What are you seeing there that makes you think that watching a 2 hour SafeSport module is required for refs?
In the US, maybe. Not all of us here are in the US. I'm in Canada, thus the mention of province. I was giving an example of what had happened in my area when something similar to the SafeSport thing was introduced.
Uhh, the entire bill? Did you read it? Doesn't really matter what I think. U.S. Soccer's legal team says so. Quite literally every teacher, coach, and sports official has to do it.
I'll try to paste the relevant section. See Sec 204 which amends ss220530.a.3 (ok, sorry the formatting sux) SEC. 204. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUTH-SERVING AMATEUR SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS. (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 2205 of title 36, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: ``Sec. 220530. <<NOTE: 36 USC 220530.>> Other amateur sports organizations ``(a) In General.--An applicable amateur sports organization shall-- ``(1) comply with the reporting requirements of section 226 of the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 20341); ``(2) establish reasonable procedures to limit one-on-one interactions between an amateur athlete who is a minor and an adult (who is not the minor's legal guardian) at a facility under the jurisdiction of the applicable amateur sports organization without being in an observable and interruptible distance from another adult, except under emergency circumstances; ``(3) offer and provide consistent training to all adult members who are in regular contact with amateur athletes who are minors, and subject to parental consent, to members who are minors, regarding prevention and reporting of child abuse to allow a complainant to report easily an incident of child abuse to appropriate persons; and
Sure, but "consistent training" is obviously quite vague. And the USSF certainly could have differentiated between coaches, who are clearly the target for the training, and refs.
I've duly completed SafeSport training. Got a certificate and everything. My local assignor says we need to complete it by Oct. 1 and "may need to upload the certificate at a later time." Um, what do we do until then? What happens if we show up to ref a game before USSF has its act together and signs off on SafeSport certification?
Yeah, they've been a little vague about that. I'm doing a recert this weekend, and I was prompted to upload the certificate during the registration process. Maybe they'll send out an email asking everyone to do that at some point.
Nor is SafeSport the only option. The obligation is appropriate training--which SafeSport supplies on a turn-key basis. (AYSO has its own training.)
I'm told that the issue is with your state and not US Soccer. In fact, when I took the fitness test and in person portion of the training for Regional Referees, our information hadn't been loaded to The Learning Center so we couldn't see any of the referee stuff. And technically, the Safe Sport certificate comes across as a required part of the certification process, so until your state tells US Soccer you are registered for a class, you won't be able to upload your certificate.
"Lead a horse to water ..." It says the sports organization has to make training available. Does it say that anyone actually has to take it?
Correct. Safesport is required for anyone under the US Olympic and Paralympic umbrella. USSF is just using it because it's already there and ready to go.
Well the recert process just got longer and more expensive. I just got an email stating that the background check process was ready to go. I knew this was coming. What I didn’t know was it would cost an extra $30 beyond the already paid standard $80 registration fee. And just to make sure they milked the cow of every drop there was an added $1.21 credit card usage fee added to this. Not that there are any other options besides using a credit card. And to top it off it will take 10 business days to complete the check.
I've heard from US Soccer and my SRA that some checks are taking at most 48 hours which is nice because I have my first ever game as a ref this Sunday. And $30 is really nothing because you'll make that up in your first game or so. Some states eat the cost, it seems. But yeah, this could have been ready to go... weeks ago when they let refs sign up because assignors have had to shift schedules around and a lot of were not happy about it and understandably so.
No. I’m sorry. This was borderline deceptive. If the BGC is going to be an extra $30 on top of the registration fee that should have been made clear up front at the time of registration. And the credit card fee is a crock. That’s just USSF being cheap. They have effectively upped the cost of being a referee an extra $30 and now want me to pay their cc fees. That’s on them as the cost of doing business. They make a lot of money on registration fees and effectively provide back nothing but a badge.
I agree 100% and yet we have to do the same background check for DA games and yet we don't have to pay anything. Absolutely ridiculous from USSF. At least before they would mail us a physical copy of our registration card. Now they don't even do that and on top of that they insult us by not even eating the credit card fee. What a scam.
Congrats and well done! I know for a fact that refs who hang out on this board are the best ones. If you didn’t know, these fees, as well as uniforms, shoes, gear are unreimbursed business expenses, so they reduce your referee income from a tax perspective.
Thank you! It has now been more than 48 hours.. still NCIS is pending. So hopefully after today! And yes! The only real question I have is how is this taxed? 1099? I know for some games I get either cash or PayPal. Very excited. Here is hoping it works out.
And the hits keep on coming. I got an email from US Soccer saying that the BKG data was corrupted by NCSI when it was downloaded to a test server and could I please resend all of the information so that they could start over.
I have been obsessively checking my NCSI status and I noticed this error on August 27 at 11 AM. So, I called up US Soccer and they explained everything you just got in the email. So, I hit re-submit and waited. Then more than 25+ hours later, you get the email. What happened between that day? Time is of the value and especially during Fall season. Anyway, it's been more than their 48 hours they said it would take... and still pending. So... I'll ref... whenever I guess I'm legally allowed too? This is all so frustrating and I'm getting close to just losing interest in refereeing because of how all of this was handled. They don't really care, do they? @voiceoflg I'm a new ref so I have no other choice.
Yep. And then I wasn't able to re-enter my info. And I haven't received a reply to my email asking why I couldn't re-enter my info.