Resolutions concerning the Senior Nationals, National Council and supporting talented Junior players were among those discussed at last night’s Table Tennis England AGM.

Six Special Resolutions were on the agenda, each requiring 75% of Company Members to vote in favour in order to be passed.

Read the resolutions in full, including the rationale behind each one, on the General Meetings page of this website.

Among those passed was a resolution calling for an independent review of the Senior National Championships. This passed with 85.2% in favour.

Although the competition is routinely reviewed every year, there was agreement that a Working Group, led by a senior figure who is independent of the Competitions Committee, should be convened, and should include representation from across the sport. This will now be taken forward.

A separate resolution to review the Cadet & Under-17 National Championships was also passed, with a vote of 84.3% in favour. There was agreement that this would be carried out by the Competitions Committee.

Two resolutions concerned National Council. One directed the Board to re-establish comprehensive written financial reports and reports from other committees to National Council. This fell short of the vote needed, with 60.6% voting in favour.

The other directed the Board to nominate one of the elected directors to act as liaison between the Board and National Council. This fell short of the vote needed, with 61.3% voting in favour.

The discussion around these resolutions centred on significant recent improvements in communication and transparency between the Board and National Council, Company Members and the membership in general.

Table Tennis England Chair, Clare Briegal, and CEO, Sally Lockyer, regularly attend National Council meetings, as do individual Directors. National Council also receives in-person updates from members of SLT on bespoke topics. Specific meetings concerning financial matters have also been arranged, including a financial ‘deep dive’ meeting held last week and which any Company Member could attend. Copies of the presentation and minutes of that meeting were also circulated.

There was support for and appreciation of the work done in this area and a commitment by the Board to continue to proactively build relationships, communication and transparency with the broad spectrum of the membership, including National Council, in a variety of different formats.

In the light of this, it was felt by many that appointing a specific Director to liaise with National Council was not required.

A resolution directing the Board to introduce a system to support Junior players which is not reliant on family financial support was passed with 76% voting in favour.

The Strategic Review currently under way will consider how this might be achieved, though it was acknowledged that funding is an issue.

A resolution calling for the reinstatement of ‘Good Standing’ failed to pass, with a 67% vote in favour.

The concept of Good Standing was removed and replaced by Memoranda of Understanding with individual organisations, which set out specific criteria and protect both parties.

Also at last night’s AGM, the appointment of eight new Vice-Presidents was unanimously agreed, the minutes of the 2025 AGM were unanimously approved and resolutions were passed to accept the Financial Accounts (95.2% in favour) and to reappoint the auditors (95.1% in favour).