[Aaron Knight]

My own personal 2 cents (not officially representing my team in any fashion):

I am adamantly against this policy for several reasons:
- Cost. There is absolutely no way that teams should be expected to simply eat the cost of $10 per person - many teams have many heavily involved mentors, and this serves to discourage large mentoring groups and/or the recruitment of more mentors into FIRST in general.
- Privacy. I refuse to give a private company that I know little or nothing about my SSN, which is half of what they need to know in order to apply for credit cards in my name and/or max out the ones I have myself. It also follows that it cannot be legally required that I submit it. I've been involved in FIRST for the last two seasons as a student and now am in a mentor role. Social Security Numbers are not advised to be given out by the federal government.
- No Local Control. According to the policy, if there is any question the applicant will be reviewed by FIRST, who has the final say. No local input at all.
- Last year's "reform" example. This was mentioned earlier, what would have happened to last year's stellar example of what FIRST has in terms of effect under the new policy? People change - your past shouldn't hold you accountable for what you are later on. Everyone makes mistakes at one point or another in their life.
- Age. While 18 is the arbitrary "adult" age, students themselves can be as much of a hazard to themselves and others as an adult. Maturity has much more to do with actions.
- Liability. What would happen if someone slipped under the radar? That could blow up in FIRST's face even worse.

I'm not completely against background checks, I just don't believe that their implementation has any rational basis, or that teams should be expected to just turn around and have the money on hand - many teams are having financial trouble as it is - to go through frivolous checks. These sort of checks should be at the discretion of the school whose students are involved, not a national level.