In our little tennis officiating world we have done a few months of "navel gazing" to weed out all the pedophiles and various other criminals.
NAVEL GAZING: self-introspection and looking at one's own navel with vigor.
Many of our officials are now wondering, "what do we do now?"
The USTA has announced that all officials must complete the background check by January 1, 2011, in order to be certified--and that date is very very close. What do we do now that over 5,000 officials have not been placed on the approved list? What do we do when the certifying agency requests seemingly ridiculous documents (drivers license and certified birth certificates) when you can find a person with their social security number (which is required when you fill out the form).
And most of all, what do we do when someone we know and use in our matches isn't on the approved list? Do we assume the worst or just sit around and gossip about the possible reasons or just move on with our lives? Here are our recommendations:
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OFFICIALS
1. Fill out all the required paperwork and get it done quickly.
2. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. The background checks are required so just do them if you want to work.
3. Be the best official you can be. The cream will always rise to the top.
4. Don't worry about it. As a coordinator, I'm not going to use anyone that isn't certified--period.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE USTA
1. Do your homework before requiring something like this again.
2. Get with it and get everyone certified who has completed the paperwork.
3. Keep the database up to date so noone is branded unjustly. Gossip is a huge thing in the USTA so don't contribute to the problem.
4. Extend the deadline past January 1, 2011, since you didn't publicize the requirement soon enough, long enough, or to everyone. Just because you send out a blanket email doesn't mean that you have told everyone. Thank goodness for our local coordinators who did their best to notify everyone.
5. Involve the different section offices in the process. The Texas Section Office has been strangely silent on the issue saying it belongs with the USTA.
6. Quit trying to divorce yourself from the ITA unless you're willing to go to court and get a formal divorce. Quit saying you can't force them to do anything when you are forcing them to go to an officials school and also purchase a USTA card.
Who knows where this will all end up--but you can be sure that the "proof will be in the pudding."
12 comments:
Hey Randy, the links to the Approval list and start up pages for the Background checks no longer work from the blogsite. Tried them a coup[le of timed. Did you make someone mad? just checking to see if the approval list still stood at 2,165.
You are appreciated with your stand on this issue... and your points are well taken (both sides). Thank goodness for GREAT cooperative coordinators!
Just checked it and it worked just fine. You might want to try it again.
Yep! Just checked. It works and in the past 4 days the site has added exactly 35 names to the approved list. At that rate, assuming several thousand folks have applied, the checks ought to be complete about St Paddy's Day!
Here's a copy of an email I got from Jim Garcia in Dallas:
I just finished a conversation with the COO of NCSI about the reasons for their request for a copy of my driver's license. I asked a lot of questions and I think I got good information about their process.
They use "commerce" databases to do their investigation. (The Federal Criminal DB is not available for this type of background check.) These DBs are accessed by name and date of birth. I my case (and probably many others) the database had a wrong DOB. In order to assure themselves that they were only see the information on me they decided that they needed an official document showing my DOB.
I asked if they would correct the DOB if I provided them the documentation and was told that they would inform the keeper of the DB that they had proof the the DOB in their system was incorrect but could not force them to correct it. However, I was assured that their records would be documented and 2 years from now they would not have to ask for the DL again.
I told the COO that if they had told me that the DL request was because they found a different DOB in their search I might have reacted differently.
I also asked about the criteria that they use to make their "red light/ green light" determination. He said that it was covered by the 5 questions that they asked on-line when we registered.
Basically you would be red lighted if you were convicted of or are currently charged with:
a felony;
or lesser offense involving force;
or lesser offense involving sex;
or lesser offense involving controlled substance;
or lesser offense involving cruelty to animals.
Looks like the Background Checks will allow green officials to gather much needed experience in an expedited manner and recruitment of new officials will be in high gear for a while.
Personally, I'm glad to see the scum officials get pushed aside.
When will we know who the instructors are at each school in 2011?
After reading Randy's latest update, I suspect the USTA officials roster will be taking a hit. How big is to be determined.
This background check is going to nail folks for more than just pedophile type problems. And was that the original intent of this process?
Ain't DIVERSITY just grand!!
Bravo for the background check. I really don't want to work with convicted felons and pedophiles.
Hummm, what does this have to do with diversity?
Just checked the list of the "annointed" and it appears the sucker has shrunk!! That's right, there are approximately 90 less names there tonight than there were on Friday. This USTA "fire drill" gets more pathetic by the moment. Does anyone in the rarefied air of White Plains have the slightest idea what they're doing?
And this morning ther are a couple hundred more names on the approved list than Friday and those left off last night, are back on. What a joke
Of course there's Kinks in the system. This was a big task, although I didn't know there are over 6,000 USTA officials; my understanding the number was closer to 3,000. Maybe the higher number includes any support people, who might not necessarily be on-court officials.
You also have to understand the folks running/leading the USTA are people who probably can't do anything else. That's why they are where they are. Have you ever had to deal with some of those supervisors who run the USTA satelite events; real nimrods. They are just following the lead from the suits in NYC.
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