This is in response to some of your postings at the About.com forum.

Although I have resigned as USATT Executive Director, you have chosen to continue to make inaccurate and false statements and mislead the members of USATT in public forums.  It was my sincere hope that my resignation as ED of USATT will put a stop to all of this, but certainly this is not the case. “Insubordination,” “withholding,” and “filtering and editing of financial info” are the words that you have used for the past several months to me and/or the USATT Financial Director.  I don’t know WHAT will stop you in making these baseless accusations.  You have forced me to inform the USATT Members of some of the real issues of USATT.

It is not a secret that I have a great admiration for Tong Lee, former USATT Treasurer.  He has proven, for at least as long as I held the position of ED, to be a very knowledgeable person, easy to work with and a great help to me and USATT.  As a result, the USATT financial situation has greatly improved in the last several years.  Cash in the bank in the last 4 years increased from $100,000 to around $550,000 as April 15, 2007.  USATT net income for 2006 was $90,000.  As of December 31, 2006, our reserves were $487,000.

It is very important to clarify that Tong Lee while USATT Treasurer had asked for 1/10 of what you have asked for.  It is also important to acknowledge that in order to sign the Tax returns for any year the former Treasurer requested and was given the financial statements and the audited financials ONLY.  Regardless, it seems that you as the current USATT Treasurer have the right to ask for whatever financial info you need, but this shouldn’t imply that financial info were withheld/edited/filtered.

During my tenure as ED, the association has filled an extension for tax return only one time during the Killerspin arbitration, and if I remember correctly this was at the request of USATT independent auditor or USOC. You have asked for a second extension even though our independent auditor has signed off on the 990 Form, and you have seven years of complete financial statements, including the general ledger.  

Regarding the financials, you have been given complete financial information, including QuickBooks for the years 2000-2006. This means that you now have every USATT transaction from 2000 to 2006.  

As I have repeatedly said in my emails to the Board, as Executive Director, I had my concerns releasing some USATT contracts, due to your conflict of interest (running Killerspin tournaments, using a killerspin.com email address and having the entry form and fees of a Killerspin tournament sent to your business address) and the confidentiality of financial details of the contracts.  You have a huge conflict of interest if you review the bids of competitors of Killerspin, especially if Killerspin is bidding on a contract. You have a conflict of interest by asking and looking at the contracts of the competitors of Killerspin.  If you have a concern about contracts, someone else on the Board who is not associated with a company in the table tennis industry could check whatever you want to check for on your behalf and at your direction. As the ED, it was my fiduciary duty to protect the assets, intellectual property, and confidential information of the Association. But since the Board has approved a motion during the July Board Meeting, as far as I am concerned, it would be the Board’s responsibility if any confidential info leaks out or is misused.

As for my resignation, let me make one thing clear: I was not forced to resign or else be fired because of wrongdoing.  I was forced to resign because I was not allowed to do my job as Executive Director. The constant baseless accusations, threats and requests for information from you, Reed and Wang that are confidential and at times not relevant and time-consuming to fulfill ultimately resulted in an unbearable, emotion draining working environment for me.  You all may have your own political agenda for doing all these, but no matter who is the ED, this type of attack rather than support, and micro-management of the ED must stop.  In addition, the silence of the other Board members who probably were just sick and tired of all the bickering going on, was painful and unbearable.  For example, when you accused USATT Financial Director of unprofessional conduct by editing financial information, which if true, would compel me to discipline her, nobody asked you for proof or said anything, even when I challenged you to substantiate your allegations.  

Further, just to show the degree of your false statements, you have posted on About.com the following:

EH-- “Please note that I did not tell the Executive Director what to do.  I asked for information.”                                                   

In response: Refer to your email dated August 14th, 2007 stating “The executive director must not sign another contract.”  What authority do you have as the Treasurer to ORDER the Executive Director not to sign any contracts?   

EH-- “As of today, I do not have sufficient information to sign the 2006 Tax returns.”

In response: As of 8/15/07, you have received complete QuickBooks financials for the years 2000-2006.  You have every transaction for these seven years. 

EH- “Moving forward, maybe having a new ED shows the USOC the degree of cleanliness the new USATT slate of leadership will be!” 

In response: Let me remind you that one of the reasons the USOC took action to de-fund USATT was not incompetence or ethical trouble on the part of the Executive Director – it was micromanagement on the part of the Board.

Finally, I request that you cease and desist from making false, inaccurate or misleading statements. 

Teodor Gheorghe"

- Ed Hogshead on About.com forum

Dennis Davis, Alan Williams, and all -

Boy, it can get tough to post here!  I am not stating that Doru was unethical.  Please do not try to put words in my mouth.  Do as you did, Dennis, and ask for an explanation.  Thank you for that.

Yes, there are other words to use that may have been more appropriate.  Clean was the word the USOC chose.  I am not sure the opposite of clean is unethical or dirty.  The USOC's meaning of clean could be change.  Clean sheets are changed sheets.

Alan, cannabalistic is also not correct.  Doru resigned and was not fired.  I believe each member of the Board appreciated his hard work and dedication, including myself.

My concern as Treasurer was getting full access to financial records, a responsibility given to the Treasurer by the Bylaws, the Financial Policies Manual, and USATT members (through the election).  This was afforded to the outgoing Treasurer but not to me.  Doru was the keeper of these records at HQ - but it must be noted that he may have been instructed by other Board members on this.  I asked repeatedly and professionally for 6 months to no avail.  The pressure to release the records increased by the passage of a motion by the Board on July 8.  All but one board member voted yes, and that member abstained.

As of today, I do not have sufficient information to sign the 2006 Tax returns.  A second extension was filed.  Each and every member of the Board is responsible for the accuracy of the financial records and tax returns.  The Sarbanes and Oxley Law also pertains to not-for-profit organizations.  It was created to help prevent financial catastrophes such as Enron, Global Crossing, etc.

Ensuring accuracy of the tax returns does not mean I am looking for fraud, it means I am trying to protect the USATT, its not-for-profit status, and the Board members.  The USOC already corrected the original 2006 return that was to be sent on May 15.

Does that help clear this up?  I will answer more questions, if you have more.

- Ed Hogshead on about.com- Moving forward, maybe having a new ED shows the USOC the degree of cleanliness the new USATT slate of leadership will be!

- Ed Hogshead on about.com- Please note that I did not tell the Executive Director what to do.  I asked for information. 

Thanks,

Ed Hogshead