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We have decided to postpone the decision of how many women's and open teams we let in until after registration is closed (while the Mixed division will remain 40 teams). It will either be the former format of 16 Women and 24 Open teams, or 20 Women & 20 Open teams. Here is why.

Windmill has been working towards gender equity. Our 2016 decision to decrease the number of spots for the men's division in favour of the mixed division was partially inspired by gender equity. The process started at the top of the organization back in 2014, when the board admitted its first female members. Currently our board is 100% female.

We want to give a podium to women's ultimate and explore if we can make the divisions fully gender equitable by having 20 women's teams and 20 open teams. However, we are aware that the level of our open division is a lot more competitive than in the women's division, and that it may not benefit the participating women's teams' experience if the level of play is diluted too much. Therefore we will wait to see how many women’s teams sign up and look at their level. If we find that we can make a solid women’s division with 20 teams, we will do it. So this is a shout out to women's club teams and national teams of Europe and beyond: come one, come all!

Written by Lisa Kouwenberg, secretary to the board