Georgia Tech Table Tennis Association (GTTTA)

For those of you who are just starting their Georgia Tech careers, welcome! For those of you who are returning, welcome back! I hope you all had a great summer!

Check out the "General Information" tab at the top of the page for a full description of how our club works.

Our schedule for this semester is posted on the "Schedule" tab as well as in the widget on the right of the "General Information" page.

Thanks to all of you who came out to our first league night! We had 12 total players participate (which is awesome!) in the league which was split into 2 groups of 6.
I have posted the results from this week’s session on our new “League” tab on our website. Check it out here: http://tta.gtorg.gatech.edu/?q=league

Also, this Monday will be our first official training session of our new 8 week training progression.
This week we will be focusing on grip, ready stance, and forehand / backhand counterhit techniques.
The training sessions will start off basic, but build on each other very quickly.

If you are a current, former, or prospective member then please complete the survey located here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ssFobg0cKxa5xvyJAPLK-LwkDmYL4cEG5mXCnha...
(This is the same survey that was sent to the email list; please only complete once)

The officers have been working hard throughout the summer to improve the club experience for all of our players and we would like your input to help us figure out where to focus our efforts.

Also, we recently purchased some new equipment for our members to take advantage of. Some of the equipment has already been delivered, and even more is still on the way. The new equipment we've purchased include a ball catch net, a new ball pickup net, an adjustable serve trainer, clip on ball buckets for multi-ball, as well as a replenished supply of balls. Come to practice and check it out!

The summer semester is officially underway!
Our practice times this summer are Monday, Thursday, and Friday evenings from 7-9 PM on court 6.

We will have a coaching session tomorrow (Thursday May 15th).

Please take notice of these points regarding our activities during practice:
(!!!Please click READ MORE to access the whole post) >>>>>>>

1. Please make sure that you either arrive on time (7:00-7:05) to help setup
and/or stay until the end of practice to help clean up. This is every member's
duty and only takes 2-3 minutes when everybody helps. If you feel unsure about
how to handle a certain piece of equipment then please ask for help.

2. Please only take out as many balls as necessary. When you run out of balls from your
pocket, pick up any balls from the floor. Only take out more balls if there are none already
on the ground for you to pick up. When too many balls are on the floor, they get in the way
of other players and then get stepped on.

3. Members from prior semesters will be allowed one "free" practice each semester before
being required to pay the membership fee for that semester. New players will be allowed 2
practices before being required to pay. After this period, we require that the fee be paid so
be sure to bring cash or a check with you. Payment may be made to any officer, but if possible
please give your payment to Kyle, Stella, or Patrick. See the "lists" email from 5/14 for the amount.

The GTTTA officer elections on 04/21 resulted in the following new leadership:

President: Kyle Post
VP: Patrick Alt
Treasurer: Stella Huang
Public Relations Manager: Hanqing (William) Zhu
Equipment Manager: Arjun Tikku
Director of Player Development: Vedant Ajmera
Director of Special Events: Yuhan Xiao

Some Facts:
- 10 members joined the meeting.
- We had a head-to-head election for President, which Kyle won.
- We had a very tight race for Vice President among 3 candidates where we had to vote three times to decide the tie and all the counts differed only by one vote. Patrick eventually won the race.
- The other officers were elected unanimously with only one candidate for each position.

Congratulations to Kyle and the other officers!

We will hold officer elections on Monday, April 21, at 7:15 pm at the CRC (room 249.), and I hope that many of you will come either to run for an office or to just cast your vote and see what's going on behind the scenes of GTTTA. (!!!Click "read more" to see full content!!!)

If you would like to run for an office, you can send me an email and I will put the candidates here for everybody to see. Please find a list of position below. You can also decide to run (or to not run) for an office during the elections meeting, but it would be good for everybody to know ahead of time who is interested in which position. Officers are elected for one year.

CANDIDATES:
- President: Kyle Post, Jash Mehta, ...
- Vice President: Hanqing (William) Zhu, ...
- Treasurer: Stella Huang, ...
- Secretary: ...
- Equipment Manager: Arjun Tikku, ...
- Director of Player Development: Vedant Ajmera, ...
- Director(s) of Special Events: Yuhan Xiao, ...

AGENDA:
1) Opening words [Martin]
2) Quick review of past year and current situation [Martin]
3) Quick review of National Tournament [Kyle]
4) Election of new President [Martin]
5) New President may propose change in officer structure. Current GTTTA officers need to agree for propositions to be effective. [New President]
6) Election of new officers (see below for positions) [Martin]
7) Member's forum: Members may provide comments, wishes, suggestions to the new president [New President/ open discussion]
8) Final words [Martin]
9) Final words [New President]

OFFICER POSITIONS (may change under item 5 of the meeting agenda):

o President
§ Responsible for all facets of the club, identify short term goals and long term vision
§ Primary focus points: Overall financials, NCTTA tournaments, general welfare of members, website updates

o Vice President
§ Primary focus points: Assist president in high level functions, help manage the other officers, website updates

o Treasurer
§ Maintain a budget/ expense reports, communicate with president about financials, collect and deposit checks,

o Secretary (could be combined with another office)
§ Write officer meeting minutes

o Equipment Manager
§ Proactively taking care of any equipment issues (nets, balls, repair of tables if necessary) and also maintain the organization and cleanliness of storage closet

o Director of Player Development
§ Ideally this should be a high-level player who had some coaching in the past. They will work with our coach to develop an atmosphere of training and improvement within the club.
§ This could possibly also be the men’s team captain

o Director(s) of Special Events
§ In charge of managing the GCFT (possibly in fall and spring), also will assist the president in planning arrangements for all external tournaments (NCTTA, ACUI, and USATT). Plan a social event each semester (meet for dinner, bowling, club swap etc).

Thanks all for participating at the Georgia College Friendly Tournament (GCFT) hosted by GTTTA on Saturday! Ten duos from Lee University, Georgia Gwinnett College, Southern Polytechnic State University, and Georgia Tech competed at the CRC for the winner trophies and prizes. Check out our gallery for pictures!

We'll host a tournament for college students on Feb. 15, 2014.

If you are a college student interested in playing this tournament, please send an email to Yuhan (Tournament director, yxiao66@gatech.edu) or Martin (President of GTTTA, martin.mueller@gatech.edu) for more information.

Hurry up, registration closes soon!

Congratulations to our women's and men's varsity team! At last Saturday's district tournament at CRC, they both qualified for the Regional Tournament on March 1. They will compete with schools from the Southeast including Texas, Mississippi, and Florida for a spot at the NCTTA National Championships in April.

There is no practice from Dec. 17, 2013 - Jan. 05, 2014.
We'll resume on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014.
Happy Holidays!