VerifiedVolunteers, AYSO "E3", and Volunteer Registration for Membership Year 2019 and on

The Story So Far

Up through the Spring of 2019 (Membership Year 2018), volunteers for inLeague regions were required to register separately through eAYSO. Following the successful integration of inLeague's player registration with the successor to eAYSO ("E3"), inLeague and AYSO National committed to integrating inLeague volunteer registration with the AYSO Volunteer Membership Program ("VMP") that was under development alongside Verified Volunteers and Blue Sombrero.

Summary: What is Volunteer Membership? 

"Volunteer Membership" is an umbrella term that describes the effort to complete a Level 2 background check on coaches, referees, and other AYSO volunteers for every membership year. AYSO has partnered with Verified Volunteers to conduct the background checks; the is cost $25 per person per membership year as of April 2019. This fee may be paid either by the region or the volunteer. The process requires several integration points between the Region Management System (inLeague or Blue Sombrero), AYSO National (E3), and Verified Volunteers.

  • Initial integration of a volunteer record between inLeague and AYSO: Looking up a volunteer's existing AYSO ID based on name and date of birth, or generating a new AYSO ID.

  • "Previous disclosures" - the volunteer indicates whether they have any previous convictions and confirms their legal name

  • Yozons E-Signature: The volunteer is automatically directed to Yozons to e-sign their volunteer application, and then returned to inLeague

  • AYSO Volunteer Confirmation and AYSO Sign-On Sync: The e-signed volunteer record is confirmed with AYSO's E3 system and the volunteer's "AYSO Login" is updated to match their inLeague username and password. The volunteer's status is now "pending" and the inLeague portion of their registration is complete.

  • Regional Approval Queue. Regions may approve or reject pending volunteers. "Approved" volunteers are instantly submitted to Verified Volunteers as "region pays." "Rejected" volunteers are not notified but will have a link in their family profile to initiate the Verified Volunteers process themselves as "volunteer pays". Approval (or rejection) may be submitted as annual (the volunteer will appear in the queue again in future Membership Years) or permanent (the volunteer will always be approved or rejected for any future applications).

  • Verified Volunteers Email. When Verified Volunteers receives the request from inLeague, it immediately sends an email to the volunteer with a link to complete the background check form. The volunteer's name and date of birth are retrieved from inLeague and cannot be changed; the volunteer will input their Social Security Number (which inLeague does not collect) and Verified Volunteers will initiate the background Check.

  • AYSO Adjudication. Verified Volunteers automatically sends the result of the background check to E3. If the background check is not clear, it is flagged for manual review by the AYSO National CVPA. 

  • RMS Notification. Whenever the results of the check are cleared by AYSO (whether automatically or after a manual review), inLeague is notified by E3. If the results are clear, inLeague will flag the volunteer as "current" (the field called "Last eAYSO Year" within inLeague) and the volunteer will be granted access to player data appropriate to any assigned roles they hold within inLeague. If the results are anything other than clear, inLeague will withhold access.

Region Requirements

A region must have an AYSO Commercial Card to participate in the Volunteer Membership Program if the region wishes to pay the $25 fee on behalf of any volunteers. Commissioners should contact  commercialcard@ayso.org and be advised that the process can take 3-5 weeks

Volunteer Requirements

All AYSO volunteers must have a valid Social Security number.

The Process in Detail

Initial Integration: inLeague and E3 (#1 and #2)

After completing the seasonal volunteer preferences form, inLeague determines whether a volunteer is required to register with AYSO. Volunteers are required to register with AYSO if any of the following are true:

  • The volunteer selected the "Head Coach" or "Assistant Coach" volunteer roles
  • The volunteer selected the "Referee" volunteer role (Youth referees will go through the registration process but skip the background check)
  • The volunteer selected a custom, league-specific role designated by the league as requiring a background check
  • The volunteer has already been assigned as a coach, assistant coach, or team administrator, regardless of the volunteer roles they selected
  • The volunteer is a division head, chief referee, competition manager, player administrator, volunteer administrator, treasurer, game scheduler, regional commissioner, event administrator, event reporter, data reader, birth certificate administrator, or registrar

A user that meets any of these requirements will trigger the AYSO Registration workflow (displayed on the sidebar). The first step of this process replaces the pre-2019 "eAYSO Volunteer Synchronization" that matched users to their AYSO ID numbers based on a spreadsheet from eAYSO. inLeague submits the user's name, phone number, and Date of Birth to E3. AYSO then updates inLeague:

  • If AYSO has a different AYSO ID on file than inLeague's volunteer record, inLeague updates the AYSO ID for the volunteer and makes a log entry that it did so.
  • If the volunteer does not have an AYSO ID, AYSO generates a new ID and inLeague saves it to the volunteer record as provisional (until later in the process)
  • If AYSO indicates that the volunteer already has a background check for the specified membership year, inLeague will update the volunteer's AYSO registration status right away and skip steps #6 - #8 below.

Parents or volunteers who do not meet these requirements will not trigger an AYSO Registration and will be returned to their family profile after submitting their seasonal volunteer preferences.

inLeague System Behavior Changes from Previous Years

  • Date of Birth is now a required field for all users. It is not possible to edit your Date of Birth after it has been set initially.
  • Middle Name has been added to the New and Edit user pages. It is optional. Because inLeague must submit the user's full and complete legal name to Verified Volunteers, it is undesirable to have middle names in either the first or last name fields.
  • "Youth Volunteer" is no longer an option that may be selected on the volunteer form, but a status that is automatically calculated based on the user's date of birth. 
  • Users under 18 years of age cannot create new family profiles; they must be added to an existing family profile. Note that this will prevent players from "registering themselves" without first setting up an account for their parent or legal guardian. Existing accounts are exempt.
  • Users under 18 years of age cannot be Parent 1 or Parent 2. Existing accounts are exempt.
  • Youth volunteers can only volunteer as referees or flex/custom volunteer codes. They cannot volunteer to be coaches or be assigned as coaches (as they cannot have background checks). This may change for MY2020; the "youth volunteer" implementation in the Volunteer Membership program is still under discussion.

Previous Disclosures and E-Signature (#3)

AYSO requires the disclosure of previous convictions prior to the background check. This information is not shared with the local league, but it is sent to AYSO for review by the National CVPA along with the results of the background check. The volunteer is also asked to confirm that their name and contact information is correct, as it will be submitted to AYSO and Verified Volunteers and cannot be changed. 

After submitting the previous disclosures form, the volunteer will be automatically forwarded to Yozons, AYSO's e-signature provider. The E-Signed Volunteer Application will have quite a few blank fields. AYSO used to collect quite a lot of information that it no longer collects, and in some cases it does collect information that inLeague does not (and will not) collect. The e-signature step for Volunteer Registration is largely a legacy requirement and it is not clear whether it will persist in MY2020; but it is required for MY2019.

AYSO E3 Approval and Volunteer Record Update (#4)

After the volunteer application has been e-signed, Yozons will automatically return the volunteer to inLeague. inLeague immediately submits the e-signed volunteer form to AYSO's E3 system, which synchronizes the user's inLeague account with the AYSO National database. This step happens entirely "behind the scenes" and requires no interaction from the user unless the request fails, in which case the user will receive a notification from inLeague as to why it failed.

This step is distinct from the "ID Sync" in step #2; the previous interaction updates inLeague from AYSO's database. In step #4, inLeague posts an update to the volunteer's AYSO record:

  • The volunteer's "AYSO Sign-On" username is set to their inLeague primary email address, and their AYSO Sign-on password is set to their inLeague password. The "AYSO Login" is used to sign in to AYSO National systems like AYSOU and NAP Online. Note that if the volunteer had a previous AYSO Single-Sign On under a different email address or username, they must now use their inLeague login and password.
  • The volunteer's name, street address, phone number, and email address are updated from their inLeague record.
  • If the volunteer is new, the provisional AYSO ID generated in step 2 is now confirmed and the volunteer record will appear in AYSO's database if the volunteer signs up in another region.

Regional Approval (#5)

The intended behavior for all volunteer applications is that the region will "approve" their eligibility for a region-paid Verified Volunteers background check. This allows the region to decide whose background checks to underwrite and adds a layer of controls such that not every parent that indicates a volunteer preference will leave the region on the hook for the fee. The regional approval queue will only be active if the region meets two following requirements:

  • The region has a commercial card from the AYSO National Office
  • The region has elected to pay for volunteers that it approves (this is the default behavior)

If your region does not want to pay the $25 fee for any volunteers, contact inLeague support. inLeague can enable this option, but it is not provided in the control panel as it requires written approval from the RC.

The Regional Approval Queue

The first iteration of the Regional Approval Queue allows a registrar-level user to perform several actions on all volunteers within a Membership Year:

  • Approve a pending volunteer for the specified Membership Year so that inLeague will submit them to VerifiedVolunteers (this should happen either right away or within 15-30 minutes)
  • Approve a pending volunteer for all Membership Years so that they do not need to wait for the regional approval queue in the future
  • Reject a pending volunteer for the specified Membership Year so that inLeague will not automatically submit them to VerifiedVolunteers*
  • Reject a pending volunteer for all Membership Years so that inLeague will never automatically submit them and so that they will not appear in the approval queue in the future
  • Review all volunteers with "all membership year" approvals or rejections and remove the "permanent" status if it is no longer applicable

* A volunteer that is 'rejected' is not prevented from volunteering or from being assigned to a team. "Approval" and "Rejection" in this tool only determines whether the region will pay the Verified Volunteers fee. Any volunteer may elect to manually submit their record to Verified Volunteers and pay the fee themselves.  

Volunteers are not notified by inLeague if they are approved or rejected, but any volunteer that is approved and automatically submitted to Verified Volunteers will receive an invitation via email as described in the next section. 

AYSO Registration Workflow

Previous Disclosure Page

Previous Disclosures

Verified Volunteers (#6) 

Whether the region approves a volunteer for a "region pays" package or the volunteer self-selects to pay for their own background check, Verified Volunteers will send an email to the address associated with the volunteer's inLeague login with an invitation to register on Verified Volunteers.

When the volunteer follows the link in the email, they will be prompted to create an account with Verified Volunteers and continue through the VerifiedVolunteers process:

  1. Create a login and password for future VerifiedVolunteers logins (the email used does not have to match the inLeague email provided)
  2. Review the personal information provided from inLeague.  The volunteer cannot change their name or date of birth. This information is sent by inLeague when it initiates the request to Verified Volunteers and is "locked down" to insure that the person completing the background check is the same person who registered as a volunteer in the first place. 
  3. The volunteer is required to enter their Social Security Number. Verified Volunteers requires an SSN for the background check that AYSO has arranged.
  4. The volunteer is given the option to pay for their background check. Even with "region pays" packages, every volunteer will be able to contribute up to the full cost of their background check.
  5. (Optional) The volunteer may order a "Fast Pass" that will make their background check "portable" and accessible to other institutions that may require a similar background check. 
  6. If applicable, the volunteer pays whatever balance is due. If no balance is due, the order is submitted, the volunteer receives a confirmation email, and the background check is underway.

The background check typically requires 1 -2 days, depending on the State and the Volunteers' past addresses. When it is complete, Verified Volunteers sends an automated notification to AYSO.

AYSO Adjudication (#7)

AYSO receives the results of each volunteer's background check from Verified Volunteers as soon as it is complete. Depending on the results, the volunteer record is either released as clear ("green") or held for manual review by the National CVPA. For clear ("green") records, AYSO automatically notifies inLeague and the volunteer's record will be marked as "current" for the Membership Year. 

AYSO National Adjudication Result Codes

Other than "green" for a clear background check, AYSO has several color codes that are mapped to specific restrictions in the AYSO National system:

  • Green – Eligible
  • Red - Ineligible
  • Yellow – No Coaching
  • Orange – No Funds
  • Brown – No Funds / No Coaching
  • Purple (New) Blocked by region

inLeague Access Updated (#8)

inLeague does not accept any result other than Green. inLeague's implementation of the Volunteer Membership Program will bar any volunteer from any system access role even if the "context" of the failure may not apply. For example, while a code of "Orange" (No Funds) is not meant by AYSO to restrict a volunteer from coaching a team, inLeague will block access to any user authorization role. 

This policy is subject to change in the future as the program evolves. 

Volunteer Notification

Volunteers are notified by Verified Volunteers when their background check is complete, and in most cases, inLeague should receive the results in short order. In the event that the volunteer requires manual adjudication from the National CVPA, the notification from Verified Volunteers will say only that AYSO needs to review the record. It will not reveal specifics, and the volunteer will not be notified when the CVPA completes the manual review, whether or not the volunteer is cleared. 

(is this still true?) The regional commissioner will be notified by the National CVPA in the event that a volunteer does not clear the background check, and the inLeague System Log will show that the user was flagged by E3 for failing the background check.

Updated Background Check Results Later in the Year and Appealing Results

It is possible for a volunteer to clear their background check but then receive a revised result later in the year. It is also possible for a volunteer to appeal to the National CVPA to clear up ambiguity in their background check such that a previously failed check may become "green." In either case, E3 will automatically notify inLeague of the new result and it will overwrite the previous result: a volunteer marked as "current" for MY2019 will lose that status if the result goes from Green to another color, while a volunteer who had not been marked as current will be brought up-to-date if inLeague receives an all-clear result from E3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: If a volunteer signs up for the Fall of 2019 and then again for the Spring 2020 season, do they need a new background check for 2020?

A: No. Background checks are good for the duration of the "Membership Year" that runs from August 1st to July 31st of the following year. Volunteers only need participate in the Volunteer Membership Program once for each Membership Year.

Q: If I assign a volunteer as a coach or a division director within inLeague, but they do not have a completed, clear background check on file, how can they access their teams?

A: They cannot. That is the point of the system.

Q: Is it possible for a league commissioner or registrar to make an exception to the above and provide provisional access to a volunteer?

A: Not at this time. The purpose of the Volunteer Membership Program is to enforce appropriate controls on who has access to player and family data. inLeague is committed to the success of this program and working with AYSO and Verified Volunteers to see that data is sent promptly, consistently, and accurately. If you are not seeing records updated for your region and you know that volunteers have completed the necessary background checks, please contact inLeague Support.

Q: What if a volunteer does not choose any volunteer roles (and therefore is not sent through the volunteer membership program) but is later assigned to coach a team, or recruited as a referee?

A: The volunteer will have a link in their family profile to initiate AYSO volunteer membership registration as soon as they "become" eligible, whether from self-selecting an eligible role or being assigned to a team. Even if the volunteer is assigned as a coach prior to completing the volunteer membership process, they will not have access to any roster or referee functions; their role will be "suspended" until their record is current and clear in AYSO.

Q: If a volunteer signs up for a Membership Year in one region and then moves to another region, do they need to have a second background check?

A: No. During the "AYSO ID" synchronization phase, E3 will communicate to inLeague that the volunteer is already clear for that membership year and that a new check is not required. 

Q: What if the volunteer is coming from a Blue Sombrero region? What if the volunteer was in inLeague but moves to a Blue Sombrero Region? Do they have to register with AYSO again?

A: Blue Sombrero and inLeague are all using the same mechanisms to exchange data with E3. Any volunteer from any region that has been registered in AYSO for a Membership Year will have that information made available to any Region Management System  authorized by AYSO.

Q: What about volunteers that do not have Social Security numbers?

A: It is AYSO National policy that all volunteers must have Social Security numbers, and no volunteer without a Social Security number can participate in the volunteer membership program. While inLeague does not require an SSN to register, AYSO does.

Q: What if our region wants to automatically pay for everyone (or no-one) rather than deciding on a case-by-case basis?

A: Contact inLeague Support. Some options may be available to your region with the approval of your regional commissioner.

Q: How does a league specify which custom volunteer roles require background checks and which do not?

A: Only a webmaster-level user may access the Volunteer Roles tab of the Control Panel. Only the "flex" (custom) roles may be edited; it is not possible to turn off background checks for coaches or referees.

Q: It's early March, and a volunteer signs up to be a coach for the upcoming Spring season and also for the following Fall. These are two separate Membership Years. Does the volunteer require two background checks?

A: This is a complicated issue and fortunately won't be an problem for 2019 (since inLeague volunteers using this program will not overlap with MY2018). The way the program is constituted, a volunteer must have a background check for each Membership Year; but in early-to-mid Spring, where it is possible that a region might have two Membership Years open at once, of course it doesn't make sense that a volunteer should have two background checks simultaneously for $50. It is also not currently possible for Verified Volunteers to start a background check for a new Membership Year while it has a previous check underway.  This issue will be revisited by AYSO on a policy level in the Fall of 2019 and we hope to have a sensible resolution in place for MY2019/2020.

Q: What if a volunteer inputs incorrect information and the wrong name or address is sent to AYSO and Verified Volunteers? 

A: (pending answer from VV)

Q: How do I contact the AYSO National CVPA to inquire after or dispute the results of my background check?

A: (question)

Q: If a volunteer has a "Fast Pass" from a previous (non-AYSO) background check, can they use it for AYSO?

A: Not at this time. An AYSO background check can generate a Fast Pass but it cannot be the beneficiary of one.

Q: If I change my inLeague login or password after going through this process, does my AYSOU / AYSO Single-Sign-On login also get updated?

A: No. We may provide a separate "login sync" button, but for the time being, inLeague only updates a volunteer's AYSO login once per membership year.