Brian, FYI, I was told by F&ES just about two years ago that the MOU would be renegotiated "very soon." Notice that this was just about two years ago and I've not seen any movement toward the renegotiation so far. I understand that "more pressing" tasks often get in the way of more routine tasks. If this is what happened to the renegotiated MOU, it seems to me that renegotiating the MOU has just recently been moved to the front burner through no action of ARRL's. The background check issue is only one of two especially thorny points I have with National RC officials and their arrogance. I'm still waiting for someone to shoot me down if what I've said is out of line. Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: k8je@arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142 -----Original Message----- From: Brian Mileshosky [mailto:n5zgt@swcp.com] Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:48 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:14759] Re: Red Cross background check All -- As someone who's been scrutinized and cleared out of the wazoo as part of my career working with "certain" government communities, I still will not support ARC in this matter. Their intentions may be good, but their methodology is flawed. If they want only a criminal background check, they should require only the minimal information necessary to conduct said check. If that were reality, we'd not be having this discussion, nor would many ARES groups around the country. My local ARES group has a solution, though it was not spawned from this situation with ARC. Sandoval county (NM) ARES has a super-tight relationship with their county government and public service orgs. The county will run an NCIC check on all their volunteers. They want some comfort with who's helping them, so they conduct the criminal check, asking only for the necessary, minimal information, and picking up the expense. A cop only really needs a name and DOB to conduct a check, though some additional non-personal information (address, etc.) might be necessary to filter the correct Jim Smith from all the others. No SSN, credit check, mode of living check, etc. needed. I see no reason why ARC and their notoriety can't also interface with a law enforcement agency to run a quick, non-invasive NCIC check on their volunteers, either at the national level or at their chapter level. Then they'd have their warm and fuzzy feeling, and their volunteers wouldn't be left with a bad taste in their mouth after being asked for tons of personal information with no assurances of how it'll be used, safeguarded, destroyed and kept from being sold...or not. Or, they could request that their contractor, mybackgroundcheck.com, restrict their "investigation" accordingly. In doing so, ARC might reduce the new attrition rate they might be realizing after having required this invasive, undefined, and very open-ended background check, all just to ascertain if Jim Smith has a criminal background or not. ARRL's MOU with Red Cross is to be reviewed periodically if I'm not mistaken. I think some revision is in order unless they come to some resolution on this. My two pesos worth. And someone, please, take away Sandy's ACLU (All Criminals [and terrorists] Love Us) membership card and replace with an NRA membership and concealed carry license. 73, Brian, N5ZGT