Dear TTV Members,

Firstly, let me wish you all a very Happy New Year on behalf of the staff and Board at TTV.

We sincerely hope you had a restful festive season, and were not affected by the terrible bushfires which have ravaged the country. Our thoughts are with those who have suffered loss at this difficult time. On a related note, I would like to thank the Croydon and Dandenong clubs for organizing the ‘Rally for Relief’ tournament on 1st Feb with all proceeds being donated to bushfire relief causes. Please support this event (see flyer).

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Awards Dinner

Looking ahead to 2020, I wanted to draw your attention to the Awards Dinner which will be held after the AGM on 21 March 2020 at 6pm, View Hotel, 562 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.

As part of its Volunteer Recognition Program, TTV is delighted to invite 1 delegate per club at no cost to attend this function for the first 30 clubs to sign up – speak to your Club Presidents for more details.

Additional seats are available at $69 per head and can be secured by emailing Claire Montgomery at info@tabletennisvic.org.au

Due to limited venue capacity, you are encouraged to book quickly to avoid disappointment. Any special dietary requirements should also be communicated at this time.

We are pleased to announce heavily discounted accommodation rates are available at the View Hotel for $150 per night (extra for multiple occupants and breakfast), which is a massive discount on their rack rate of $450 for a City View Room.

Note: that these rates area available to TTV members throughout the year, and include complimentary wi-fi, newspaper, use of pool, gym and sauna. Simply call the hotel directly on 1800 843 946, and quote ‘Table Tennis Victoria corporate rate’ to receive the discount.

The Awards Dinner will offer the opportunity to honour those who have contributed significantly to the Victorian table tennis community in 2019.

In addition to the annual awards for Junior, Senior, Veteran and Para male and female players of the year, discretionary awards will also be presented for:

• The Guggenheim Award – Volunteer of the Year
• The Javor Award  - Coach of the Year
• The Presidents’ Award – Distinguished Service Award

Winners will also be invited by TTV at no cost to them when they are confirmed internally. If you would like to nominate an individual for any of these discretionary awards, please do so using the attached forms. Completed forms should be returned to Claire Montgomery in the TTV office via email no later than Tuesday 4 February 2020.

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As we begin 2020, I would also like to take this opportunity to provide you with a brief update in a few key areas:

Staff & Board Movements

In pursuit of the strategic initiatives contained within the 2019-22 plan, roles within TTV were re-modelled to better meet the needs of the organization moving forward.

The previous State Development Officer role (vacated by Marie Karekla in late 2019) has changed, and become the new Participation & Programs Officer (PPO) position. Sean Sturrock has been appointed into this role, and started on 6 January 2020.

The previous Administration Officer role occupied by Claire Montgomery has been re-shaped, and expanded into a Events & Clubs Officer (ECO) role which Claire continues to perform.

The only additional headcount comes in the form of a 0.5 FT Media & Marketing Officer role, which is supported through SRV funding.  Jason Bast has been appointed into this role, and starts on 13 January 2020.

Details on the new staff members, Sean & Jason, can be found here: https://www.tabletennisvic.org.au/news/new-staff-members-at-ttv/

TTV’s current organizational structure can been seen here: https://www.tabletennisvic.org.au/about/organisational-structure/

2019 has seen a number of board resignations and appointments, as is to be expected in any not-for-profit volunteer based board.

Early in the year, Rosanne Ooi was appointed into one of the two Appointed Director positions. Rosanne is a marketing professional, with a Masters degree from the University of Melbourne. Barak Mizrachi resigned to pursue overseas opportunities, with Zoe Qian, Chrissy Jones & Jean Pierce also resigning at different times.

TTV notes that the duties of a voluntary Board Director can be time-consuming, and may on occasion require difficult decisions to be taken in the interests of the sport.

All Directors, past and present, are sincerely thanked for their input into what can be a stressful process.

In October 2019, in order to maintain the stipulated minimum amount of Directors, the required (by government & Constitution) gender split and appropriate skill set mix, TTV advertised for expressions of interest for the two vacant Elected Director positions via both TTV website and external avenues.

It is worth noting that no nominations were received from any current TTV members.

After a multi-stage interview process, Nick Ludington & Kimberley Brown were the successful applicants appointed to the Board upon becoming TTV members.

Nick brings significant membership and participation expertise to the Board by way of his experience as Manager of Golf and Communications at Kew Golf Club.

Kimberley is an experienced tourism and events professional, and has previously served as Board Member/Trustee of Australian Grand Prix Corporation, and the State Sports Centre Trust. She is also a previous mayor of Bass Coast Council, and is currently the General Manager of a large hotel and leisure facility in Phillip Island.

Arising out of this nominations process, Leanne Conrad was similarly appointed into a newly created vacancy as an Elected Director in December 2019. She is a finance and governance professional specializing in corporate ownership structures, records and registers, with an ability to make the complex understandable to non-financial information users.

Leanne has significant previous Boards/Committees experience with organizations including Lady Gowrie Victoria , Grief Line , Governance Institute (Education Committee), and Football Federation Victoria (Finance, Risk and Audit Committee). Given her seniority and experience in Board matters, she was subsequently deemed an excellent candidate for the Deputy Chair role for 2020 which she takes over from Paul Healey (Paul remains on the Board as an Elected Director, exchanging roles with Leanne).

Fortunately, Jack Cyngler (Principal, Cyngler Kaye Levy) and Paul Healey (ex-Chief Financial Officer, ESS Super) have remained as Chair and Deputy Chair respectively throughout 2019 which has provided valuable continuity and consistency of approach, along with Appointed Director, Greg Bristowe.

Members are encouraged to examine the credentials of all Board Directors at the following link: https://www.tabletennisvic.org.au/about/board/

You will see that they represent a very strong mix of legal, finance, marketing, tourism, events, sports, participation, and membership expertise from both inside and outside table tennis.

At the time of writing, there are 7 (seven) Board Directors (x 5 Elected and x 2 Appointed), comprising of 4 males and 3 females (note that government funding rules now reflected in TTV’s Constitution require a 40% minimum of male or female representation).

The 2020 AGM will see 2 (two) positions available for election as confirmed in the AGM papers which were distributed on 24 December 2019, namely the Deputy Chair role, and vacant Elected Director role.

Due to gender equity requirements as outlined elsewhere in this email, at the time of writing only 1 (one) additional male will be able to be elected at the AGM.

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Funding

In late November, TTV very belatedly received confirmation from Sport & Recreation Victoria (SRV) that we would be receiving some funding via their ‘Together More Active’ initiative.

There are several important points to note here:

1. This funding was almost 25% lower than had been hoped for, and was not necessarily aimed at our key focus areas. Confirmation was finally received at this lower level some 5 months later than originally promised by SRV.
2. The timing meant that it was very hard to factor any funding into the 2020 budget (TTV financial years run from Jan 1 to Dec 31). As a prudent and responsible organization, TTV does not set budgets for the upcoming year only one month out from the next financial period. This would not enable any proper planning on behalf of TTV, or its Affiliates. Accordingly, the decision was taken at the October board meeting to set 2020 membership fees at that juncture to provide Affiliates with as much time as possible to factor the new structure into their planning. This is earlier than in many previous years.
3. The scope of operations arising out of the 2019-2022 Strategic Plan to counter declining membership trends and harness new participation behaviours dictates that increased funding is required in order to pursue these stated goals. It is not a matter of maintaining the status quo in a declining environment.

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TTV Official Suppliers

Tender documents were advertised in 2019 to encourage interested parties to indicate an interest in partnering with TTV in the areas of Official Apparel Supplier, and Official Equipment Partner for 2020 and beyond.

After an exhaustive formal tender process, the following partnerships were agreed:

• AGMC were selected as TTV’s Official Equipment Supplier for 2020.
• S-Trend were selected as TTV’s Official Apparel Supplier from 2020 to 2024. It should be noted here that TTV’s uniform design has not been updated for approximately 5 years, which traditionally has been the period when designs and materials are refreshed. It is not envisaged that any further design changes will take place during the period of the new partnership agreement. The updated automated ordering and delivery systems will also provide very significant human resources savings to TTV, in addition to an improved customer experience. S-Trend's involvement also supports the Junior Scholarship Fund, with proceeds from certain sales (unrelated to state squad uniforms) being directed towards junior development.

It is vital that TTV’s commerciality is maximized in order to allow it to minimize costs to members as we seek to grow the sport in Victoria.

We believe that the partnerships now in place represent great value to the sport and its members.

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Further Information

Finally, I acknowledge that between TTA and TTV, that there has been significant (but necessary) change in the last 12-18 months, and that a lot of new information has been provided about these various initiatives and developments.

It is an incredibly exciting time for table tennis, with the ITTF also in a bold growth phase which TTV and TTA are strongly aligned with and supportive of:

https://www.ittf.com/2019/11/26/2019-year-ittf-invested-future/ - ITTF announcement.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out directly to me via telephone with any questions.

I am always more than happy to discuss issues directly, and indeed often find this is more useful than ‘virtual’ communication or relying on second-hand accounts which can lead to the spread of misinformation.

Kind Regards,

Ritchie Hinton

Chief Executive Officer

ceo@tabletennisvic.org.au

M) 0405 401 600