By Jessica Giddings, Immediate Past President

On January 1, 1998 US Lacrosse (USL) was formed from the consolidation of many different lacrosse organizations including the Lacrosse Foundation, the United States Women's Lacrosse Association, the National Junior Lacrosse Association, the United States Lacrosse Officials Association, the United States Lacrosse Coaches Association, the United States Club Lacrosse Association, the Central Atlantic Lacrosse League and the National Intercollegiate Lacrosse Officials Association.

With the formation of US Lacrosse, the Women’s Division Post Collegiate Clubs Council (WDPCC) was also formed. At its inception the WDPCC had two representatives on the USL Board of Directors (currently one rep) as well as an additional two representatives on the Women’s Division Board of Governors.

On February 1, 1999 the first draft of the PCC Bylaws were written and submitted for approval to the Board of Governors. The new bylaws created an executive council of a chair and a secretary and a mandatory annual meeting for members. A quorum for these meetings was set as 10% of its members. Members were identified as those who had checked PCC player on the USL membership form. With continuing adaptation of the membership application this PCC player option on the membership form was replaced with adult player, which also included college players, and thus there was no way to identify membership. So an attempt was made to redefine the bylaws of the WDPCC to better identify our constituency.

The current bylaws were drafted on December 23, 2003 and attempted to include a broader definition of membership. The new membership requirements are:

a - Be a lacrosse club, team or organization made up of players not currently affiliated with a high school, college, university or similar institution in the United States.

b - Desire to apply for membership and indicate their desire to participate and promote the purposes of the PCC and US Lacrosse.

c - Make a reasonable effort to send a representative to the annual PCC general membership meeting.

d - Agree to pay any initiation fee and/or dues or assessments as may be from time to time established by the PCC Council.

e - Agree to abide by the rules of the PCC as they are promulgated from time to time.

f - Have its application of membership approved by a two-thirds majority vote of the PCC Council.

In addition to new membership requirements the bylaws also expanded the council to a minimum of three council members. The standing council currently consists of the Chair, the Vice Chair, the Secretary, the Eastern Representative, the Western Representative, and the immediate Past Chair. All council members are elected to two-year terms that are renewable. To ease leadership transitions half of the council is up for re-election each year, thus ensuring a constant base of experienced council persons. In addition to the council the bylaws also give the chair the ability to create committees as needed. A committee head must be voted on and approved by a 2/3 majority of the council. Currently the WDPCC has several committees including the Website Committee, the Newsletter Committee, the At-Large Players Committee, the Marketing committee and the National Tournament Committee.

Within the bylaws are also procedural rules on how bylaw changes are done as well as how to replace council and committee members as needed.

In the past several years the WDPCC has established itself as an active council of USL. Our current website is a model for other councils and serves to provide a resource for teams and players across the country. Additionally the monthly newsletter is posted on the site and provides highlights of various teams and individuals throughout the PCC community. The website was also used as a launching site for a comprehensive survey that was designed to identify and address the needs and concerns of PCC as a whole. The management and analysis of this in-depth survey is all being done by WDPCC council members.

There are still several projects under development that attempt to address the needs of a very diverse group of women. Everything from how to start a new club to the logistics of holding national championships are current projects of the WDPCC.

We have a rich history and our future is even more promising.