Starting Your Own Table Tennis Club

Are you tired of looking for the perfect table tennis club? Perhaps you should start one instead. Starting a table tennis club is not difficult, but it does require some planning and organization on your part.

You can start by asking yourself the following questions:

What kind of table tennis club do you want?

Do you want your table tennis club to be a social get together where people meet to have a few snacks and drinks and bat the ball back and forth a few times? Or do you want people more focused on their play? Are you looking for amateurs or champions?

Where will you find members?

You can find members for your table tennis club by word of mouth and by advertising in local papers and publications/websites specifically related to table tennis.

One word about advertising on the web—be careful you don’t spam. If you’re contacting someone you don’t know, make sure to specify where you got his/her email address and why you are inviting him/her to join your club. For instance, “You don’t know me, but I’m a friend of John Doe’s. He told me you were a champion table tennis player, and I’m starting a club…”

On websites it’s usually best to go to the forum, find the most appropriate topic, and leave a chatty message. “Contact abc@def.ghi for info on a great table tennis club” might be considered spamming. A message like, “I’m starting a table tennis club and would like to invite all of you to give advice and to attend the club meetings if possible. We’re located in Southern Arizona. You can respond on this forum or contact me directly to me at….” is fair game.

What about the logistics?

Where will your table tennis club meet? Will you meet at a different member’s house each time, or will the meetings always be in the same place. Will you take up a collection to supply refreshments, ask the host to supply them, or ask members to bring their own?

Will you have membership dues, and if so, who will collect them and how will they be spent?

What are your goals?

If your chief goal is “to have fun and get to know others who enjoy table tennis,” you’ll have a very different table tennis club than if your chief goal is, “to improve the community by involving at-risk youths in table tennis” or “to practice and increase our level of play in order to improve tournament performance.”

Once you have these goals formed in your mind, put them on paper and make copies so that everyone who joins your table tennis club will know upfront what your club is trying to achieve.

What are your rules?

You don’t have to write War and Peace here. In fact, your members will appreciate not being held to dozens of little nit-picky standards. But rules about things like membership dues, attendance, how officers are chosen or elected, and standards of conduct are always appreciated. Again, put your rules on paper so that you can give them to new members.

It takes time and effort to start a table tennis club, but if table tennis is your passion, don’t let the need for a little elbow grease scare you off. Once your club has been up and running for a few years, you can pass the reigns to another president and just enjoy the game playing and/or social aspects.