another interesting resolution dealing with the relationship between ETTA/TTE management and the membership and how volunteers are valued and treated.
TTE has been wasteful of the resources available from within the membership. Many members are professional people with skills and knowledge from most walks of life. But then the skill sets of the Board members are not currently used. There are many people who would be willing to provide help on a pro bono basis, if they felt valued and trusted the management team of TTE. I count myself in that number.
The Code of Sports Governance has various applications for skill sets. It would be great if TTE management followed the guidance available in that document.
Adrian Christy recent presentation of the strategy of TTE going forward may well lead to greater input from the membership into the Board committees and hopefully this will lead to more membership centric decision making in the future.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
The Resolutions
Relution 11 – Ordinary – put forward by Richard Hudson, Jos Kelly, Alan Ransome, Alex Murdoch, Neil le Milliere & Peter Charters
This meeting accepts there is a concern that a significant number of decisions taken by senior staff have had a negative effect on the sport in England. Therefore, included within the skill sets required when employing staff should be a factor that applicants have a good knowledge and passion for table tennis, particularly for senior appointments in the Performance, Competition, and Development areas of the sport and request the Board to confirm that the above will be included in future requirements.
The Catt’s Eye View – Another interesting resolution dealing with the relationship between ETTA/TTE management and the membership.
These issues should be addressed in the recruitment process for all roles, but most importantly for decision-making roles.
The most recent iteration of the skills matrix that I have seen contains the first section on table tennis. I have already written a summary of the skills matrix that you have seen.
| Table Tennis | A passion for table tennis! A crass patronising statement |
| Knowledge of the membership of Table Tennis England and the interests that impact internal stakeholders | |
| Experience in running clubs, leagues or holding administrative positions at local, national or international level within table tennis. | |
| Experience playing at a high-performance level and knowing ‘what it takes to win’ at a World, Olympic or Paralympic level Form designed by performance staff! | |
| Experience developing and executing talent development strategies |
Obviously, this area of the skills matrix should be expanded in order to increase the likelihood of ensuring table tennis knowledge in the future.
The skills matrix will need to be adjusted to the needs of specific job functions. The same matrix cannot apply to administration, marketing, coaching or any other positions.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolution 12 – Ordinary – put forward by Richard Hudson, Jos Kelly, Alan Ransome, Alex Murdoch, Neil le Milliere & Peter Charters
This meeting is concerned about the negative effects that Sport England, and, in particular the PORTAS report, has had on the progress of our sport over the last decade, as recently highlighted in the national press, and that these concerns should be raised with the appropriate people in DCMS and/or Sport England in order to seek a review of those negative effects and request the Board to facilitate this.
The Catt’s Eye View – Another interesting resolution dealing with the relationship between ETTA/TTE management and the membership.
The main issue has been the quality of the management in place and their understanding of the particular needs of our sport. Over reliance on the funding has led to a bloated, but ineffective organisation compounded by poor management
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Resolutions
Resolution 13 – Ordinary – put forward by Jos Kelly & Peter Charters
This meeting instructs the Board of Table Tennis England to delete from its Ranking Programme the inclusion of an ITTF Override element from the start of the 2022/23 season.
At present the Override gives precedence to the ITTF Ranking over TTE’s Ranking lists, creating a distortion and imbalance of TTE’s ranking which renders it inaccurate. The results, both wins and losses of the English players who compete in international tournaments, enter the TTE ranking system via the Equivalence Table which gives a Dummy position for each of the foreign opposition. The ITTF Ranking does not include losses which goes some way to explaining why the English top ranked Junior Boys in particular, have fewer points than those below them. So why the need for an ITTF Override?
The Catt’s Eye View – Another interesting resolution dealing with the relationship between ETTA/TTE management and the membership.
This is an effect of having a domestic competition structure that is not fit for purpose in developing our players. The pursuit of international ranking points is given greater importance than developing the playing standards of our potential top performers. This should be addressed by the Competition Review, but it is unlikely to be.
The ITTF points issue is being dealt with by the Performance and Talent Committee chaired by Donald Parker.
There needs to be a review of the ranking system being used in this country. This has been going on for years but being undertaken by ineffective people who have not been able to decide how to proceed.
The Board has already removed this from the junior ranking lists and the over-ride for the seniors has been reduced to top 75. This only affects Liam Pitchford currently. Therein lies a whole different conversation about how few of our players are competing anywhere near the top level of table tennis on the international arena.
I will be encouraging Sussex to vote FOR this resolution.
Summary of Resolutions
So, we have ended up with 13 (thirteen) resolutions. I hope that this does not prove to be an unlucky number.
The previous resolution 5 relating to Club Pay membership has been removed. This is largely unenforceable anyway as clubs may simply not declare the membership numbers of people who turn up to play socially.
I am now recommending voting FOR all the resolutions.
My previous report was recommending voting against the two contentious resolutions, but following the presentation of Adrian Christy, I would want to secure the funding from Sport England to give him the opportunity of putting his strategy in place.
This does not mean that all the problems with TTE have been resolved to anybody’s satisfaction as can be seen from the open letter from Somerset County. Adrian would like to be able to put all those behind us and to move forward.
Adrian needs to get rid of some the millstones within the management of Table Tennis England. Those people that are stopping the boat from going faster or even impeding the boat altogether.
This does not mean that all the problems with TTE have been resolved to anybody’s satisfaction as can be seen from the open letter from Somerset County.
Since this time last year, the CEO has changed, three nodding dog directors have been replaced and now a further two nodding dogs are about be replaced. If the Board was run effectively with the improved quality of the Directors going forward, table tennis in England will have a chance of giving Sport England value for money for its funding.