[generalbrando]

There have been threads dedicated to warnings about problems that have occured on teams - problems that likely would have been prevented had background checks been done. I'm not saying this will really prevent everything bad from happening.

The reality is that if everyone of you opens you wallet, your online banking service, or your check book - you'll find that you can infact spare $10 somewhere in there. Maybe you have to wait till the next pay check - but I won't believe that someone can't come up with $10. I'm a broke college student on total aid and I could spare twice that. So if you have hundreds of checks to perform - you should probably just ask the individuals to hand over $10. Yes, that's backward because they are volunteering. However, if they really want to volunteer they will understand that you simply can't meet this requirement without $10 from them.

I don't see this as a major problem, so I'm approaching it lightly. This will make things a little more complicated and you can argue "at what cost?" The cost may be a couple days of paper work and a few absent engineers. The gain may be that the bright faces you see at your meetings will not be killed or mollested.

Katie, the way I understand it, a parent dropping off food or stopping by to see what's going on would not require a back ground check. The sponsors, assuming they aren't there every night, shouldn't need one either. And as for saying that someone will know something is up: teams are larger or smaller and organized differently. It is possible that they would not notice something is up.

Yes, I understand FIRST is covering themselves as well. But as for Bill's comment about team policies: that may be a good idea. However, what is Team Hammond's policy (I'd never heard there was one when I was on the team) and for the rest of you - do you have a policy and would you make one just because FIRST suggested one?

Any way you cut it, it looks like we'll have to deal with it for this year. Maybe next year FIRST can lower the price or provide more alternatives. I wouldn't, however, suggest to them that they get rid of it.