by Ian Marshall (ITTF Publications Editor)
The meeting very much celebrated the fact that every conceivable territory on planet earth was now a member of the International Table Tennis Federation; a commemorative 226 national associations training shirt was presented by Glenn Tepper to Thomas Weikert to mark the occasion.
Now the question posed is as to what is next for ITTF, after reaching out to all countries on earth? Glenn Tepper responded with new online educational programmes that will complement a wide range of well-structured activities already in place.
High on the agenda is the ITTF online education initiative which addresses administration and table tennis specifics to help national associations develop and raise standards worldwide.
Pertinently, Michael Brown, ITTF Development Co-ordinator, presented the ITTF Administration Course ; an initiative designed to assist national associations improve their understanding and ability, to better administrate table tennis within their country.
The 18 hour online course is structured around seven modules in the areas of governance, finance, working with partners, human resources, organising competitions, marketing and promotion in addition to values.
Meanwhile, Dejan Papic, ITTF Education and Training Co-ordinator, focused on launching new educational content to help table tennis coaches stay at the cutting edge.
He presented the Education and Training Website structure was presented the Education and Training Website , the focus being on the benefits that can be gained from the expertise of high level coaches; a knowledge data base having been created.
Additionally, there was very much a spirit unity and good; generously, Sarah Hanffou the founder and President of Ping Sans Frontières, the non-profit organisation that works closely with the ITTF Development Programme, presented a donation to Jorge Silva from Cape Verde, the most recent member of the International Table Tennis Federation.
“I have had the opportunity to be in many ITTF DET workshops, but this one in particular, with the new ITTF Administration Course, has given me one of the most useful tools ever. The ITTF DET has so many programs that it is almost impossible to communicate them all in one Workshop only, but the most important thing today was to communicate an idea of everything that is available and leave with the motivation to further explore the development and education support opportunities. And I believe that the DET team did it very well!” Jorge Herrera (Guatemala)
“I think the Workshop covered a nice wide range, was not too much so that people wouldn´t get tired but it also focused and gave us the points to what we can look for and what is available and help us understand and I think that is important. I´m most pleased with the admin programme that has been launched. For those NAs that want to use it, it will be super useful.” Cyril Sen (Malaysia)
“The workshop was very enjoyable, very informative. I now know what I did not know! The contents was very useful.. as the workshop was going through I was wondering how to present it to the entourage back home.” Marguerita Felix (Barbados)
“I found this workshop very useful as it highlights a lot of new projects that ITTF is currently doing across the world. I already started doing the Administration Course and it will be very beneficial not only to myself as an administrator but also for the others, persons at the University where I lecture at as well as players, coaches and administrators in my country.” Aleena Edwards (Trinidad and Tobago)
“I am passionate for table tennis, I´ve been playing since I was eight years old and I have attended 14 World Championships. This year Düsseldorf WTTC is very special and this education programme led by Glenn Tepper is very interesting. The developing countries are learning many things about what is happening in the Table Tennis World and now this online education program is very important as it saves money and reaching out to many people.” Amarsanaa Chimeddorj (Mongolia)
