Open Forum

We have recently starting requiring volunteers to complete a background check prior to volunteering.  The vast majority of our volunteers either handle money, lead tours (adult groups and youth groups), or handle collection materials.  I'm curious about other museum's policies regarding background checks. 

• Do you require them?
• Do all volunteers complete them regardless of responsibilities?  If not, who doesn't have to complete a check?
• How often do you conduct background checks?
• If you implemented this policy after already having a volunteer program, how did you handle responses from long-term volunteers (e.g. someone who'd been with you for years and doesn't understand why now)?

I know this has come up before, but I'm mostly curious about if you do require background checks, are there any volunteers who DO NOT have to complete one?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Manager
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------

Backgrounds should be required of all staff, volunteers, and even vendors.  A criminal history and verification of employment is minimum.  The explanation is that the museum wishes for all of it's staff, visitors, and others to be safe and screening those with access to collections, visitors, and assets is prudent.  Some museums require criminal histories annually.  Vendors need to sign off on a confirmation that backgrounds have been performed on each employee they dispatch to your site.  

The background begins with requiring a written application to be completed, and reviewed by a professional HR person.  A personal interview should be conducted to answer questions left unanswered on the application.  Any falsification of information should cause a termination of the process.  Much of the background involves verification of the information presented.  Some jurisdictions regulate conduct of criminal history searches.  Most jurisdictions remove liability from employers releasing legitimate information documented in personnel files.

------------------------------
Stevan Layne
CEO & Founding Director
Layne Consultants International
Nokomis FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2017 04:18 PM
From: Lindsay Huban
Subject: When to do a background check?

We have recently starting requiring volunteers to complete a background check prior to volunteering.  The vast majority of our volunteers either handle money, lead tours (adult groups and youth groups), or handle collection materials.  I'm curious about other museum's policies regarding background checks.

• Do you require them?
• Do all volunteers complete them regardless of responsibilities?  If not, who doesn't have to complete a check?
• How often do you conduct background checks?
• If you implemented this policy after already having a volunteer program, how did you handle responses from long-term volunteers (e.g. someone who'd been with you for years and doesn't understand why now)?

I know this has come up before, but I'm mostly curious about if you do require background checks, are there any volunteers who DO NOT have to complete one?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Manager
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------

​We conduct a criminal background check on all "core" volunteers every 10 years. We do not do a background check on our one-time volunteers, however we do check the State and National sexual registry lists.
When we first implemented background checks we decided to grandfather in our 100's of current volunteers. Our reasons were:
1) These were known people to us with no issues
2) The cost

A few years later we decided it would be appropriate to go back and obtain checks on the grandfathered in volunteers that had positions of higher risk. Then the 2nd year we conducted on all of our core volunteers.  As you can imagine this was a sensitive issue for 2 reasons:
1) Long-time senior volunteers were offended
2) Volunteers were hesitant to provide their social security number

The way we presented it to them that 2nd year was to write a letter at the beginning of the year. We wrote,
It was signed by our President and me.

We did have a handful of volunteers who left the program because they did not want to provide their social security number. It was a difficult transition however it was the right thing to do. We even conduct them on our Board.

I wish you good luck in implementing these new policies. Feel free to contact me directly.
Jan Milroy

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Jan Milroy
Coordinator of Volunteer Servi
Living History Farms
Urbandale IA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2017 06:04 AM
From: Stevan Layne
Subject: When to do a background check?

Backgrounds should be required of all staff, volunteers, and even vendors.  A criminal history and verification of employment is minimum.  The explanation is that the museum wishes for all of it's staff, visitors, and others to be safe and screening those with access to collections, visitors, and assets is prudent.  Some museums require criminal histories annually.  Vendors need to sign off on a confirmation that backgrounds have been performed on each employee they dispatch to your site.

The background begins with requiring a written application to be completed, and reviewed by a professional HR person.  A personal interview should be conducted to answer questions left unanswered on the application.  Any falsification of information should cause a termination of the process.  Much of the background involves verification of the information presented.  Some jurisdictions regulate conduct of criminal history searches.  Most jurisdictions remove liability from employers releasing legitimate information documented in personnel files.

------------------------------
Stevan Layne
CEO & Founding Director
Layne Consultants International
Nokomis FL

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2017 04:18 PM
From: Lindsay Huban
Subject: When to do a background check?

We have recently starting requiring volunteers to complete a background check prior to volunteering.  The vast majority of our volunteers either handle money, lead tours (adult groups and youth groups), or handle collection materials.  I'm curious about other museum's policies regarding background checks.

• Do you require them?
• Do all volunteers complete them regardless of responsibilities?  If not, who doesn't have to complete a check?
• How often do you conduct background checks?
• If you implemented this policy after already having a volunteer program, how did you handle responses from long-term volunteers (e.g. someone who'd been with you for years and doesn't understand why now)?

I know this has come up before, but I'm mostly curious about if you do require background checks, are there any volunteers who DO NOT have to complete one?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Manager
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------

We don't have anyone exempt from having background checks. All staff, interns, and volunteers have one. When we initiated background checks as part of the new procedures,  I remember HR and admin presenting it as just part of the process of shoring up HR records. Then, once you have had a background check and have continuous employment or volunteering with our museum, then you don't need to have new ones done. If you have a break in employment or volunteering, or possibly a change in your status (going from a volunteer to a paid employee), then our institution generally requires a new one, from my experience.

------------------------------
Dawn Roberts
Director of Collections
Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Chicago IL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2017 04:18 PM
From: Lindsay Huban
Subject: When to do a background check?

We have recently starting requiring volunteers to complete a background check prior to volunteering.  The vast majority of our volunteers either handle money, lead tours (adult groups and youth groups), or handle collection materials.  I'm curious about other museum's policies regarding background checks.

• Do you require them?
• Do all volunteers complete them regardless of responsibilities?  If not, who doesn't have to complete a check?
• How often do you conduct background checks?
• If you implemented this policy after already having a volunteer program, how did you handle responses from long-term volunteers (e.g. someone who'd been with you for years and doesn't understand why now)?

I know this has come up before, but I'm mostly curious about if you do require background checks, are there any volunteers who DO NOT have to complete one?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Manager
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------

Thank you all for sharing your policies!  They are definitely in line with what we are doing - requiring background checks for anyone who is not a one-time event volunteer.  We are getting some push back from a few long term volunteers, but so far not much.

Thanks,

Lindsay

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Coordinator
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2017 10:07 AM
From: Dawn Roberts
Subject: When to do a background check?

We don't have anyone exempt from having background checks. All staff, interns, and volunteers have one. When we initiated background checks as part of the new procedures,  I remember HR and admin presenting it as just part of the process of shoring up HR records. Then, once you have had a background check and have continuous employment or volunteering with our museum, then you don't need to have new ones done. If you have a break in employment or volunteering, or possibly a change in your status (going from a volunteer to a paid employee), then our institution generally requires a new one, from my experience.

------------------------------
Dawn Roberts
Director of Collections
Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Chicago IL

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2017 04:18 PM
From: Lindsay Huban
Subject: When to do a background check?

We have recently starting requiring volunteers to complete a background check prior to volunteering.  The vast majority of our volunteers either handle money, lead tours (adult groups and youth groups), or handle collection materials.  I'm curious about other museum's policies regarding background checks.

• Do you require them?
• Do all volunteers complete them regardless of responsibilities?  If not, who doesn't have to complete a check?
• How often do you conduct background checks?
• If you implemented this policy after already having a volunteer program, how did you handle responses from long-term volunteers (e.g. someone who'd been with you for years and doesn't understand why now)?

I know this has come up before, but I'm mostly curious about if you do require background checks, are there any volunteers who DO NOT have to complete one?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Manager
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------

Hi Lindsay,

We're on board with the same annual background checks for all volunteers that others have mentioned here. It did take a little discussion with long-time volunteers, but all eventually agreed that it was the best practice.

I will add that our HR was able to provide us with a one-time service agreement for volunteers from other organizations. An authorized signer for an organization agrees that the volunteers they provide are in compliance with our policies, including background checks. The signing agent is given a scope of work in advance and is responsible for providing the final list of volunteers the day of the event. The agreement gives us some flexibility to work with local service groups without having to run dozens of additional volunteer registrations for people we'll likely never see again.

------------------------------
Freya Liggett
Museum Manager
Moses Lake Museum & Art Center
Moses Lake WA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2017 04:18 PM
From: Lindsay Huban
Subject: When to do a background check?

We have recently starting requiring volunteers to complete a background check prior to volunteering.  The vast majority of our volunteers either handle money, lead tours (adult groups and youth groups), or handle collection materials.  I'm curious about other museum's policies regarding background checks.

• Do you require them?
• Do all volunteers complete them regardless of responsibilities?  If not, who doesn't have to complete a check?
• How often do you conduct background checks?
• If you implemented this policy after already having a volunteer program, how did you handle responses from long-term volunteers (e.g. someone who'd been with you for years and doesn't understand why now)?

I know this has come up before, but I'm mostly curious about if you do require background checks, are there any volunteers who DO NOT have to complete one?

Thanks!

------------------------------
Lindsay Huban
Museum Relations Manager
Henry B. Plant Museum
Tampa FL
------------------------------