Beginning in August of 2018, inLeague now automatically synchronizes volunteer certifications between our system and AYSO National. This removes most, though not all of the manual steps required to keep volunteer coach, referee, and Safe Haven certification up-to-date.
How It Works: Regularly Scheduled Updates for Coach and Referee Volunteers and Anyone Assigned to a Team
Ideally, inLeague would submit a request to AYSO to ask for all certifications within a region since the last time it checked. Unfortunately, AYSO's system does not work this way, and inLeague must ask for every volunteer's record whenever it wants to be updated. Since it does not know who has been updated and who has not, it must check every single volunteer dozens of times per year, meaning inLeague issues tens of thousands of requests to AYSO when only a fraction of them actually produce results. This can result in lag time between when the certification appears in AYSOU and when it appears in inLeague, as we have no way of knowing whose records to ask for.
inLeague runs a scheduled task in the background for all leagues that takes a batch of volunteers and queries the National Office database. inLeague will update volunteer records no more than once every three days through this automated process, but volunteers may manually trigger an update provided the last one was more than 24 hours in the past. Depending on the activity reported by AYSO, synchronization may take up to a week if no new certifications are found. Volunteer administrators may also force an update on an individual record at any time from the user editor.
The automated synchronization tool will update volunteers meeting these criteria:
- The volunteer's AYSO ID is on file with inLeague
- During August, September, and February: Every adult with an active profile for a current season, regardless of their volunteer roles.
- During all other months: Coach volunteers for an active season (the current or tournament season); Referee volunteers for an active season, and any volunteer assigned to a team-level role, regardless of what they volunteered for
My Volunteer Certifications on the inLeague Home Page
Volunteer certifications are now displayed on the inLeague "splash" page, along with the date of the last synchronization with AYSO. A refresh button will force an update if the last one was more than a day in the past, or if the volunteer doesn't otherwise meet the criteria above, provided their AYSO ID is on file.
All volunteer certification updates are logged in the system log tab of the user editor, whether the certification record is brand new or updated (e.g. a previous certification has a new date, or a provisional certification was marked no longer provisional).
The Last Remaining Manual Step: AYSO ID and 'eAYSO Year'
The API provided to inLeague allows us to submit a volunteer's AYSO ID and retrieve the volunteer's certifications from the National office. It does not enable inLeague to submit volunteer information and retrieve an AYSO ID in a useful manner. Consequently, the eAYSO Sync tool for volunteer administrators is still available, but it has been simplified so that it will no longer process certifications. It will match volunteers to AYSO ID based on email address (preferably) or else phone number and name (secondarily), and it will mark volunteers as current in eAYSO. We anticipate that a volunteer's 'eAYSO Registration' status will be obsolete after 2018 as AYSO is re-thinking its volunteer registration systems; but for the time being, eAYSO's Volunteer Export is the best way to match AYSO ID and eAYSO year to inLeague records. This only needs to be done once (for AYSO ID) and once per season (for eAYSO year, if your league uses this value).
Viewing Sync Status, Provisional Certifications, and Removing Certifications
Volunteer administrators and registrars may see the most recent certification synchronization date in the user editor on the certifications tab. They may also trigger a manual update on that page.
Certifications may still be added directly from inLeague. They will continue to be marked as provisional, and if the same certification is found in the AYSO database, inLeague will update our record and remove the provisional flag.
If a certification is not found in the AYSO system but exists in inLeague, it will be left untouched; inLeague will not remove old certifications that no longer exist in AYSO.