First...

There will be plenty of firsts in the next couple years as we lead up to the launch of Chicago's first professional women's soccer team and this is our first blog post!

Much of the action over the next six months will be behind the scenes and not readily apparent to the public. i'm hoping that these blogs will provide some transparency into the organization, insight into the team and a forum to gain reaction, ideas and suggestions from the public.

Last week was important for both the team and League. Chicago Professional Women's Soccer, LLC held its first shareholders meeting at its first office on Tuesday. The office is literally a single office within fellow shareholder Jack Cummins' suite of law offices at 415 N. LaSalle Drive Suite 600 in the River North area of Chicago. We will likely keep that as our interim office until we begin staffing up next spring.

The first CPWS shareholders meeting was very good. It was the first opportunity for several of the shareholders to meet each other and it gave me an opportunity to update them on recent activities including my first address at the Illinois Women's Soccer League Annual General Meeting and our first meeting with Indiana Youth Soccer Executive Director Don Rawson.

Topics of discussion at the shareholders meeting included our Vision, Mission and Value Statements; Roadmap/Timeline; Efforts to bring in additional shareholders; Corporate structure and corporate manager selection; Budgets; Affiliations with the Chicago Fire, IWSL, FC Indiana and others; Personnel hiring: President/CEO, General Manager, staff, coach and players; Sponsorship, marketing and ticket sales and creation of an advisory board.
i will try to address several of those topics in future blogs.

i was also in Washington, DC with fellow shareholders Gary Weaver and Jack Cummins last Wednesday through Friday for League meetings. There is a lot to be done and i am glad we have the extra year to do it. i am serving on four League committees including chair of the marketing committee, so Chicago will have a strong role in the creation of the League's foundation.

The next couple years will include plenty of firsts that we hope will culminate with the League's first championship in Chicago in 2009.

Thank you in advance for your support and i invite you to share your comments, questions and thoughts below.