NATIONAL COUNCIL SUMMARY: 16.01.10

I am pleased to provide a summary of the main points discussed at last Saturday’s National Council Meeting and hope that it will assist you in reporting back to your members.

1. A copy of my report was circulated in advance to Councillors

2. The new National Councillor for Cornwall County Association, Mrs Diane Jermyn, was welcomed.

3. For the first time since 1978 that there has been an increase in affiliated teams; an additional 60 teams have affiliated this year.

4. National Council agreed to see how the National Under 11 to 14 Championships, incorporating the National Trials, progresses for 2010/11 and respond back to National Council in 12 months time.

5. A new staff structure chart will be sent to National Council

6. It was confirmed that a meeting of the Women in Sport Working Group had its first meeting yesterday to look into ways of increasing female participation in events.

7. There remains only two Local Leagues that have not paid their affiliation fees, Blackburn TTL and South West Sussex TTL.

8. The Treasurer proposed marginal increases to the Competition Entry Fees for 2010/11, which were approved.

9. The proposed fee levels relating to Individual Membership were set by National Council for 2010/11 to go to the 2009/10 Annual General Meeting for approval.

10. Rule Change Propositions were approved by National Council to go to the 2009/10 Annual General Meeting on behalf of National Council.

11. Four new League Representative Members of the Company were approved; Barbara Parker (West Somerset). Christopher Harper (Croydon), Raymond Ellis (Sutton) and Paul Taylor (Salisbury).

12. ETTA has created a new initiative, ‘Sing London’, which has been shortlisted by Sport England. Temporary table tennis tables will be placed in outside and inside locations for a one-month period to encourage participation in London.

13. The English Open was recently held in the prestigious English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and I hope that members enjoyed the table tennis. The VIP and ETTA lounges were well used and a large allocation of complimentary tickets were taken up.

14. A ‘snapshot’ of the proposed new ETTA website is available at www.etta.tv

15. A Data Protection Policy is in draft form and will be approved shortly.

ALEX