WELCOME BACK to NCTTA!

College Table Tennis Fall 2021-Spring 2022 season registration is OPEN!

Click here to create an account and get registered: https://nctta.app/

Keep in mind you must register Men's/Coed Teams and Women's teams.

DEADLINE IS: October 1st

Let us know if you have any questions or issues: info@nctta.org

Over 140 NCTTA members, alumni and friends came together virtually and in-person on both the East Coast and West Coast for our first-ever summer party on Sunday, August 8th! The event brought together NCTTA alums from across 30 years, and served as both a reunion and a time to make new friends.

To get connected sign up on our ALUMNI DATABASE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfKY0diakgioAVGLsnpGitb24eU3iPe...

Thanks to our sponsors: Joola, Stupa Analytics and Rotary Sports Unlimited

The East Coast party, held at Spin NYC, included over 60 attendees, and had an incredible energy that demands to be replicated – so stay tuned for more NCTTA alumni events at a Spin location near you!

The West Coast party, held at 888 Table Tennis Center, included two of Team USA’s team members, Nikhil Kumar and Kanak Jha!

To date, we’ve raised almost $25,000 – thanks to the over 100 individuals who have donated to support us! Thanks to an anonymous alum, every donation will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000, so please consider supporting our fundraising campaign today!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/NCTTA200K

The summer party may be over, but this is just the beginning – stay tuned for NCTTA alumni events coming to a city near you! If you’d like to help organize a local NCTTA social or network gathering, please contact us at alumni@nctta.org

#NCTTA200K

Date: Sunday, August 8, 2021 @ 8pm ET (7pm CT/5pm PT)

Party Locations:
· Virtual Party on Zoom (8-9pm ET) – ZOOM LINK: https://tinyurl.com/ncttasummerparty

· New York City Party at SPIN NYC – RSVP Link (Food/drinks available for purchase): https://pongspace.com/product/2021-nctta-party-at-spin-nyc/

· Bay Area Party at 888 Table Tennis Center – RSVP Link ($_50 (adults) & 30 (students)_/ticket, covers food & 1 drink): https://pongspace.com/product/2021-nctta-party-west-coast/

The NY/CA parties include opportunities to play table tennis and meet new and old friends! Certain 2020 Team USA Olympians are anticipated to attend the Bay Area party -- this is a party you don’t want to miss!

The virtual party will feature a number of exciting elements, including:
· Recognition of NCTTA’s first Alumni Achievement Award winner, JOOLA/Sport Squad CEO, Richard Lee
· Announcement of the new George Braithwaite Community Service Scholarship
· An exciting East Coast vs. West Coast Skills Competition, sponsored by Stupa Analytics
· A sneak peek at NCTTA’s upcoming plans for alumni events around the country
· Livestreamed greetings from the NYC and Bay Area parties so we’re all connected!

Attendance at each party location includes chances to win fun prizes, including NCTTA and JOOLA swag!

The summer party is also the culmination of our #NCTTA200K fundraising campaign. Join us to learn more, and donate to support our campaign on GoFundMe!

Thanks to an anonymous alum, every donation will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/NCTTA200K

RSVP for the party today, share this email with your NCTTA friends, and we’ll see you on August 8th!

SAVE THE DATE for NCTTA’s Summer Party - Sunday, August 8th @ 8pmET!
NCTTA is excited to invite all of NCTTA’s members, alumni and friends to join us for our summer party! Join us virtually on Zoom, or at our in-person party locations in NYC and Northern California!

Date: Sunday, August 8, 2021 @ 8pm ET (7pm CT/5pm PT)
Party Locations:
• Virtual Party on Zoom (8-9pm ET)
• New York City Party at SPIN NYC: https://wearespin.com/location/new-york/ (48 East 23rd Street, New York, NY)
• Northern California Party at 888 Table Tennis Center: https://888ttc.com/ (888 Hinckley Road, Burlingame, CA)
The NY/CA parties will include opportunities to play table tennis and meet new and old friends! Food and drinks will be available.

The virtual party will feature a number of exciting elements, including:
• Recognition of NCTTA’s first Alumni Achievement Award winner, JOOLA/Sport Squad CEO: https://www.sport-squad.com/, Richard Lee
• Announcement of the new George Braithwaite Community Service Award
• An exciting East Coast vs. West Coast Skills Competition, sponsored by Stupa Analytics: https://stupaanalytics.com/
• A sneak peek at NCTTA’s upcoming plans for alumni events around the country

Attendance at each party location includes chances to win fun prizes, including NCTTA and JOOLA swag!
The summer party also culminates our summer #NCTTA200K fundraising campaign. Join us to learn more, and donate to support our campaign on GoFundMe! Thanks to an anonymous alumnus, every donation will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $100,000! Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/NCTTA200K

Mark your calendars, share with friends, and stay tuned for the official invitation coming next week!

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Chair

A new partnership will strengthen the NCTTA’s coaching certification program.
Click here to register: https://sites.google.com/nctta.org/nctta-coaching-certification/home?aut...

Announced in early June, leaders with Bowmar Sports, the North and Latin American distributor for Butterfly, signed the agreement with NCTTA officials.

“This is really a win-win for both sides,’’ says NCTTA President Willy Leparulo. “We strongly believe in the merits of our coaching certification program each summer,’’ Leparulo said. “This new partnership will strengthen a valuable initiative to make our college coaches even better. The timing couldn’t be better as we get ready to start our next table tennis season in September.’’

The NCTTA leadership team of volunteers oversees more than 150 college table tennis teams in the USA and Canada.

The president of Bowmar Sports, Bowie Martin Jr., lauds the new agreement and salutes the NCTTA’s coaching certification program. It upgrades the leadership skills and team management of coaches at schools in North America.

“The NCTTA has done tremendous work with grassroots table tennis development in North America through colleges,’’ Martin said. “We believe the education of college coaches through the NCTTA Coaching Certification Program is important for further growth and enjoyment of table tennis in North America.’’

Butterfly produces high performance table tennis equipment of high quality to satisfy the needs of players across the globe. The company was founded nearly 70 years ago. Over the years, Butterfly officials have promoted table tennis clubs, coaches, players, and fans of the fast-paced Olympic sport.

Wondering how you’re supposed to get experience when you need experience to get an internship? Do you want to gain real-world skills while helping your favorite sport? Or are you perhaps even frustrated with aspects of NCTTA and want to change things?

Apply to our one of summer intern roles! We are offering internships in technology, media, marketing, and grassroots.

Applications due May 15th. We welcome all experience levels!

Media, Grassroots Committees
Newsletter Intern
https://forms.gle/F3pGbnW37rATym2s6
Grassroots Intern
https://forms.gle/U6xyrGCZ6SCdsmS29

Tech Committee
UI/UX Intern
https://forms.gle/WDDjBnZRVT781Brt7
SWE Intern
https://forms.gle/YnGa25CJW8fNLz9NA
Graphics Intern
https://forms.gle/CwpuoNJ5nLzzTCxG6

Marketing Committee
Community Outreach Intern
https://forms.gle/x8oR1UPz2NJokuNo6
Video Editing Intern
https://forms.gle/eELXkc6FdzHRUvzD7
Social Media Intern
https://forms.gle/hkzoWndCtG6YLw3G9

For more information about the internship roles or program in general, contact our internship coordinator Jenna Kiyasu at jenna.kiyasu@nctta.org.

As a past intern, the experience Jenna gained helped land her a full time software engineering role at DoorDash in San Francisco. To learn more about Jenna’s NCTTA internship experience, check out her medium post here: https://jkiyasu.medium.com/three-things-i-learned-from-my-internship-at-....

Check out the official World Table Tennis Day video from NCTTA (Thanks to Andy Nguyen for the creation!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3N-RFEiQ4o

Also from Boston University and UC Berkeley teaming up to create this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFo8Th0FoVo

And from one of our own NCTTA writers, Michael Reff, his wise, witty word creation on Table Tennis:

Table Tennis
Agility
Beauty
Speed
Calling one, calling all with any ability
We'd like to invite you to a sport of agility
Of speed and reflexes, it's known as table tennis
Played by all sexes, and children too can be a menace

Jump out of the garage, the kitchen, and basement.
And realize the gym is the worthy replacement.
With a variety of bats, rubber, and sponges
Combined make a lethan action of loops and pushing lunges.

The styles are infinite: lob, defense, attack,
The name calling's an art form, usually ending in "old hack."
But, when the day is over, and the workouts are through,
You can say to yourself after almost turning blue

That Table Tennis is real, and a worthy endurance feat
Of strength of legs, core, and rhythmic reaction beat.

Thanks to everyone NCTTA/USATT members, players, alumni, volunteers, staff that showed up to support, ask questions and further understand the current situation with NCTTA and USATT. We are lucky to be at the negotiating table because of you! Thank you!!!

As promised the NCTTA Slides as well as the attached emails are here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OCLoyqmw4ntdzcs45p0UwLUrFPOBL3E4/view?u...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OxHiexruXktNXq7ZF6B9wem-oSBzYSnj/view?u...

Glossary

NGB - National Governing Body
NCTTA - National Collegiate Table Tennis Association
USATT - USA Table Tennis
USOPC - United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee
USOC - United States Olympic Committee
USATT's Motion - Among other changes, removes the National Org Director (until now, was seated by NCTTA). This proposal will close on Feb 17th.

The USATT/NCTTA Relationship History 

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of College Table Tennis. NCTTA's core belief is to support and promote table tennis through service and volunteerism.  

NCTTA has always believed that a good relationship with USATT, our sport’s National Governing Body (NGB), is paramount.  In 2008 NCTTA got a chance to strengthen the relationship with USATT by being placed on a new board. New bylaws allowed for NCTTA to apply formally to be a National Organization Representative.  Our request was granted by USOPC’s Chris Vadala (known as 'USOC' at that time) and approved by the USATT Nominating and Governance committee.

This relationship didn’t happen overnight. There have been thousands of people involved since the 1990’s in nurturing and growing this relationship with USA Table Tennis.

The Conflict

In 2020, the relationship between NCTTA and USATT hit some bumps. Communication was strained.  At first, we thought that there were no targeted efforts against us. Problem was, certain things started to happen.  

First, NCTTA was removed from the USATT website as a "partner"  (click here to see the website as it was in early 2020, and now click here to see the website in its current form). Why?  We actively promoted our USATT club membership to our college table tennis clubs via a USATT website that is now erased (click here for how it was and click here to see that the link does not exist anymore. We received no explanation other than there was a website update. We interpret NCTTA’s erasure from USATT’s website to be the start of the end of what was once a productive and mutually beneficial relationship. 

Second, there was a USOPC media intern at the same time who was also an NCTTA media person. They were let go (terminated) in May because of their affiliation with NCTTA. This was verified by former USATT staff.  This intern was an unnecessary victim caught in USATT’s hostility toward NCTTA that is now becoming increasingly apparent. 

Moreover, an interview from USATT’s Mark Thompson with NCTTA President Willy Leparulo, was recorded for their video segment known as “Pong Positive”. USATT CEO, Virginia Sung contacted Leparulo and said, “Willy, We would like to do an interview with you, and to share your experience during this uncertain time and how that has impacted NCTTA’s events, and what kind of suggestions you have for us to build strength within our table tennis community collectively.” Though recorded and presumably ready-to-go, it was cut from publication at the last minute for unremarked reasons.

As the summer continued,  NCTTA was stonewalled by USATT’s legal counsel (forbidden to speak to anyone in USATT directly), and consistently ignored by five new board members. Somehow, despite the lack of communication (or any effort at communication), there was a “determination” made by the USATT (in a meeting no one knew about) to strip NCTTA of its National Organization Director, which, as noted previously, was awarded legitimately in 2007/2008. In addition, there were no official meeting minutes documenting any discussion about the “determination”, nor any notice of the meeting as required by USATT bylaws.

USATT therefore removed NCTTA from its board in violation of its own rules, which one might say was an innocent mistake made by new members - however, given the escalating maliciousness USATT displayed as 2020 unfolded, any reasonable person would find this difficult to believe.

Our Grievance

Now, there is a motion on the floor made by the USA Table Tennis Board of Directors that removes the chance of the National Organization member position from being filled without it being a bylaw controversy while the remainder of our relationship lies in broken pieces. 

After 8 months of attempts at mediation from our end, we decided to stand up for ourselves. Yes, NCTTA put in a grievance against the USA Table Tennis last September (2020), hoping that they would stop bullying our organization and to ultimately salvage the relationship between USATT and NCTTA. Rather than responding to the grievance for what it was, this motion appears to be their response.

Currently proposed motion: 

This bylaw proposed by the USA Table Tennis Board of Directors removes NCTTA from a position that was awarded legitimately - this time by eliminating the position. NCTTA has been silent about this for almost a year out of respect for what we thought was a relationship that could be saved. Perhaps we were too naive.

USATT’s Current bylaws state that there can only be 9 board members, USOPC, however, is requiring ⅓ to be athlete reps (i.e. 3 athlete reps). This motion says 10 board members are allowed but in the same breath also says that only 3 athlete reps are allowed. Adding this 10th board member is both legal and illegal per the bylaws: 'If you add a 10th board member, then you MUST add a 4th athlete rep in order to be compliant with [Section 7.5] but this is also not possible, as the bylaws only permit 3 athlete reps. '

The strategy by USATT here is nakedly obvious: 

• hope no one reads the proposed changes closely enough, 
• then “discover” the inconsistency in the rules, 
• and decide not to add NCTTA to the board because it wouldn’t be explicitly against the rules to deny them the seat. 

This motion says ultimately that we, passionate volunteers, “don’t matter”. 

To everyone reading this including the board of directors at USA Table Tennis, ask why they are investing all of this effort to remove a small organization filled with USATT members - members who volunteer their time for the benefit of college table tennis and the general table tennis community!  Ask why it is in USATT’s best interest to divide the sport and create a problem where none previously existed.

We have forged connections and relationships with the community at large in USA Table Tennis and it isn't to make a political statement to you here, it is because this is what we do. Look at the USA Table Tennis board for example where we have relationships with 4 out of the 8 board members:

• Yijun "Tom" Feng was the NCTTA Athlete of the year and wrote a riveting testimonial supporting NCTTA.
• Dan Reynolds served as the NCTTA South Region Director and South Texas Division Director and umpired many of our tournaments including the USATT 5 star sanctioned National Championships
• Thomas Hu co-founded what later became NCTTA in the early 1990’s.
• Will Shortz has been an avid and passionate supporter of table tennis and has been a supporter of NCTTA for many years.

We have, in NCTTA, a tradition of service and volunteerism to our sport: NCTTA is an integral and passionate part of the USATT landscape and pipeline.

USA Table Tennis Pipeline:

Junior→College→Lifetime sport participant, elite athlete, or both!

To push us out destroys and divides the community, and creates ill will where it is completely unnecessary and distracting from our broader shared mission of promoting our sport.   

We want to continue to grow the sport, not just collegiately, but to the broader public - as we have been for the past 13 years in true partnership with USATT. 

In their words: "The USATT Board of Directors seeks member comment on proposed amendments to the Bylaws" - and is due Feb 17th.
We hope you will lend us your support.

Yours Sincerely,
NCTTA Board of Directors