What Kurt Said ...

[Rich Littleton]

Kurt's specifics go to the heart of the argument.  Background checks are
not appropriate for the realiites of SCNA.   SCNA does not deal with
fragile populations with single volunteers who have sole control over
those populations.

Let's put effort into things that ARE important to SCN(A).
*  An easier e-mail program for SCN users;
*  Board elections in which all SCNA members can vote;
*  Actively recruiting volunteers;
*  Informing SCNA members of issues BEFORE the issues are adopted by the
board;
*  Survey of scn users to make reasonable planning possible;
*  Recognition of volunteers on an on-going basis;
*  Sharing relevant information with the SCNA membership even if the info
orginates within a specific committee.
*  (add your own)



Later,



Rich

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On Sat, 23 Oct 1999, Kurt Cockrum wrote:

> Steve posted:
> >[...]
> >(Internet Nonprofit Center)---Until recently, being an interested, warm 
> >body was the main criteria for accepting an adult as a volunteer in 
> >Extension 4-H youth development programs. In Fall 1989, 
> >Washington State Cooperative Extension implemented a more 
> >stringent volunteer screening process. Three reasons precipitated 
> >this action:  
> >
> >1.  A 1988 Washington State law allowed the Washington State 
>                                  ^^^^^^^
> >Patrol to conduct free criminal conviction checks on volunteers 
> >working directly with children. 
> >
> >2.  The university attorney general advised Extension 
>                                      ^^^^^^^
> >administration to design screening procedures to lessen the risk of 
>                                                              ^^^^
> >unwanted lawsuits. 
> >
> >3.  Some Extension volunteers and faculty felt measures to help 
>                                            ^^^^
> >ensure a safe environment for youth in Extension programs were 
> >needed.  
> >[...]
> 
> Not one genuine hazard or existing safety condition was identified here!
> It's all vague, mushy stuff, about what might possibly happen.  It's the
> sort of thing all the Nice People and Ed.D. cush-makers at Columbine
> HS were busy with *before* the shooting, and probably what they are
> busy with right now: counting their toes, verifying their colleagues'
> toe-counts, and making policy.  Fat lot of good it did them...
> 
> And *fear* as a basis of policy is never assuaged for long, which means
> that the policies intended to assuage that fear lose their efficacy
> (and note most carefully that this happens regardless of whether any
> incidents covered by the policies occur or not!), and the fear comes back,
> in a sort of "relaxation"-type periodicity, giving a cyclic character to
> the process.  In electronics, an RC oscillator exhibits these properties
> nicely.  So do addictions of various sorts.
> 
> Unfortunately, while fear has the properties of accumulation and
> dissipation, the policies they drive are long-lived artifacts, which
> hang around, accreting, over many fear-cycles.  So what emerges out of
> all of this is sort of a ratcheting-type pattern that eventually even
> causes the policy-makers to complain (the only element of justice in the
> whole affair, usually long-delayed).  And this is why it's fundamentally
> unsound.
> 
> On a national scale, I think Thomas Jefferson guessed the optimal
> time-constant to be about 20 years :)
> 
> Unless policy-makers are mindful of this stuff *and* don't want it
> to happen.  Note the conjunction.
> --kurt
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