California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)

The CIF Is a Grass Roots Organization - Schools to Leagues to Sections to Federated Council

The CIF is a bottom up organization and its functions are designed to ensure that new rules only come into being after having been examined and voted upon by CIF representatives throughout the state of California. Each CIF member school is assigned to a local league. The school is represented at the league level by the person designated by the governing board to do so. At the league level, the designees enact a league constitution and bylaws, elect league offers and select from among themselves a league representative to the section governing board. The section governing board is usually referred to as the Board of Managers, but there are some section governing boards which have a different name. The section governing boards, in turn, enact their own constitutions and bylaws, their own officers, and establish section policies and rules which, along with league policies and rules, may be stricter than but may not conflict with, CIF rules. Section governing boards select from their membership their representatives to the CIF Federated Council.

(excerpt from "Getting To Know Us", State CIF website)