Volunteer Screening?

[BillCloyes]

I have been reading and rereading the US First “Documentation” on their “Youth Protection Policy.” Not unlike the FRC game rules, the latest update only seems to add to the confusion and not actually clarifies anything. The following items are my thoughts (and like many others in posts above this…represent only my thoughts and no one else…) on one of the more hypocritical instances bound to occur.

I give you fair warning: this by no means a “common sense” approach, but in the “wonderful” world of technicalities, liabilities, and plainly covering one’s behind, one cannot be too careful….

Definition of a “Mentor”

The FIRST policy clearly states that anyone over the age of 18 that will spend more than one time period with the team will need to be screened with the background check and results readily available for audit. This lends to a few additional questions:

* What if mentors cross between teams? Say I am the “team leader” for team A and have a mentor from team B helping (on more than one occasion) my team. Being the team A "team leader", I cannot afford to assume that they have been checked, but ask for copies of the consent form from the “team leader” of team B.

This is only because that as it stands now, that if anything were to happen to anyone on my team, I, the “team leader”, would be held responsible (and liable). According to FIRST, in order to limit my liability (and compliance) I must maintain their information for 3 plus years. It should also be noted that (per FIRST) incomplete information is not acceptable; therefore I will have to have that mentor’s SSN as well.

Using the above as a basis:

* As pointed out in an earlier post, what of the volunteers at the competition events? It makes good sense to have all of them background checked, and information readily available to limit my liability

* What of the judges, the CEO’s and VP’s that FIRST brings in to be amongst the youth and judge the various categories? That would mean that I need all of their SSN and other information.

* And that would even go so far as to include Dean and Woody. But being as strong believers of FIRST as they are, I’m *sure* they won’t have a problem giving their SSN out to the “team leader” from every team.

As a reminder: “team leaders” get to perform their own background checks, no issue with liability there either…

Just some things to think about.
-Bill Cloyes
4th year mentor
677 Team Lead