Background Checks?

[kiaiki]

I am not sure how someone with the status of a MA club leader gains access to criminal or mental health records, either here (UK) or elsewhere.

If they can't, then the potential student presumably has to own up verbally or state their situation on the application form. This could surely be done in a far simpler manner that the list you quote, such as a tick box next to: 'I know of no legal or medical reason why I should not participate fully in all of the activities of the (state the organisation).'

Any club has a right to lay down its own entry requirements as long as they are lawful. In the UK it is sadly still not a crime to exclude people on the grounds of age etc. and I don't think the rules you quote are unlawful here either. In my view they are unethical, but may be driven by fear of potential litigation if a 'criminal' or 'mad' person runs riot.

I would not have a policy to preclude anyone with a criminal conviction, even for violence.
I would not have a policy to preclude those with mental disabilities or mental illness.

Each case deserves to be judged on the circumstances, so a blanket policy is simply silly. There's still nothing to prevent you from documenting any concerns or even creating a written agreement (or contract) on the lines of point 2.

There are widely varying degrees of criminality and of mental illness. Many are minor and I would certainly not wish to exclude everyone. Their policy may exclude a depressed shoplifter who might well find MA very supportive as a therapy.

My own guide would be to assess if this person is capable of learning safely and, maybe more important to me personally, be helped through being taught.

Shoot me for being overly sentimental about this, but all through my life MA has helped me enormously. As an instructor who received thousands of hours of patient and skilled instruction as a student, free of charge, I feel a moral responsibility to give back by training others, free of charge. If others want to run an MA business I have no problem with that, but for me I still believe that the greatest 'payoff' is having the opportunity to help others make progress.

I've also had enough contact with the legal profession to put as little as possible in writing. The quoted text looks pretty amateurish to me. If you must, get the text drafted in legalese: a weird language devoid of normal punctuation which ensures you can't be tied down very easily. These 'guidelines' you quote may one day be used as a stick to beat their author in court, so they need drafting expertly.

I would also recommend forming a Company or going for Charity status in the UK to place that legal entity in the firing line instead of yourself. The Company route is easier and cheaper , the Charity route has tax advantages as fees may be redefined as donations and eligible for Gift Aid (the club then reclaims the tax paid on the income of the student used to pay the club fees). MA clubs, as educational organisations, are eligible for charity status.

[FickleFingerOfFate]

@ Kaiaiki,

Please tell me were not going down this road again.

We just did this, and all it did was piss off everyone involved.


Let it go.

[kiaiki]

Eh? OK the OP should have checked out the 'search' function as the thread covers old ground. However, it has not decayed and ended up in a pointless scrap. I've contributed a bit, in a gentle way and in context and have no more to say, so calm down - there's no aggro here to worry about, but thanks for the concern ;).

[Bizzaro Root]

People change, I myself have a long criminal history but its been a long time since that happened(10 years). And one of the best students at a school I use to goto had a history to(we grew up in the same nieghborhood). Get over your self, your not teaching top secret killing moves.

[vigilus]

New2BJJ Why don't you post your real name and address on here so someone can run a backround check on you.

Somehow I think you won't.
I know you've probably been told that black belts in the US have to register their hands, but you've been lied to.