Report on ITTA CLG AGM 2023

The Annual General Meeting of the Irish Table Tennis Association CLG took place in the Conference Room of the Irish Sports HQ Saturday 10th June 2023 at 10.30am. Mr. Chris Kitchen, Interim Chair, chaired the meeting and welcomed the directors, representatives of the four provinces, officers, members, and staff to the meeting. A minute’s silence was held in honour of the members who had passed over the last season. Those who passed were Mrs. Lola Cooke, Mr. Ronnie Burton, Mr. Alistair Cairns, Ms Dorothy Taylor, Mr Alex Thackaberry, Mr Les Hunt, Mr Jim Walker, Tony Redmond and Barry Redmond. May they all rest in peace.

The Finance Director, Mrs. Kathy Endersen, presented her Finance Director’s Report, Financial Statements & Auditor’s Report for the year ended 31st of December 2022. These reports were approved by the members present. The auditors, OSK, were re-appointed to conduct the audit of the 2023 accounts.

The Annual Report of the Board’s activities outlined the success in achieving increased funding from Sport Ireland, and the recent allocation of funding from Sport NI was also noted. 36 members attended the meeting in person and 26 by proxy. Mr. Chris Kitchen outlined the objectives for phase 1 of the Strategic Plan (2022 – 2024).

Mr. John McKenna, General Manager and Chair of the Management Committee, presented an overview of the reports of each of the Managers within the Management Committee. This report covered the areas of Coaching, Domestic Events, Para, Participation, Women in Sport, Performance, and Umpires & Referees. The Board expressed their thanks to the 60 volunteers (approx.), contractors and staff who support the operations of table tennis across the four provinces. The Board note the contribution of Shauna Fox to the Association over the past two years and thanked her contribution to the further development of TTI. The anti-doping, safeguarding, veterans and branch reports were approved by the members present.

Elections: The following officers were elected or re-elected:

Patricia Hunter was elected President and Arnold Morgan was elected Chair.

Finance Director: Mrs. Kathy Endersen
Director: Pat McCloughan
Company Secretary: No nominees (Board will fill the position as soon as possible
Mr. Rob Cowan, Mr. Kenneth Strong and Mrs. Patricia Hunter retired from the Board, along with Jenny Monaghan as Company Secretary. For many years, Jenny Monaghan has been advising the Board on company matters and her expertise was highly valued by the Boards she served. Mr. Tony Martin retired as President, after serving four years. Mr. Chris Kitchen thanked each of them for their hard work and dedication to the Association over the last few years.

Appointments:

Deputy Life President: Mr. Kenneth Strong

Vice Presidents: Ms Anna Kelly, Mr Pat O’Brien, Mr Tony Phillips MBE, Mr Ivan Shorten, Mr Alan Strong MBE, Mr Thomas Keenan.

Disciplinary Committee: Miss Anna Kelly, Mr Ken Nixon, Ms Louise O’Loughlin & Mr Neil Shanahan

Jury of Appeal: Mr Keith McGarry, Mr Chris Cowan & Ms Triona Leahy

Honorary Life Member

The AGM granted Mr Arthur Brett the prestigious award of Honorary Life Member in light of his work within the Irish Association. Mr Brett has been a volunteer and supporter of the Association for a long time. He started a club in Swords in 1980 from where he and his wife Tina moved to Cavan and coached in the Castlerahan Club where he coached Dane Smith and Sean Brady who became Cadet and Junior international players. He began a major table tennis centre in Five miletown where he had a major influence on Ashley Robinson and Hannah Lynch- Dawson who were very successful junior and senior international players. During his time Arthur had coached 30 junior international players. He coached Irish players at European and World Championships. As ITTA Director of coaching, he ran some ITTF courses. Arthur’s generosity was evident in so far as he used his lorries and equipment from his business to assist the Association at no cost. A fine volunteer and servant for all.

Joe Veselsky Award

This year’s Joe Veselsky Award in recognition of endeavour and achievement on behalf of the Association has been awarded to Oliver Adamson. Oliver has been successful as an administrator, a player and an organiser. A member of the ITTA Board where he was a representative of the Veterans game. Oliver led an organising committee for the 6 Nations Veterans Championships in 2006 in Belfast which ran very smoothly.

He had a successful life as a player with some 75 caps as a Veteran. He won several 6 Nations championships with Tommy Caffrey, along with other Irish Veterans ranking events including Irish Closed Doubles. During his time as Chair of the Veterans Association a proper ranking system was introduced.

Besides all the other work he was involved in, he was General Secretary of the Dublin Business Houses League from 1968 until 1977. Aided by a vibrant committee, the league became the largest of its type in Europe during his tenure. A very worthy winner!

National Awards 2022/23

Details of all winners from the Annual Awards are available on the following link:

https://tabletennisireland.ie/national-awards-announcement-for-the-2022-23-season/