Michigan Table Tennis needs help
Donation protected
University of Michigan's Table Tennis Team was banned from attending this year's NCTTA Nationals by its sponsoring department. The department even tried to call the NCTTA to default our team from the tournament. With the support of club members and the NCTTA, the team went to play at Nationals and achieved a top 10 finish. We now need support to set up a new table tennis club, including finding a new location for club practices.
We are the Michigan Table Tennis Club, a student organization at the University of Michigan. We have existed as one of the major table tennis clubs in the state of Michigan for more than a decade, and our collegiate team has consistently ranked within the top 10 in North America.
Prior to this year, the UM Table Tennis Club has long been holding its regular practices at the Sports Coliseum at the University of Michigan under the sponsorship of Michigan Club Sports. This past year, our sponsoring department at the University of Michigan has made changes that have significantly impacted our ability to operate and serve our members. Community members (including alumni) that are not currently students, staff, or faculty were banned from participating in the club this year. In addition, the practice times we have held for years have been changed abruptly without our input or consent.
This year, our team has put in countless hours of training and practice and eventually obtained qualification to the 2017 NCTTA Regionals Collegiate Tournament. The invitation to Regionals was sent 13 days before the day of the tournament. However, according to the University of Michigan Club Sports Policy, the team has to turn in a travel form 2 weeks prior in order to obtain approval to travel. Due to our late paperwork submission, the sponsoring department banned our competition at the NCTTA Regional tournament, which would have prematurely ended our season, putting to waste many of the sacrifices our team members have made to compete for Michigan, including staying an extra semester, changing spring break flights, and affecting possible time that could have been spent with family.
Knowing that this decision was completely unfair, a lot of our club members tried to seek an appeal, which was declined. Despite weighing the consequences and attending Regionals, and winning the Co-ed team title, the team was subsequently banned from attending Nationals by the same sponsoring organization.
The department of Club Sports contacted the NCTTA asking them to default the Michigan team from their National tournament.
To protect the interests of the club, our members, and the sport of table tennis, we decided to dissolve our relationship with the sponsoring department. We are now afforded more freedom in our actions (i.e. there is no ban community members or competitions), but need to rent a new space to practice and store our equipment. It is our vision to create a space members of all ages and all skill levels can meet to play table tennis, and we need all the help we can to do so.
To find out more about our club, please visit our website:
http://umich.edu/~umttc
Or send us an email:
[email redacted]
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely
The Michigan Table Tennis Club
We are the Michigan Table Tennis Club, a student organization at the University of Michigan. We have existed as one of the major table tennis clubs in the state of Michigan for more than a decade, and our collegiate team has consistently ranked within the top 10 in North America.
Prior to this year, the UM Table Tennis Club has long been holding its regular practices at the Sports Coliseum at the University of Michigan under the sponsorship of Michigan Club Sports. This past year, our sponsoring department at the University of Michigan has made changes that have significantly impacted our ability to operate and serve our members. Community members (including alumni) that are not currently students, staff, or faculty were banned from participating in the club this year. In addition, the practice times we have held for years have been changed abruptly without our input or consent.
This year, our team has put in countless hours of training and practice and eventually obtained qualification to the 2017 NCTTA Regionals Collegiate Tournament. The invitation to Regionals was sent 13 days before the day of the tournament. However, according to the University of Michigan Club Sports Policy, the team has to turn in a travel form 2 weeks prior in order to obtain approval to travel. Due to our late paperwork submission, the sponsoring department banned our competition at the NCTTA Regional tournament, which would have prematurely ended our season, putting to waste many of the sacrifices our team members have made to compete for Michigan, including staying an extra semester, changing spring break flights, and affecting possible time that could have been spent with family.
Knowing that this decision was completely unfair, a lot of our club members tried to seek an appeal, which was declined. Despite weighing the consequences and attending Regionals, and winning the Co-ed team title, the team was subsequently banned from attending Nationals by the same sponsoring organization.
The department of Club Sports contacted the NCTTA asking them to default the Michigan team from their National tournament.
To protect the interests of the club, our members, and the sport of table tennis, we decided to dissolve our relationship with the sponsoring department. We are now afforded more freedom in our actions (i.e. there is no ban community members or competitions), but need to rent a new space to practice and store our equipment. It is our vision to create a space members of all ages and all skill levels can meet to play table tennis, and we need all the help we can to do so.
To find out more about our club, please visit our website:
http://umich.edu/~umttc
Or send us an email:
[email redacted]
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely
The Michigan Table Tennis Club
Organizer and beneficiary
Lester Lee
Organizer
Ann Arbor, MI
Austin Chen
Beneficiary
