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> [inLeague Community Guide](https://gitlab.inleague.io/content/guides-and-documents/-/wikis/inLeague-Community-Guide)
# Table of Contents
1. [Introduction to Volunteer Membership](#introduction-to-volunteer-membership)
2. [Affinity and AYSO Volunteer Management](#affinity-and-ayso-volunteer-management)
3. [Background Checks](#background-checks)
4. [inLeague System Access and Eligibility Rules](#inleague-system-access-and-eligibliity-rules)
5. [Youth Volunteers](#youth-volunteers)
## Introduction to Volunteer Membership
**Volunteer Membership** refers to the registration and approval process through which a parent or community member becomes an authorized AYSO volunteer, whether as a coach, a referee, a board member, or any number of other roles configurable by the league.
![Volunteer_Registration.drawio](uploads/d713c4cd0f2868992282b0a33f2483a2/Volunteer_Registration.drawio.png)
Volunteer membership is 'baked in' to the player registration process: inLeague directs family members to review their user accounts and complete their volunteer registration form prior to registering any players.
### 'Volunteer Pool' vs. 'Assigned Staff'
inLeague distinguishes between the **Volunteer Pool** (users who indicated that they are willing to volunteer) and **Staff** (users assigned actual roles as coaches or administrators). League administrators can assign any user in any role, regardless of whether they volunteered for it (or volunteered at all). The Volunteer Pool is used to facilitate reporting and recruiting but role selection during volunteer registration does not confer any access with the exception of referees for leagues that permit open access to their referee self-scheduler.
## Affinity and AYSO Volunteer Management
### Important: First Name, Last Name & DOB
The first time an inLeague user selects a volunteer role for themselves or someone in their family, inLeague will prompt the user to confirm their first name and last name and to enter their date of birth.
inLeague sends volunteer data to the [AYSO Association Management Platform](https://eayso.sportsaffinity.com/foundation/login.aspx), called Affinity (operated by Stack Sports). Affinity will look for an existing volunteer record from any AYSO region and assign the inLeague volunteer the appropriate AYSO ID, or else generate a new one.
The basis for AYSO ID is the volunteer's name (first + last, but not middle) and date of birth. Once a volunteer has an AYSO ID, their name and date of birth can only be changed by a regional administrator with access to the Affinity platform. These changes are sent to inLeague and the volunteer record will be updated instantly. Nevertheless, the volunteer registration flow was designed to encourage users to input this information correctly up front.
### AYSO Volunteer Registration and Electronic Legal Agreements
Once per AYSO Membership Year, inLeague will prompt volunteers to electronically sign forms and waivers managed by AYSO. These Electronic Legal Agreements (ELAs) are transmitted to Affinity and AYSO. The process is simple and may be done from a browser or mobile device.
## Background Checks
### At-A-Glance
* AYSO Background checks are conducted by Sterling Volunteers and are good for **455** days.
* The fee associated with background checks is charged by Sterling Volunteers to the [regional commercial card](https://aysovolunteers.org/updating-your-sterling-credit-card/).
* On the regional level, leagues may approve or reject a volunteer's **request** for a background check; once approved, the adjudicated results are shared with the region automatically.
* inLeague initiates background check requests for volunteers whom the league approves. Each volunteer receives a link unique to their user account that is emailed to them by Sterling but also available to them in their inLeague family profile.
* Once the volunteer completes the background check on the Sterling site, the results are sent to AYSO. The majority of results are automatically adjudicated and available within 24-48 hours, but some results may take up to two weeks.
* Results are sent to inLeague as soon as they are made available.
### Who Requires Background Checks
After a user completes the seasonal volunteer preference form, inLeague makes a determination on whether the user is required to register with AYSO based on:
1. The volunteer selected the 'Head Coach' or 'Assistant Coach' volunteer roles
2. The volunteer selected the 'Referee' volunteer role (**Youth** volunteers will go through the registration process but do not need background checks until their 18th birthday)
3. The volunteer selected a custom, league-specific role designated by the league as requiring a background check (most roles do)
4. The volunteer has already been assigned as a coach, assistant coach, or team administrator, regardless of the volunteer preferences they seleceted
5. The volunteer has inLeague roles as a division coordinator, chief referee, competition manager, player or volunteer administrator, game or referee scheduler, event administrator or reporter, data reader, registrar, or other position conferring system access.
Users or volunteers who do not meet any of the above criteria will be counted as "current" for the season for which they submitted a preference form but they will skip the remainder of the volunteer registration process.
### Background Checks: Renewal
Background checks are good for **455** days (about 15 months). They are eligible for renewal **90 days** prior to expiration. **There is no longer any connection between AYSO Membership Year and background checks** -- if a volunteer receives a background check in May of 2022, it is good until around August 2023 and may be renewed in May 2023.
### Background Checks: Regional Approval Queue
Because the league covers the cost of each background check, inLeague provides a "holding tank" for league administrators to review volunteer applications before inLeague generates the background check request.
The Regional Approval Queue allows a **registrar** or **volunteer administrator** to manage the volunteer approval queue:
1. Approve a pending volunteer for the specified Membership Year so that inLeague will submit them to Sterling Volunteers (this should happen either right away or within 15-30 minutes of approval)
2. Approve a pending volunteer for all future volunteer applications so that they can skip the regional approval queue in the future
3. Reject a pending volunteer for the specified membership year so that inLeague will not automatically submit them for a background check
4. Reject a pending volunteer for all future volunteer applications so that inLeague will never submit them for a background check
5. Review all volunteers previously approved or rejected by the league and adjust any "permanent" status where applicable
Volunteers are not notified by inLeague if they are approved or rejected in the regional queue, but any volunteer that is approved and automatically submitted for a background check will receive an email invitation as described in the next section.
#### Users Exempt from the Regional Queue
The approval queue is designed to handle **seasonal** volunteer roles like coach and referee. Volunteers with higher system access roles like Division Coordinators or player or volunteer administrators will 'skip the queue' and behave as though they were automatically approved for a background check on the basis that any user granted such access to inLeague has sufficient administrative responsibility that they do not require an extra layer of approval to go through the background check (even though they do still require a background check).
#### Background Check Results
When Sterling completes the background check (usually within 24-48 hours), the results are sent to the AYSO National CVPA team for adjudication into one or more [color codes](https://aysovolunteers.org/background-check-status-color-key/) that govern what roles the volunteer is permitted to have. The adjudication process is usually automatic, but in some cases requires manual review or intervention. When this process is completed, the results are sent instantly to Affinity, inLeague, and SportsConnect. **Note:** This means that volunteers may be in possession of a notice or screenshot from Sterling indicating that that their background check is complete (since Sterling "completed" it) when the results are being reviewed by AYSO. **Background checks are not complete until they are reflected in Affinity and inLeague**.
* There is no lag between when background check results are processed by AYSO and when they are reflected in inLeague.
* **Background Checks from Other Regions (or SportsConnect)**: Background checks are "good" for AYSO volunteers regardless of which region they signed up in or whether it was a SportsConnect or an inLeague region.
* If a volunteer from another region signs up in your region, inLeague should receive their results and expiration date when they submit their volunteer preference form. inLeague will not permit a volunteer with active, non-expired or non-expiring results to initiate a new background check.
### System Access and Background Checks
You may assign coach, divisional, program-wide, or administrator access to any user in your region, but
inLeague users who do not have current background checks or who do not pass their background checks will have their access suspended. **inLeague Staff are unable to waive this requirement**.
Volunteers who receive results other than **Green** will may retain some access depending on the result.
## Youth Volunteers
Volunteers under the age of 18 may sign up as referees. They are exempt from the background check requirement and automatically receive a risk status of **Blue** which allows refereeing but no other system role.
Youth referees who turn 18 during the season will need to return to inLeague and undergo a background check as soon as possible.
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> [inLeague Community Guide](https://gitlab.inleague.io/content/guides-and-documents/-/wikis/inLeague-Community-Guide)
# Table of Contents
1. [Introduction to Volunteer Membership](#introduction-to-volunteer-membership)
2. [Affinity and AYSO Volunteer Management](#affinity-and-ayso-volunteer-management)
3. [Background Checks](#background-checks)
4. [inLeague System Access and Eligibility Rules](#inleague-system-access-and-eligibliity-rules)
5. [Youth Volunteers](#youth-volunteers)
6. [Merging Duplicate Volunteers](#Merging Duplicate Volunteers)
## Introduction to Volunteer Membership
**Volunteer Membership** refers to the registration and approval process through which a parent or community member becomes an authorized AYSO volunteer, whether as a coach, a referee, a board member, or any number of other roles configurable by the league.
![Volunteer_Registration.drawio](uploads/d713c4cd0f2868992282b0a33f2483a2/Volunteer_Registration.drawio.png)
Volunteer membership is 'baked in' to the player registration process: inLeague directs family members to review their user accounts and complete their volunteer registration form prior to registering any players.
### 'Volunteer Pool' vs. 'Assigned Staff'
inLeague distinguishes between the **Volunteer Pool** (users who indicated that they are willing to volunteer) and **Staff** (users assigned actual roles as coaches or administrators). League administrators can assign any user in any role, regardless of whether they volunteered for it (or volunteered at all). The Volunteer Pool is used to facilitate reporting and recruiting but role selection during volunteer registration does not confer any access with the exception of referees for leagues that permit open access to their referee self-scheduler.
## Affinity and AYSO Volunteer Management
### Important: First Name, Last Name & DOB
The first time an inLeague user selects a volunteer role for themselves or someone in their family, inLeague will prompt the user to confirm their first name and last name and to enter their date of birth.
inLeague sends volunteer data to the [AYSO Association Management Platform](https://eayso.sportsaffinity.com/foundation/login.aspx), called Affinity (operated by Stack Sports). Affinity will look for an existing volunteer record from any AYSO region and assign the inLeague volunteer the appropriate AYSO ID, or else generate a new one.
The basis for AYSO ID is the volunteer's name (first + last, but not middle) and date of birth. Once a volunteer has an AYSO ID, their name and date of birth can only be changed by a regional administrator with access to the Affinity platform. These changes are sent to inLeague and the volunteer record will be updated instantly. Nevertheless, the volunteer registration flow was designed to encourage users to input this information correctly up front.
### AYSO Volunteer Registration and Electronic Legal Agreements
Once per AYSO Membership Year, inLeague will prompt volunteers to electronically sign forms and waivers managed by AYSO. These Electronic Legal Agreements (ELAs) are transmitted to Affinity and AYSO. The process is simple and may be done from a browser or mobile device.
## Background Checks
### At-A-Glance
* AYSO Background checks are conducted by Sterling Volunteers and are good for **455** days.
* The fee associated with background checks is charged by Sterling Volunteers to the [regional commercial card](https://aysovolunteers.org/updating-your-sterling-credit-card/).
* On the regional level, leagues may approve or reject a volunteer's **request** for a background check; once approved, the adjudicated results are shared with the region automatically.
* inLeague initiates background check requests for volunteers whom the league approves. Each volunteer receives a link unique to their user account that is emailed to them by Sterling but also available to them in their inLeague family profile.
* Once the volunteer completes the background check on the Sterling site, the results are sent to AYSO. The majority of results are automatically adjudicated and available within 24-48 hours, but some results may take up to two weeks.
* Results are sent to inLeague as soon as they are made available.
### Who Requires Background Checks
After a user completes the seasonal volunteer preference form, inLeague makes a determination on whether the user is required to register with AYSO based on:
1. The volunteer selected the 'Head Coach' or 'Assistant Coach' volunteer roles
2. The volunteer selected the 'Referee' volunteer role (**Youth** volunteers will go through the registration process but do not need background checks until their 18th birthday)
3. The volunteer selected a custom, league-specific role designated by the league as requiring a background check (most roles do)
4. The volunteer has already been assigned as a coach, assistant coach, or team administrator, regardless of the volunteer preferences they seleceted
5. The volunteer has inLeague roles as a division coordinator, chief referee, competition manager, player or volunteer administrator, game or referee scheduler, event administrator or reporter, data reader, registrar, or other position conferring system access.
Users or volunteers who do not meet any of the above criteria will be counted as "current" for the season for which they submitted a preference form but they will skip the remainder of the volunteer registration process.
### Background Checks: Renewal
Background checks are good for **455** days (about 15 months). They are eligible for renewal **90 days** prior to expiration. **There is no longer any connection between AYSO Membership Year and background checks** -- if a volunteer receives a background check in May of 2022, it is good until around August 2023 and may be renewed in May 2023.
### Background Checks: Regional Approval Queue
Because the league covers the cost of each background check, inLeague provides a "holding tank" for league administrators to review volunteer applications before inLeague generates the background check request.
The Regional Approval Queue allows a **registrar** or **volunteer administrator** to manage the volunteer approval queue:
1. Approve a pending volunteer for the specified Membership Year so that inLeague will submit them to Sterling Volunteers (this should happen either right away or within 15-30 minutes of approval)
2. Approve a pending volunteer for all future volunteer applications so that they can skip the regional approval queue in the future
3. Reject a pending volunteer for the specified membership year so that inLeague will not automatically submit them for a background check
4. Reject a pending volunteer for all future volunteer applications so that inLeague will never submit them for a background check
5. Review all volunteers previously approved or rejected by the league and adjust any "permanent" status where applicable
Volunteers are not notified by inLeague if they are approved or rejected in the regional queue, but any volunteer that is approved and automatically submitted for a background check will receive an email invitation as described in the next section.
#### Users Exempt from the Regional Queue
The approval queue is designed to handle **seasonal** volunteer roles like coach and referee. Volunteers with higher system access roles like Division Coordinators or player or volunteer administrators will 'skip the queue' and behave as though they were automatically approved for a background check on the basis that any user granted such access to inLeague has sufficient administrative responsibility that they do not require an extra layer of approval to go through the background check (even though they do still require a background check).
#### Background Check Results
When Sterling completes the background check (usually within 24-48 hours), the results are sent to the AYSO National CVPA team for adjudication into one or more [color codes](https://aysovolunteers.org/background-check-status-color-key/) that govern what roles the volunteer is permitted to have. The adjudication process is usually automatic, but in some cases requires manual review or intervention. When this process is completed, the results are sent instantly to Affinity, inLeague, and SportsConnect. **Note:** This means that volunteers may be in possession of a notice or screenshot from Sterling indicating that that their background check is complete (since Sterling "completed" it) when the results are being reviewed by AYSO. **Background checks are not complete until they are reflected in Affinity and inLeague**.
* There is no lag between when background check results are processed by AYSO and when they are reflected in inLeague.
* **Background Checks from Other Regions (or SportsConnect)**: Background checks are "good" for AYSO volunteers regardless of which region they signed up in or whether it was a SportsConnect or an inLeague region.
* If a volunteer from another region signs up in your region, inLeague should receive their results and expiration date when they submit their volunteer preference form. inLeague will not permit a volunteer with active, non-expired or non-expiring results to initiate a new background check.
### System Access and Background Checks
You may assign coach, divisional, program-wide, or administrator access to any user in your region, but inLeague users who do not have current background checks or who do not pass their background checks will have their access suspended. **inLeague Staff are unable to waive this requirement**.
Volunteers who receive results other than **Green** will may retain some access depending on the result.
## Youth Volunteers
Volunteers under the age of 18 may sign up as referees. They are exempt from the background check requirement and automatically receive a risk status of **Blue** which allows refereeing but no other system role.
Youth referees who turn 18 during the season will need to return to inLeague and undergo a background check as soon as possible.
## Merging Duplicate Volunteers
inLeague presents a number of obstacles to the creation of duplicate users (and duplicate players) but ultimately does not forbid the existence of two people with the same name and date of birth. Duplicate accounts were more of an issue in the past during large data migrations from historical AYSO providers; these days, they are rare, but they do occur in two flavors with different resolution mechanisms.
1. **inLeague Duplicates** in which both accounts have the same AYSO ID (or no AYSO ID) and need to be merged on the inLeague side
2. **AYSO Duplicates** in which two distinct volunteer records with different AYSO IDs exist; or, the discovery of a user with a name like **Franklin_Dup-merged**
### inLeague Duplicates
Designate one record as the 'good' record. This is typically the record that is already in the correct family, or the record that has coaching or referee history. If neither record has any associated family or volunteer history, select the one with the most accurate or up-to-date information.
Select **User Search** and navigate to the user record of the "good" user. Select **Merge User** and then enter the name or email address matching the "bad" record (the one to be merged into the good one). The user merge utility will show the record you want to keep and then the record to be merged; confirm your selection, and all the volunteer history and financial transactions associated with the 'bad' record will be transferred to the 'good' one. The "bad" record will then be deleted.
### AYSO Duplicates where a user is already designated by AYSO as a duplicate (their name ends in -merged)
The **-merged** suffix on an inLeague user record occurs when the AYSO Association platform, Affinity, performs a merge on their side. It then updates the name of the "bad" record to append **-merged** or **Dup-merged**. If the inLeague user was tied to the "good" record, then this doesn't affect anything in inLeague and no action is required -- it is not noticeable that it happened. But if the inLeague user is tied to the "bad" record in Affinity, the user's name will show the **-merged** suffix.
The solution is to temporarily detach the inLeague user record from Affinity; correct their name and date of birth; and then re-attach the record to Affinity. This requires **registrar** or **system administrator** permissions.
1. In the user editor, select the **Reset Assoc. Data** button next to the user's AYSO ID:
![image.png](uploads/0f2124cfb306ea6b4d5658547aca53a6/image.png)
2. A warning popup will appear indicating that this function is intended only to resolve duplicates. Select **I understand: Reset this record**.
3. The record is now "unlocked" and you can edit the user's name and date of birth. **Important:** Duplicates often occur because a user exists as both "Bob" and "Robert." It is essential that the user's full and legal name is used, and that the DOB is correct -- otherwise, a new duplicate will be created. **Edit the user record to remove the -merged suffix and make sure their first and last name are correct; if you aren't sure what they are, check Affinity, because inLeague should match what Affinity has.** Save the parent record after making the necessary changes.
4. To re-link the user with Affinity, navigate to their family profile from the **Family Profile** button in the user editor. The family profile will open in a new window; behind the scenes, it will submit the updated user record to Affinity and should match the "correct" one. Refresh the user editor and you should see their AYSO ID (and risk status, if applicable).
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