Volunteers
Frequently
asked questions
Volunteers are the heartbeat of any youth sports organization, and it’s no different at Lakeland City
Baseball. Each
year we rely on the
valuable time and effort of hundreds of volunteers to make this league work. There are many opportunities to
offer your service to make the baseball experience for these youngsters one they will remember.
Volunteer Application
All adults who will have repeated contact with players in the upcoming year must apply as a volunteer. Once we receive your information we will perform background checks and all approved volunteers will receive a badge permitting their on-field access. Before receiving your badge you will be asked for your driver license or other government-issued photo ID and we'll scan a copy of it.
Before applying be sure and check out the list of frequently asked questions about volunteering at LCB. They are listed below, and remember, everyone must re-apply as a volunteer each calendar year, so, even if you were approved for 2010 (which covers both the Spring and Fall seasons) you must apply again for 2011.
Click here to go to our online volunteer application
** Remember, if you applied and were approved for this past Spring '10 season you DO NOT need to apply again for the Fall season. You can use your same badge. **
Here’s what Little League says about volunteers:
“Why Should I Become a Volunteer?
Little League Baseball and Softball is an organization designed to build good citizens. It is a program of leadership, preparing today's youth to be tomorrow's leaders. At the local level, Little League relies on a devoted legion of adult volunteers to help ensure that the organization remains structured and runs smoothly. Your local Little League program is always looking for responsible and enthusiastic individuals to support and coordinate Little League events and activities. As a volunteer, you should have a keen interest in the safety, well-being, and overall development of children. By reading further, you will discover that the benefits of volunteering are endless. You will also gain a better understanding of why you should become involved, who volunteers are, what you can do, and how you can sign up.”
Volunteering opportunities at LCB include:
- Team manager
- Team coach
- Team Mom (or Dad)
- Scorekeeping
- Challenger Buddy
- Work Day at Peterson Park
- Opening Day helpers
- Fundraising
- Uniform distribution
- Walk-up registration help
- ...and many more
FAQ's
(click on the question to see the answer)
How much of my time is involved?
That depends on the task you're volunteering for. A team
manager will have a busy few months in the Spring and Fall seasons,
while an on-field volunteer assisting the manager may only
be present when the team is playing a game. Some of our
approved volunteers play an important role sitting in the
stands and cheering the team on.
Am I required to volunteer for my
child to play at LCB? No, this is not a requirement for
play. We are blessed, though, to have so many who are willing
to contribute their time, so it is not necessary for us to make it a
requirement. We encourage you to do so, however, because the
more helping hands we have, the better the program is for
the players.
What times of the year are volunteers
needed? Our Spring season generally runs from January to
May, and the Fall season from September to early November.
Volunteers are needed almost year-round.
Are managers and coaches
unpaid volunteers? Sounds like a strange question, doesn't it?
The answer is yes, of course. There are, however, some
competitive youth baseball organizations who pay their
coaches. That's not us.
Tell me about the volunteer
application. As a Little League affiliate we are
required to gather the information they require,
which is pertinent information to know who you are,
certain details to confirm your identity and where you live,
and what experience, if any, you would bring to the league
as an approved volunteer. It also asks for some references
and their phone numbers. All the information requested in
LCB's online volunteer application is the same as asked on
Little League's printed volunteer application.
I submitted an application last
year. Do I have to submit another one this year? Yes,
is a Little League requirement to submit a new application
every year. The reason for this is that
someone could have committed an offense within the previous year,
therefore a yearly check is
necessary.
Why is there so much
personal information asked on the application? Much of
it is so we can properly communicate with you (phone
numbers, mailing address, e-mail, etc.). Other information
is required to perform the background checks. Important note
on Social Security numbers:
Little League allows us the option of requiring the
volunteer to report his or her Social Security number,
however LCB has
chosen not to collect them.
Will the information I provide
be safe and secure? We've taken steps to make all
electronic information and physical documentation we collect as secure as possible. Our new online volunteer
application procedure greatly
diminishes the amount of people with access to the data, and all electronic information is stored in our
in-house database behind multiple layers of security.
I'm a good
person. Is it really necessary to do a background check on
me? We are proud of the fact that since the background
check procedure was implemented over five years ago only a very
few who have applied to volunteer with LCB have not passed
it. Our volunteers are made up of hundreds of good people
with nothing to hide, and who understand this process is an
unfortunate reality in our society today, and is necessary
to weed out the bad guys.
Why is it necessary to check
the sex offender lists for my name? Sex offenders,
particularly those who are predators of children, are one of the
primary reasons this process was started. We want to know
who those people are and keep them away from our players.
What offenses would prevent me from
volunteering at LCB? First, it's important to understand
that the league is not obligated to appoint anyone as a
volunteer, even if they have been approved in the past. The
authority given to the local league is to screen anyone out
whom they feel inappropriate to have more than incidental
contact with the players while at our facilities. Those excluded can include persons
with, but not limited to, arrests and/or convictions of
significant crimes involving sexual abuse, lewd and
lascivious acts, violent behavior,
domestic violence, crimes against children and patterns of
repeated inappropriate behavior. We also look for cases of
drug abuse or trafficking, and significant incidents
involving acting or driving under the influence of drugs or
alcohol.
Who decides if I'm approved or
not? Each year one board member is appointed as Volunteer
Coordinator, and that person is charged with processing and reviewing all background
checks. If there is no inappropriate behavior reported the
applicant is accepted. If there is any indication of
impropriety the Volunteer Coordinator reports it to a
3-person committee comprised of the Volunteer Coordinator,
the league Safety Officer and the league President. They
then review the information and decide by majority whether
to accept or reject the application. No other persons are
involved in the decision, and their word is final and cannot
be overruled by the board of directors. That applicant's
name and
information is not divulged to anyone other than the
committee for decision-making purposes. All other
applicants' information is known only to the Volunteer
Coordinator.
What happens once I've passed the
background check? After receiving a scanned copy of the
applicant's driver license or other government-issued photo
ID the league will issue an ID badge to
all approved volunteers that is specific to that calendar
year,
giving them the appropriate access.
Are there people who don't pass
the background check? Can they still volunteer? Yes
there are, but thankfully they are few and far between, and
no, they cannot volunteer at LCB until they successfully
pass the background checks in future years and are approved
by the volunteer committee.
Who actually performs the
background checks? For national searches we contract the
services of LexisNexis, who has a special agreement with
Little League, Inc. for this task. For local searches we
work in cooperation with the Polk County Sheriff's Office
and the Lakeland Police Dept., both of which are more than
pleased to help in identifying undesirable individuals in
order to protect the children of our community.
I've received a letter from
LexisNexis saying someone with my name
committed an offense. Should I be concerned? Unless that
person is you there is nothing to be concerned about. Here
is what we're required to tell you about this circumstance:
"Please be advised that if we, the league, use LexisNexis to perform a background search and there is a name match in the few states where only name match searches can be performed you will receive a letter directly from LexisNexis in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act containing information regarding all the criminal records associated with your name, which may not necessarily be you, the applicant."
Here's how it works: We submit all names, addresses, birthdates and other information provided by our volunteer applicants to LexisNexis, a company we pay to perform national background checks. Most states and counties in the U.S. participate in the program and return matches that meet one or more of the criteria. A few states return matches just on the name alone, which means if you have a common name, e.g. John Smith or Mary Jones, there is a good likelihood of a name match. A name match could mean, for example, there was a John Smith (not you) who did a bad thing in Pennsylvania and on the outside chance it could be you, the league is being informed. They are required by law to notify you this has happened.
A federal law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act, originally passed in 1970, requires that a person whose name is undergoing some sort of review, such as a credit check or background check, be notified in writing if there are criminal records associated with that name. Again, when there is a match it doesn't mean you necessarily have a criminal record, just that someone else with a name identical to yours does.
The letter will state that the requestor (us) has been informed of the name match. When there's a match of this sort we will compare the additional information we have of yours (date of birth, address, photo) and determine if it is you or not.
Names that aren't so common and don't have any
name matches and/or records to
report are not sent a letter.
If I have concerns can I
correspond with the background check service? Yes you
can. In most cases they will refer you to the jurisdiction
that reported your name for further questions. The letter
will discuss all that.
Are volunteers who are minors
required to complete a volunteer application? They are
not.
Do LCB's umpires go through the
background check process also? Yes they do.
What about board members? All
league volunteers, including board members, must go through the
background check process.
My child wishes to offer
community service hours to LCB. Must he or she complete a
volunteer application? As a minor they are not required
to submit a volunteer application.
