TTE AGM 2024 and current Issues

This report is my current view of table tennis in this country at this time.  As ever, these represent my own views and are not representative of anybody else, county, league, committee or club

TTE AGM 2024

I attended the AGM remotely as did everybody. My attendance was more complicated as I was attending a cricket match in Chester and connected from my car using my mobile phone as media hotspot.

Notable issues from the meeting.

• The meeting was a remote meeting. The only cameras that were on were the staff at Milton Keynes. No other cameras were on. So it was not possible to see who else was at the meeting, until they were called to speak. At which point, the person would be unmuted to allow them to speak. This made the meeting rather fragmented as people struggled to make their technology work smoothly.
• I understand that there were 11 staff members and 25 other people in attendance. This is rather disappointing as I remember quite decent numbers at previous AGMs.
• The CEO used his address to be quite disparaging about the previous regime. Whilst it is true this his inheritance was minimal, I wonder whether he would have been quite so direct if he were not on the way out himself. The introduction of the Table Tennis United strategy was greeted with excitement and positivity, but the implementation has been poor. This means that his successor is inheriting problems, rather than a well-ordered sport.
• The Annual Report was not dealt with in sufficient detail and this was unsatisfactory for the membership. As it was the report did not contain much real information other than glossy write-ups about a few issues It was very lightweight compared to previous reports.
• All of the resolutions put forward were passed. Most of these were basic housekeeping updating wordings in the Articles of Association. The most important one was that we will have five Member Elected Directors when the next vacancies occur in June 2025.  However, we needed to accede some of our rights as members to choose whoever we want.

Compliance with the Code for Sport Governance

I find it sickening that the TTE management begs for support for it to become compliant with the Code for Sport Governance, whilst overlooking/ignoring that the membership may not be happy with various issues that are currently happening and ongoing.  There is always the idea that it would be careless of us to lose the funding. The management needs to understand that it will not be the fault of the membership that the funding is lost. It would be a tacit vote of no confidence from the membership. The management needs to earn the support of the membership.

The resolutions were previously passed when we were excited about the TTU strategy and this time they have been passed as gesture of goodwill to Nick Donald.

Whilst thinking about being compliant with the Code for Sport Governance, I would draw the attention of the management of TTE to Principle 3 – Communication.

3.1 Each organisation shall publicly disclose information on its governance, structure, strategy, activities, and financial position, including an annual update on governance, to enable stakeholders to have a good understanding of them.

I would question whether the content and detail of the annual report and the way that it has been handled in the AGM is compliant with the CfSG,  I think not. The management seems to feel that it does not need to provide the membership with any level of information and certainly not to provide answers to questions about details.  This has been the same for some time, but seems to have worsened under the current CEO.

The current annual accounts state that the average number of employees has been 49 for the year and this has remained constant for some years. Considering that there always seems to be more recruitment than departures, that constancy is remarkable.

On looking at the definition of a small company that can qualify for small companies’ exemptions, a company must have fewer than 50 employees.  I guess that it must depend on how staff are employed. But this would appear to be questionable. Of course, the auditors will have checked this.

Transpareency, openness and accountability

Transparency and openness of TTE has been a bugbear for some time.  From my time on the Board, enquiries from directors were not welcomed by the Senior Leadership Team. Everything being passed off as operational than the strategic and therefore not within the purview of the members of the Board.

The Board should set the strategy and the leadership should execute its duties to achieve and enable the strategy. There was no meaningful strategy until Adrian Christy introduced his TTU strategy. Still the strategy set by the CEO and therefore the leadership team rather than the Board. But it is better than no strategy.

 But this lack of accountability issue is met time and again with the Leadership team.  Complaints about or against Members are pursued. Often with undue over-zealousness. But complaints about staff are swept away with a “nothing to see here” attitude. I know this from personal experience and witness it so regularly. Criticism of staff is dealt with an unhelpful defensiveness. Simply denying all complaints is not a show of strength. It is weakness. Any complaints or criticism should be met with a willingness to find resolution and possibly learn from things that have gone wrong.

The Appeals panel is not much use if anybody is appealing a decision. Its terms of reference limit it to consider only breaches of the Articles of Association. So, it does not consider the points of the case. Only whether processes have been followed and whether in breach has occurred. It is an architypal court of law, rather than a court of justice.

Competitions Review

The Competitions Review is a case in point.  The review started in 2020 when I was on the Board.  I saw a quotation that seemed to sum it up “Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.

Russell L. Ackoff”

I remember that even before it started, we were looking at the British League. I was invited to a meeting with Simon Mills, Neil Rogers, Susie Venner and Sara Sutcliffe. I asked Neil what preparation I should undertake for the meeting and was told that I did not need to do anything. Just come to the meeting and prepare for some “blue-sky thinking” starting with a blank piece of paper. I was puzzled as I could not imagine going to a meeting unprepared. So, I designed a little survey and popped it onto Facebook. I got 49 replies over a weekend and prepared my report.  I popped to the others in preparation for the meeting as I thought that it offered a good base for discussion. We had am interesting meeting with everybody taking part. I was informed after the meeting, that my survey had caused problems as Neil felt that I had undermined him and made a fuss within TTE. He did not mention it at the meeting and we were quite friendly during and after the meeting.

I have attached the survey results for people to see. TC BL Survey report.291019

But the preparation of the report took Neil Rogers an incredible amount of time, including the whole season when nobody was playing due to Covid. Eventually, the report was published and was greeted with dismay and generally picked to pieces.  Over time, various plans within the report had to be revised as the membership did not want to lose the county championships or the national team competitions, Most recently, the idea to alter the number of weekends for the NJL was over-turned as mentioned in the Annual Report.

Grand Prix events have been discontinued without being adequately replaced.  TTE is looking for people to volunteer to run similar events that are known to be loss-making.

This comes back to the issue of openness and transparency. Despite asking for the information when I was on the Board and regular enquiries from various people, TTE has never published accounts down to event level for anybody to consider which events make or lose money.  Without this information, nobody sane is going to commit to run an event.  If we had this information, we could consider why profits or losses have occurred and then to amend arrangements to ensure profitability or at least break-even points. This is simple good practice that could be used to improve events and understand how they can be moved to profit.

This is without considering event sponsorship that would be the subject of a much longer report to consider.

But considering the Competition Review, it should be remembered that the great Fire of London started in a small bakery.  Who is responsible? The author or the people tasked with implementation? It has been an almost total waste of resource as the Competition Review is still requiring discussion and revision at a time after it should have been long-since been implemented and embedded.

If the management is protecting the author, then the accountability falls to the management. Who is going to accept responsibility for this whole sorry affair? What is the remedy?

In or out of control

A knock on effect of the way our competitions are being overseen has led to various organisations starting to run events that are outside the control of TTE. This could have a detrimental effect on the competition calendar. Possible clashes will not be to the benefit of playing members.

Then there is the issue of good-standing with some organisations. Again, this has been handled very poorly.    

I attended the VETTS AGM on Sunday. The VETTS has always been proud of its status of being in good standing with TTE. Over the years, there has been a lot of communication and co-operation between the two bodies. However, the recent introduction of the need to affiliate to TTE has met with unanimous rejection by the VETTS. There appears to be little benefit to the VETTS.  The difference between VETTS and TTE is that the VETTS talk about “we”, “us” and “our society” whereas everybody refers to TTE as “they”. Everybody had their camera on for the meeting. Food for thought.

At a time when TTE is looking for people to run events for them to replace the Grand Prix events and to start more regional events, it seems to be unable to deal co-operatively with people who are already experienced in running events. This would appear to be a serendipitous coincidence of demand and supply. The dots simply need to be joined up.

Make the AGM and the National Champioships an event to show all that is best in table tennis in England.

Back to the AGM, it was thought to be unsatisfactory to the members with whom I have contact. So, I wonder whether we should consider the following.

• The membership wants an opportunity to meet in person.
• The AGM was very poorly attended this year.
• The National Championships are poorly attended due to the way that they are elitist and largely by invitation with very few qualifying. Nobody, who is not involved is interested in attending or even the results. Attendance is poor and the atmosphere is non-existent.

So how about merging the two events?

• Cancel all other events so that this is the only event on the weekend.
• Hold a conference during the weekend of the National Championship.
• Invite members of the Board of Directors, National Councillors and deputies, all board advisory committee members, club organisers, all members, Sport England, UK Sport and other agencies.
• Invite Pride of England and other award winners.
• The conference could have an overall meeting to start with everybody.
• Then hold break-out sessions for the different committees, councils and board.
• Hold an evening event for presentations
• Encourage attendees to watch the competition. Therefore, increase the audience.
• Many of the attendees are likely to be qualified to umpire matches or operate to help the event.
• Encourage providers such as TeesSports and Bribar and others to have stalls for merchandise.
• Get representatives of Mark Bates Insurance or other sponsors to attend to meet conference and championship attendees for commercial purposes.

This could make the National Championships a vehicle to exhibit everything that is good about table tennis in our country. Also, if it is always held on the same weekend, the first weekend in March, people will plan to attend on an annual basis.  

This may require a bit of organisation. Sounds like something to occupy the Competition and Events department.

Tony Catt

National Councillor, Sussex