Monday 15th November 2010
President's Report / Secretary's Report
This has been a very good year for Southern Table Tennis with the number of players in our competitions increasing, the junior program being well supported and the number of participants attending our social sessions remaining steady. There has been a very positive atmosphere around the club, we are in sound financial position and no major problems have occurred. We have also continued to be innovative trialling things such as 5 person teams in winter season, starting division 3 at 7.00 pm for spring season and having a Sunday afternoon practice session. The executive committee has also spent time having a look at how we promote ourselves and our future directions strategy.
Our competitions have had an increasing number of entrants compared to recent years and it has been particularly pleasing to have had 80 entrants for this spring season. With winter season we had a significant number of new players to our club and in order to create a good social atmosphere for these players we trialled 5 person teams for our bottom division which was reasonably successful. The main problem experienced during winter season was that 6 players withdrew from the competition after the first few weeks for various reasons and we required at least 10 fill in players almost every week. I think this really highlighted the advantages of our flexible approach to using fill in players in making the competition run as smoothly as possible.
The large number of entrants for this spring season is a reflection of how players are now treating table tennis as not just a winter sport. Unfortunately we had not planned for 80 entrants and did not have enough time to organise the competition over 2 nights in a acceptable manner. So we modified the spring competition to allow 72 players to compete on the one night and convinced 7 people to volunteer to be first choice reserves in a compromise which is working but which we probably do not want to repeat. With the amount of interest we are now getting all year round we will be planning for all our future competitions to be run over both Wednesday and Thursday nights.
The Tuesday night Junior program is going well with an average of just over 20 kids each night and with about 8 children progressing to playing in our normal competitions. With the format that we currently have we really cannot accommodate many more children and as a result we have done little promotional work for the junior program this year. However we are looking at introducing a junior competition next year which will hopefully allow us to increase the number of children participating in table tennis at our club. Alvan WHITE and Rex RAYNER have also provided coaching at several schools during the year as part of the "active after hours school care program". We have also run coaching sessions during the school holidays which have attracted about 6 to 8 kids to each session.
The Tuesday and Friday morning social sessions are still proving to be popular with over 20 people attending each session and we have almost completely filled the stadium on several Tuesday mornings.
I believe there is a lot of potential with a little bit of targeted promotion to increase the number of people who attend these social sessions. I would like to thank Don LUGG for his dedication to opening up the hall and providing a friendly atmosphere for all those that attend.
The Monday night practice sessions are very busy with people having to wait for tables to become free which has resulted in us changing the starting times for these sessions to 6.30 pm. There is also a practice session on Friday night and unfortunately this is still struggling to attract many players but does have a core group of dedicated attendees. We also trialled a Sunday afternoon practice session in the belief that players would be interested in the hall being open during the weekend. Unfortunately this particular timeslot did not prove to be very popular and was abandoned after a couple of months.
I would really like to thank everybody who has contributed to the running of Southern Table Tennis this year. There are many different tasks which need to be done and it is great that we have such a fantastic core group of people who all do their bit to make the club run as smoothly as it does. The next challenge for our club is to continue doing what we have done so well this year as well as finding a way to increase the amount of promotional work we do to keep Southern Table Tennis growing.
Marcel Storken
President
I have been preparing reports for the Southern AGM for quite a few years, and in doing so reflect on each years activities and achievements, but more so the persons who make it all happen. It continues to amaze me how our small band of Committee, volunteers and coaches (the team) ensure all our activities continue to get delivered. Generally it is the same group of people, but from time to time new helpers come along and fill the gap left by those who have stepped aside. Well done everyone, and great working with you to bring it all together.
Now to reflect:-
So ends another 12 month term of the Southern Executive, volunteers and coaches. Well done team, hope you are all ready to do it again. Anyone else who would like to join the team so we can spread the workload and provide for succession planning, your involvement would certainly be welcomed.
Maurice Quinn
Secretary