Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation Ltd

COMMONWEALTH TABLE TENNIS FEDERATION LTD.

Minutes of the CTTF Annual General Meeting held on 27 April 2015 at 1930 in Suzhou, China

Present:Prabhat Chandra ChaturvediPresident

Alan RansomeChairman

Chan Foong KeongSecretary

Audrey MacDonaldTreasurer

Chandra MadhosinghTechnical Chairman

Bruce BurtonITTF Co-ordinator

D R ChoudharyIndia

Andreas GeorgiouCyprus

Paul KyleNew Zealand

Malcolm MacfarlaneIsle of Man

Wahid EnitanOshodiNigeria

Ali RasheedMaldives

Alex AnastasiMalta

S M SibtainPakistan

SohalMazitarPapua New Guinea

Phil McCallumScotland

Yusuf CarrimSouth Africa

John MurphyUlster

Neil O’ConnellWales

Will GoodierAustralia

Graham IrelandAustralia

Hassan MunirBangladesh

Sandra DeatonEngland

Proxy:John MurphyUlster (Proxy for N Ireland)

Observer:Sara SutcliffeEngland

Khawaja Hassan WadoodPakistan

Terry McLernonScotland

1. Chairman’s Welcome

The Chairman, Mr Ransome, welcomed and thanked all the delegates for attending the meeting.

1. Keith Bowler

2.1Mr Ransome informed the meeting that former CTTF Secretary General, Keith Bowler, who had contributed greatly to CTTF, had passed away recently.

2.2Mr Phil Males of TableTennis Australia spoke about the significant amount of involvement that Mr Bowler had had in the Commonwealth Federation,in Oceania and in Table Tennis Australia.

2.3Mr Ransome then proposed a minute of silence in honour of the late Keith Bowler.

1. Apologies for Absence

Neil Harwood

1. Roll Call

3.1 Mr Chan informed that a total of 16 delegates with 1 proxy were present.

3.2 Mr Ransome confirmed that the quorum was enough for the AGM to proceed.

1. Confirmation of Minutes

Proposed by Mr Oshodi and seconded by Mr Georgiou, the minutes of the AGM held on 29 April 2014 in Tokyo were unanimously approved.

1. Matters Arising

There were no matters arising.

1. Chairman’s Report

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014

A written report had been submitted in advance of the meeting by the Chairman.

1. Deputy Chairman’s Report

A report in writing had been submitted by Mr Harwood for distribution prior to the meeting.

8.1Mr Ransome informed the meeting that since Mr Neil Harwood had decided to retire from both the ITTF and CTTF a new Deputy Chairman would have to be elected.

8.2He then proposed to place on record the CTTF’s appreciation for the contribution of Mr Harwood towards CTTF.

1. Treasurer’s Report

9.1Ms Audrey MacDonald presented the CTTF statement accounts up to 28.2.2014 together with the Auditors’ Report.

9.2Ms MacDonald further informed the meeting that India had paid the levy collected for the previous Commonwealth Games organised by India.

9.3Ms MacDonald pointed out that a number of members had not paid their annual subscriptions for a number of years and appealed to the members concerned to make their payment while in Suzhou.

9.4Proposed by Mr Burton and seconded by Mr Georgiou, the accounts were approved by the meeting.

1. Secretary’s Report

A written report had been provided by Mr Chan prior to the meeting.

10.1Mr Chan presented his written report to the meeting including the ITTF Development Projects organised by the members.

10.2He encouraged members to continue to apply for the ITTF Development Projects through their respective continental federations.

1. Technical Report

11.1Mr Madhosingh had submitted a written report to the meeting with great emphasis on the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.

11.2He highlighted some of the problems as follows:

(a) Transport problem for technical officials to arrive at the competition hall on time

(b) Results were not being displayed for the public

(c) Loud music entertainment and rhythms were disturbing the matches in the second hall.

1. Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 Report

12.1Mr Ransome outlined some of the points that he had noted from his report:

(a)Mr Ransome informed the meeting that the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was very successful and the table tennis competition very good, particularly in respect of the television coverage and spectators.

(b)Although the Games were successful, there had been a number of areas of the organisation that, with better planning, could have been improved.

(c)Mr Ransome had been appointed as a representative of the ITTF for the Games and in this respect had written a report for the ITTF in particular for reference for future Commonwealth Games.

12.2Mr Ireland also reported that the results system used was not the result system normally used by ITTF.

12.3Mr Chan pointed out that in all multi-sport games, the main organising committee would always engage their own experts on result system that would be used for all sports. Such systems would not be suitable for table tennis events and as such it would be up to the ITTF, with support from ourselves, to find a compromise to deliver the results as they should be.

1. Amendment to CTTF M & A and Regulations

None received.

1. Elections

In conjunction with the ITTF President at the time, Mr Adham Sharara, it was agreed that Bruce Burton would be appointed as the Elections Officer for the CTTF for 2015.

Mr Bruce Burton stated that there was only 1 nomination for each of the positions as follows:

(a)ChairmanMr Alan RansomeEngland

(b)Deputy ChairmanMr Paul KyleNew Zealand

(c)Secretary GeneralMr Chan Foong KeongMalaysia

(d)TreasurerMs Audrey MacDonaldSouth Africa

(e)Technical ChairmanDr Chandra MadhosinghCanada

Proposed by Mr Burton and seconded by Mr Georgiou, the meeting confirmed the elections of the above as CTTF Office Bearers.

With regard to the Board of Directors, valid applications received by the closing date had been received as follows:

CanadaDavid JacksonBoard of Directors – North America

BarbadosRay JackmanBoard of Directors – Caribbean

ScotlandPhil McCallumBoard of Directors – Europe

CyprusAndreas GeorgiouBoard of Directors – Europe

NigeriaWahid EnitanOshodiBoard of Directors – Africa

SingaporeEllen Lee GeckHoonBoard of Directors – Asia

IndiaD R ChoudharyBoard of Directors - Asia

Proposed by Mr Bruce Burton and seconded by Mrs Sandra Deaton, the meeting confirmed the election of the above as Members of the Board of Directors.

1. Future Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships 2015/16 and 2017

(a)India had submitted an application to host the Commonwealth Championships from 27 October to 1 November 2015 in Surat with improved hospitality for 4 men and 4 women plus one delegate from each Associationand the CTTF officials. Mr Choudhary, General Secretary of the Table Tennis Federation of India, had also confirmed that transportation would be provided by road from Mumbai to Surat for all participants and officials.

(b)Mr Ransome said that a CTTF General Meeting would be held during the Championships.

(c)Proposed by Mr Ireland and seconded by Mrs Deaton, the meeting agreed to award the Championships to India.

(d)As a result of the success of the Glasgow Games, Table Tennis Scotland lodged an indication of interest to organise the Championships in 2017 subject to financial support from the Government and Glasgow City. The meeting agreed to grant a 3 month option to Scotland to confirm that they are ready to organise the Championship in 2017. The option to be available until 31 July 2015.

1. Commonwealth Games 2018

Gold Coast – Mr Ireland reported that initial indications showed that all necessary arrangements had been made to ensure the smooth organisation of the Games.

Mr Will Goodier, President of the Table Tennis Federation of Australia, gave an update on the progress that was being made with regard to the Gold Coast.

Para Events Men and Women Standing had been included in the Games but due to some difficulty between the organisation committee and the CGF, there had been some changes made to the Para events but it was still hoped that the two table tennis events would remain.

1. Commonwealth Games 2022

Mr Ransome advised the meeting that there was now only one application to stage the Games in 2022 and that was Durban in South Africa. Mrs Audrey MacDonald gave information with regard to the application from Durban to stage the Games. The decision to award the Games to Durban would be taken in Auckland at the Commonwealth Games General Assembly in September. As table tennis was likely to be a core sport by then, it was virtually certain that table tennis would be included in the 2022 Games.

1. Commonwealth Games Core Sports

Mr Ransome reported that the Commonwealth Games Federation Board of Directors are proposing to their General Assembly in Auckland in September that the number of core sports would be increased to from 10 to16 and that table tennis was one of the sports that was to be included as one of the 16 core sports. A decision will be made in Auckland.

At the same time the CGF were considering introducing quotas for all sports because they needed to reduce the number of competitors overall in the Games and therefore there was a possibility that table tennis would have less places in the Gold Coast and in Durban than was the case in Glasgow.

Mr Bruce Burton informed that up to date, the actual quota system had not been decided. The CGF and the ITTF would discuss this further and the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation would be consulted with regard to this matter.

1. ITTF Matters

19.1Mr Ransome informed the meeting that ITTF had appointed Mr Burton as the ITTF Co-ordinator for the CTTF to monitor all Commonwealth affairs and he extended CTTF’s welcome to Mr Burton who would definitely be of great help to the CTTF.

19.2Mr Chan reported that ITTF would call for nominations for the Merit Award to be initiated in 2016 and he encouraged all members to nominate their deserving members in order to recognise their contribution to ITTF.

1. Nomination of the Honorary Personal Members

In view of the retirement of Mr Neil Harwood, the Deputy Chairman, and his contribution to the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation going back to 1983, it was proposed by the Board to appoint Mr Harwood as an Honorary Personal Member. This proposal was agreed by the meeting unanimously.

1. Any Other Business

Mr Ransome explained to the meeting that there was a vacancy on the Board of Directors for a nomination for Africa and a further vacancy for a nomination for Australasia. Mr Ransome had consulted with the Federation’s Honorary Legal Advisor, Mr Philip Avery of the Welsh Association, who had advised that as there had been no nominations coming for these two positions by the due date, the Annual General Meeting could not consider appointment.

However, there was a clause in the Constitution that allowed the Board to fill any vacancies and therefore provided that nominations were received prior to the Board meeting on Thursday, those nominations could be considered by the Board. The Federations from Africa and Australasia were therefore asked to consider this matter and to let Mr Chan have any nominations that they may have before Thursday.

As there was no other business, the meeting was terminated at 2030 with a vote of thanks to the Chair.