Volunteer Screening?

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by dlavery

27 days to go !!!!!!

You are referrencing kickoff correct? Because as of now I count 33 full days (plus some hours)

[Anarkissed]

Originally Posted by Steve W

As for students that are 18 or 19, you are still students and not mentors. Once you are no longer a student at the school and you return to help THEN you become a mentor. This is common sense. I see people on this thread being soooo legalistic without using common sense. It's almost like picking the rules apart to find any small way to beat them. Lets try to boost FIRST and help them at this time rather than pick them apart for trying to do what's best for everyone. FIRST is one GREAT organization and I am proud to be associated with it. Lets stand behind and support them as they move forward.

Common sense isn't what lawyers or judges look at. If this is a cover our behind type of provision, then first would want its students that are over 18 checked too, because we would have as much contact with youth if not more than a mentor, and are considered adults in the eyes of the law, whether mentor or not. I'm not just trying to nitpick through the rules looking at everything I can whine about, I'm looking for the things that I have disputes with. Lets just go along with what they say? To me that sounds like a BAD idea. Ok, so you should support an organization in which you are a part of, but without the stinging of a gadfly can it come no closer to perfection. I support FIRST on the whole, in almost all of their decisions, but when you disagree with one, you should voice that opinion, and intelligently at that. I will admit my opinion lacked solution, which is a vital part of an argument, but I think that this idea should be completely withdrawn.

[Steve Yasick]

I agree with Bill Beatty on all points and would like to add:

I have engineers who have been on our team for 6 or more years. As far as I know they are great people who have dedicated 3+ months a year to our team. Now I have to say that what I have seen of you is great but.... I am comfortable with what they do and proud of how they work with our kids. I would question any negative results of any background check on our engineers.

I don't like the idea that I will have to administer the screening by collecting ss#s and waiting for a green or red response. I can't imagine having to tell an engineer who I know very well that he/she got a negative response and cannot be a mentor.


We have rules in place and we (the high school teachers) make sure that situations don't happen that can be an opportunity for problems.


I don't agree with this new policy.

Steve Yasick
Team 85

[sanddrag]

Here's a question I posted several weeks ago and received no response. I thought I'd post it again since this topic seems alive again.

What guarantee does FIRST have that there aren't adults who help the team dodging the background check? How would they find out? If they found out, what will FIRST do if an adult who has been helping a team has not had the check run?

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Identity theft and credit fraud are real, serious problems. To discourage and help prevent them, and other abuses of your Social Security Number (including resale of your SSN to other organizations), everyone is urged to take precautions against distribution of their SSN. Furthermore, the SSN is used way-too-frequently to gather information and intrude into the legitimate privacy of U.S. citizens. I have absolutely no intention to divulge my SSN to anyone that does not have a statutory requirement for access to that information.

While it is legal for anyone, including a background-check organization, to request your Social Security Number, you are under no legal obligation to provide it. Under Federal law, you are only required to provide your SSN to employers (for wage and tax purposes), specific local/state/federal government organizations from which you receive benefits, support or employment, and for court/legal actions. No private organizations are specifically authorized to require or use your SSN (for more on this, see Testimony Of Deputy Commissioner Lockhart before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, on Preserving the Integrity of Social Security Numbers and Preventing Their Misuse by Terrorists and Identity Thieves, September 19, 2002). If someone wants to run a check on me, and they do not employ me, they are going to have to do it without my SSN.

I whole heartedly agree that you should not give out your SSN. However, the screening organization can choose to not provide their service if you do not provide the SSN. That is their right as a private organization. Whether they will or not, I don't know, as I haven't tried it. By FIRST only authorizing one organization, they open themselves up to this kind of thing.

Currently, Federal law places no restrictions on the use of the SSN by the private sector. People may be asked for an SSN for such things as renting a video, getting medical services, and applying for public utilities. They may refuse to give it. However, the provider may, in turn, decline to furnish the product or service.

[jneumiller]

Originally Posted by Tytus Gerrish

i dont need the screening for legoleague im an employee of the Palm beach county school board and they do bakground checks anyways, heres my Fingerprint card

Gee, does that mean that since I'm a DoD civilian employee with a security clearance that I can show up with my fingerprint card too?

We've been told by US FIRST that there are no exceptions...anyone else hearing the same thing?

Jim

[jneumiller]

Originally Posted by generalbrando

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.

GEN Brando...you're missing the point from the older and wiser folks among us. This is very much akin to putting a frog into a pot of room temperature water and then turning up the heat a little bit at a time. For those of us that don't want to become "frog soup" it's not about money. It's about assuming the worst about people that have no proven reason for being distrusted.

I like the idea of allowing the schools involved to come up with their own vetting process. If they decide to use state databases of sexual predators (and let's be honest folks...that's what's at issue here) to check out mentors, then so be it...but to do this at the national level....putting money into someone's pocket to pretty much do the same thing is outlandish.

If my security clearance isn't good enough to prove I'm trustworthy...then I guess I'll just not be able to participate in the reindeer games.

See you on the high ground!

Jim

[Gadget470]

Then again, they may also turn you down because you looked at them funny. They are under no contract to actually perform the background check on you unless you or someone else has paid them. Not just over a SSN, for any reason other than: Ethnicity, Gender, Height, Weight, Religion.. and all those other little protected things.

[Kevin Kolodziej]

On the main page of the TIMS section of FIRST, you can find this:

Volunteer Screening Announcement
FIRST constantly strives to ensure the safety of thousands of youth that participate in our programs each year. Toward that end, FIRST is implementing new volunteer screening procedures in 2003.

All FIRST Adult Team Mentors will be required to complete a standardized internet-based background check process. (Teachers employed by a public school system which already conducts background checks on its employees will not need to be screened.) Registering an FRC Team includes consent to the background check and certifies permission to use resulting reports. Any information gathered during the screening process will be strictly confidential. By registering, teams also agree to cover the cost of the background check process (less than $10 per person.)

FIRST will contact registered teams via email in October to provide details on how to meet the screening requirements. We believe that these new measures will help provide parents of children who participate in FIRST programs a greater sense of security. The FIRST community can take comfort and pride in these new steps to further protect our youth.

Based on this, because our teams were registered and the majority of us never saw this, we really did not sign up for this. If we do not submit our SSN, therefore the check cannot be complete, does this mean that we have breached a contract with FIRST and there isn't a thing we can do about it...just not participate? If this is the case, as Dave Lavery mentioned, all of the federally employed mentors lose out, their teams lose out, and most of all, the kids lose out. Notice at the end it says "The FIRST community can take comfort and pride in these new steps to further protect our youth." To be honestly, that doesn't seem to be the attitude the FIRST community has taken...I take pride in the fact that FIRST is trying to become an even better organization, but I certainly do not feel comfortable with it.

This was to be my 6th year in FIRST...I really do not want to have to give up such a wonderful program over something like this.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by jneumiller

Gee, does that mean that since I'm a DoD civilian employee with a security clearance that I can show up with my fingerprint card too?

We've been told by US FIRST that there are no exceptions...anyone else hearing the same thing?

Jim

Tytus's case would fall under the one exception, since he's been officially screened by a public school as a regular school volunteer. That was the only thing that's allowed under the rules FIRST has given out.

And... it's not US FIRST anymore. It hasn't been for several years, but people still refer to FIRST by the wrong name.

[Trashed20]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

Tytus's case would fall under the one exception, since he's been officially screened by a public school as a regular school volunteer. That was the only thing that's allowed under the rules FIRST has given out.

And... it's not US FIRST anymore. It hasn't been for several years, but people still refer to FIRST by the wrong name.

Its still www.usfirst.org though isn't it? People will still call it that even though its international now. Minor technicality.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by robo hottie71

This was to be my 6th year in FIRST...I really do not want to have to give up such a wonderful program over something like this.

The new policy just applies to team mentors (who are going to spend lots of time with the high school students under the auspices of FIRST). It does not ban anyone from participating on a team.

[LSevcik]

Hi, all! One aspect of this Volunteer Screening that FIRST has not addressed is liability issues for the team leaders that will be gathering the information. I as a team leader nor do any other team leaders (teachers etc ) want to take on any liability if something goes amiss in the process. In speaking with my other team leaders, we do not wish to hold on to people's personal information, (if they fill out the application). None of the team leaders have any training on doing personal reference interviews either. This is another aspect for team leaders to consider.

[Brian Beatty]

I am adamantly opposed to mentor background checks. As Ben Franklin said, "If people are willing to trade a little bit of freedom for a little more safety, then they don't deserve freedom or safety". As already stated, who decides what is acceptable and unacceptable? What are the "criteria"? What about someone that smokes cigarettes, isn't that a bad influence? If sex offenders are their concern, then go look then go match the mentor list to the public list and be done with it. I know I will pass the check, but many people here are missing the point.
Most people connected with FIRST are idealists to some extent trying to make the world a better place. This for me is a big step backward. I will not voluntarily submit to a background check and if some "authority-whoever that is" asks me to leave, then so be it.

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty

[Kevin Kolodziej]

Originally Posted by Andrew

The new policy just applies to team mentors (who are going to spend lots of time with the high school students under the auspices of FIRST). It does not ban anyone from participating on a team.

Actually, it does. If someone gets red-flagged in the screening process, I would imagine they would be banned. I am am certain that my screen would come back green, so no, I would not be banned from participating on a FIRST team. But I have absolutely no plans to hand over my SSN, so in the eyes of FIRST, I will not have complied with the new policy. Therefore unless something else is said or done, if I participate on the team, FIRST will find (when they get around to my team for auditing) that I had an imcomplete submission and then they will come after me.

What do you suggest I do? And giving my SSN is not an acceptable answer.

Kev