Welcome to the first edition of the new Regional Magazine produced thanks to the efforts of our Regional Development Officer Chris Newton in the main. Chris has now been in post for almost 6 months and he is there to offer guidance and support in your development efforts. If you have a project you are thinking about then talk to Chris first.

I am pleased to say things are starting to move again on the Development Front with the mid year introduction of the Lottery Small Grants Program which will give organisations that have the ideas and will to progress, the opportunity to attract the funding which is often so necessary.

It was a pleasure to meet so many of you at the Regional Conference in Sandwell just before Christmas and the message of that conference, that there has possibly never been a better opportunity for development of Table Tennis than there is at this time, needs to be realised and acted on by all organisations and players in the region.

We held our first meeting of the reconstituted Regional Committee in November, at that meeting we agreed that the Regional Committee would concentrate on programs to enhance both the numbers of and standard of coaches, umpires and administrators. The result of this decision should see a series of courses and seminars for these people in the coming year. Please consider taking up or expanding your activities in these areas.

Table Tennis in the West Midlands (as elsewhere in England) runs only because of the untiring efforts of a small minority of committed volunteers and that minority can only be stretched so far, if we are to see major progress in provision of opportunities for people to take up the sport then we also need major progress in the provision of people to guide those newcomers in their initial steps in the game we all love.

To close it was gratifying to see the level and numbers of juniors and cadets from all the counties within the region participating in the Regional Trials in Warwick just after the New Year. My congratulations to those who qualified for the National Trials.

Malcolm Macfarlane

Regional Chairman