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Thread: Young Eagles and Background Security Checks

  1. #101
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    Brett, your post is not in jibe with reality. As has been pointed out, the site the EAA YE page directs you to is not "AmericanChecked.COM" nor does it appear to be secure. It is a site called 8F7.com which is anonymously registered and is protected by a security certificate not traceable to AmericanChecked.com. This may indeed be their site, but there is no way for us to tell. Your contractor is LYING to you. It is not SECURE if it is not verifiable.

    Also Brett, the EAA portion of the site is BUSTED. I took the course but the thing errorred out after the final exam saying something about not being able to be saved. Now neither the class nor the background check are accessible to me. Both are stuck in some state called "PENDING." There is no help link or contact information that suggests what to do about this website failure.
    Last edited by FlyingRon; 01-22-2016 at 12:14 PM.

  2. #102
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Based on the content of the training we have become "mandated reporters" is this true? If so, specific information needs to be passed on regarding the reporting process.
    jim

  3. #103
    Quote Originally Posted by FlyingRon View Post
    Brett, your post is not in jibe with reality. As has been pointed out, the site the EAA YE page directs you to is not "AmericanChecked.COM" nor does it appear to be secure. It is a site called 8F7.com which is anonymously registered and is protected by a security certificate not traceable to AmericanChecked.com. This may indeed be their site, but there is no way for us to tell. Your contractor is LYING to you. It is not SECURE if it is not verifiable...
    I trust EAA on this. Ron, your DISTRUST is sowing doubt and you are poisoning, and possibly killing off, the Young Eagles program. If you succeed, I hope you will be proud of yourself.

  4. #104
    PaulDow's Avatar
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    It looks to me like the 8F7.com web site is owned by Backchecked, LLC in Phoenix. Their web site says they sell their background checking services to other companies who then sell to the retail customer. It looks like AmericanChecked is just buying Backchecked services. Backchecked probably hides behind 8F7 so the retail customers can't see that they're dealing with a 3rd party. I'm wondering if this is all run on GoDaddy servers, since that's who has the private registration of the domain backchecked.com too.

    I'll bet most retail customers have their HR people do the background check, and they don't care since it isn't their personal information. This is probably one of the few instances where thousands of people getting the check done are actually seeing the web site.

  5. #105
    AcroGimp's Avatar
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    At the end of the day apparently some people need to be reminded that EAA, and by definition all of their programs (IAC, Warbirds of America, YE, etc.,), it all exists FOR and BECAUSE OF us, our dues money, our volunteerism, not the other way around.

    I will continue to fly youngsters, but not under some poorly thought out, less well executed heavy-handed change to a program that has worked extremely well for 23 years.

    We are VOLUNTEERS, not employees, we can do with our assets, time and gas money as we see fit.

    Headquarters has demonstrated, again, why large bureaucracies are undeserving of blind trust.

    'Gimp
    Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right.

    EAA Chapter 14, IAC Chapter 36

    http://acrogimp.wordpress.com/

  6. #106

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    Mark: You may think it's red herring or non issue, but I hope you never have to deal with identity theft, and it threatening your job. I've spent the last 16 years undoing the damage of having my identity and my wife's stolen 4 times now. Just when I thought we were done, we were notified by the OPM that not only was our information, but both our kids info was compromised because of the theft of information in my security clearance. I now get to start it all over again, but now for all four of us. My current clearance was held for additional investigation due to damaging information related to the last theft. If I had not been able to satisfy them, my clearance would have been disapproved, my job then gone and I would be prevented from working in my field. At my age, that would have financially destroyed me.

    In the case of my Chapter, probably half the active members are now dealing with this information theft.

  7. #107

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    Angry Me, too, Ed.

    Quote Originally Posted by FastEddie View Post
    I received my letter last night. My first reaction was, "This seems excessive, but I'll wait to hear more information on January 21st."

    I then received my first call from an active YE pilot, telling me he will not be flying YE anymore because of this. I know he would easily pass the background check, because he has already passed many such checks through his job and other activities.

    I sent the following email to the YE Office today:
    ________________________________________

    Young Eagles Staff,

    I received your letter announcing new training and background check requirements for Young Eagles volunteers yesterday.

    In the letter, it states that more information will be provided in the January 21st e-newsletter.

    Please include an explanation of EXACTLY why this has become a requirement for volunteering, how Young Eagle Coordinators will be able to confirm compliance during a Rally, and strategies on how to recruit and retain volunteer pilots and ground volunteers in the shadow of this additional burden.

    My biggest concern is a potentially significant loss of support from within the Young Eagles volunteer community and the inability to "instantly" recruit pilots and ground volunteers during a rally.

    Unlike in actual Youth organizations, Young Eagles pilot volunteers interact with young people for only 10-15 minutes while simultaneously operating an aircraft. In addition, all interaction on the ground occurs with a parent or guardian present in a public setting.

    Also, unlike actual Youth organizations, a large majority of Young Eagles volunteers are casual volunteers; limiting their involvement to taking a few young people for a flight on a sunny morning or coming out to the airport to help collect forms. This is in contrast to Scouting or Boys/Girls Club volunteers, who organize weekly meetings with young people and invest significant time planning and executing substantial education programs and multiple-day trips.

    I find it difficult to believe that the extremely low risk of abuse occurring during a Young Eagles flight experience justifies the implementation of requirements that will significantly reduce volunteer involvement.

    EAA has always promoted the idea of education over regulation. This new MANDATORY training and background check seems to fly in the face of this philosophy.

    I sincerely hope that the January 21st e-newsletter provides both justification and clarity regarding this new training and background check requirement.

    Regards,

    Edward J. Myers
    President, EAA Chapter 1414
    __________________________________________________ ______

    I then received an email from EAA this evening entitled "Important Message From the EAA Chapter Office". In the email it states, "This policy keeps EAA in step with best practices that are common in youth education and recreation programs throughout the nation, ranging from scout programs to youth sports leagues."

    There was no mention of a legal requirement, a response to an incident involving Young Eagles, or an insurance cost penalty that has driven this decision. Yet EAA is prepared to spend a significant amount of OUR money on this program with no tangible benefit to either the members or the organization.

    I am seriously considering severing my involvement with the Young Eagles program, and possibly resigning my leadership position at my chapter.

    If I decide to do either or both, I will first complete the training, background check, and receive my card to prove that I have nothing to hide.

    I certainly hope that tomorrow's edition of e-Hotline provides better justification for this than "keeps EAA in step with best practices that are common in youth education and recreation programs"
    Ed,

    I'm with you.

    I just completed the training, for the same reasons as you. i.e. So that no one thinks I have anything to hide when I complain about the policy. (As for identity theft, I, too, am glad EAA is big enough to have the resources to compensate me if this causes my identity to be compromised, because they certainly will be doing so...) I've had plenty of background and security checks, as well.

    But I'm not sure I'll be using it. I just hit 300 YE's, and that may end up being about it. This politically correct overreaction to a non-threat is indeed probably going to be the death knell for what has been a very rewarding program. I am not quite as paranoid as some folks apparently are, but I agree that treating all of us like we're criminals is just too much like what the government's doing to us all lately.

    I'm not sure I'll go along with helping to perpetuate that.

    We're not running a nursery school, we're offering children a free airplane ride. I can give rides anytime I care to without the EAA sanction. And I'll probably do that. I got my first ride at age 14 from someone having nothing to do with an EAA program, and I can continue to fulfill my promise to myself to return the favor now that I have an airplane of my own, without EAA's sanction. It's just a shame, since I think this just may break the camel's back for the (up-to-now) excellent YE program.

    But I do hope you don't choose to give up your EAA position. You're doing waaay too good a job for the chapter to lose you. It's better for us all to stay engaged and work to fix what's wrong, isn't it?

    Ron
    (Still at the top of the Chapter 1414 Young Eagle count for now, I think, followed closely by you!)

  8. #108

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    Young Eagle parents (and the EAA) implicitly trust our flying skills as well as the aircraft we show up in for these flights. If this aspect of the program required additional scrutiny for the purposes of insurance I would not have been surprised.

    But the "persona" of the FAA licensed pilot? One can only presume something really, really, really horrific happened on one of these intro flights around the pattern. We are being trusted with these children's lives and to return them safely back to the ground ... but not enough to spend 15 minutes alone with them at 1000 feet AGL? That level of mistrust does not sit well with me. I joined the EAA specifically to participate in YE flights; there is nothing more fulfilling than sharing the wonderment of flight and the opportunity it has brought many of us. That said, my membership is due for renewal at the end of this month and there will be one less member. I'll put my resources elsewhere.
    Last edited by RickG; 01-23-2016 at 03:45 AM.

  9. #109

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark van Wyk View Post
    My guess is that most of those saying they will "still give rides to kids" won't give rides to kids. My experience with Young Eagles is that they have an organized event at such local events as my home base airport Open House. Free rides are advertised, and literally hundreds of kids from the community and their parents show up line up for a ride. That's what's going to die if YE dies. But, to each their own.
    Agreed, Mark. Hence the abject stupidity of the requirement, which has apparently touched a nerve among a very dedicated, generous, and cooperative group. Maybe YOU wouldn't fly kids outside such an event, but I certainly will. I did it before the YE program started, and I'll do it after it commits suicide. Yes, there certainly will be a falloff, which is why this dumb requirement has to be reversed.

    Even in that case, I'll bet it has already permanently damaged one of the best things EAA has done in the last 25 years.

    Ron

  10. #110

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    Those protecting themselves won't be "trashing the YE program." The overactive bureaucrats who imposed the requirement causing good folks to quit will be doing that. Don't blame those protecting themselves from a real threat, just because you don't understand or appreciate the threat.

    Blame those who impose an unnecessarily invasive requirement. Remember who the enemy is.

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